It's Already in Your Head

The Scene: Carl is taking a moment away from his duties as assistant greenskeeper to indulge in some daydreaming. He has an old-fashioned weed whacker in his hands, and he is using it as a golf club. As Carl fantasizes, he narrates his fantasy so the viewers are able to hear what is going on in his head. Through his narration, we learn that Carl is visualizing playing in the Masters tournament. He is doing exceptionally well, even holing out from the fairway on one occasion. As he is about to become the “Cinderella story,” with “tears in his eyes,” he is roused out of his dream by Bishop Pickering, who wants to play a few holes before it begins to rain.

The Quote: Carl Spackler: “What an incredible Cinderella story, this unknown comes out of nowhere to lead the pack at Augusta. He’s on his final hole. He’s about four hundred and fifty-five yards away. He’s gonna hit about a two iron, I think. Oh, he got all of that. The crowd is standing on its feet here at Augusta. The normally reserved Augusta crowd is going wild for this young Cinderella.”

(Boxed in)

The Lesson: Use Visualization to Improve Your Game

Visualizing masterful outcomes can help you unify your mind and body in order to perform at a high skill level.

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            After doing their filmwork, Pearl and Buck stayed seated in the comfortable chairs in the clubhouse lounge.

            “Buck, have you ever caught yourself using visualization like Carl in Caddyshack?” Pearl asked.

            “Is that what he was doing? I thought he was just daydreaming.”

            “Well, visualization is similar to daydreaming, and Carl’s daydream seemed so vivid and real to him that I would call it visualization.”

            “In that case, I guess I have,” Buck shrugged. “Sometimes I imagine I am Tiger Woods playing in a major or something like that.” He scratched his head. “Pearl, didn’t we talk about visualization in the last lesson?”

            “We talked a little about visualization in our last lesson. But mostly, we talked about using visualization to give your game a big-picture goal, something to shoot for. Now, I want to talk a little more about how to use visualization to improve your skills of play.”

            “Okay. Now, Pearl, tell me how Carl’s daydreaming counts as visualization.”

            Pearl obliged. “Visualization, sometimes referred to as imagery, is simply the process of generating mental pictures. Often, it involves creating a picture in the mind’s eye, a mental snapshot or moving picture of a scene, event, or outcome. I wouldn’t consider Carl’s case the best I’ve ever seen, but it had some characteristics of a good visualization session.”

            “Like what?”

            “First, it seemed very real to Carl. He made up a vivid story. That means his picture was very clear in his mind. It was as if he were actually at the Masters, playing his way to the championship. He could actually see himself there.”

            Buck’s head bobbed, indicating that he was following the lesson thus far. 

            “Second, he made mastery images.”

            “Mastery? What’s that?”

            “Mastery means that you have perfected something or mastered it. A mastery image is visualization of a perfect outcome. Carl didn’t see himself flubbing a shot, he saw himself holing out from the fairway. He didn’t see himself losing the championship, he saw himself winning. It takes confidence even to imagine yourself doing something like that. So I would score that as a good feature of Carl’s visualization session.”

            Pearl continued. “Third, Carl generated some good, strong, positive emotions during his visualization. He felt confident, relaxed, and ela