VISUAL-VISUALISATION SKILLS
Are you constantly misreading the green, drives too short/long or having trouble visualising your shots?
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The swing can be limited by deficits in vision and visualization. For the most part, a deficit in vision and visualization skills can be improved with simple therapeutic techniques or rehab exercises. Yes, your golf game can be improved by simply enhancing your visual and visualization skills!
EYE DOMINANCE
In terms of visual input, 1% of the population is bilateral dominant. The rest of us have the tendency to prefer visual input from one eye to the other. When the side of the dominant eye and hand match we talk about same-side dominance.
Only about 1/4 of the population are cross-side dominant. However, recent TPI studies show a 35% cross-side or "lead-eye" dominance in golfers. Cross dominance is thought be an advantage in golf, because it makes it easier to track the ball during the backswing. Examples of lead-eye dominant players are V. Singh, J. Byrd, P. Harrington, M. O'Meara, P. Jacobsen, A. Palmer, J. Nicklaus, T. Kite, B. Crenshaw and T.
Woods.
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Effects of eye dominance in putting:
- Cross-side dominant players tend to perform better when having the ball forward and exhibiting a square stance.
- Same-side dominant players tend to benefit from opening their stance and having the ball further back.
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Is your putting stance and technique taking in account your eye dominance? If you are not so sure, we can help.
VISUALIZATION
Some golfers have developed this sense to a higher level than others. Being able to visualize the trajectory of a ball under different conditions definitely adds to their advantage.
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Effects ​of Visualisation skills on golf:
- Great visualizers do better when ignoring lines or alignment marking on the ball or putter, visualizing the target and trajectory before taking a swing and... when they follow their first instinct.
- Poor visualizers get the most benefits from utilizing lines or markings on the ball and/or putter, focusing on body alignment before the shot, checking and double-checking all parameters and... trusting their thought out decisions.
- Good visualizers can go either way. Our advise for them is to experiment and see what seems to work best for them.
Fortunately, if you are not a great visualizer, your visualization skills can be improved by the regular practice of simple visualization techniques. If you want to improve your visualization skills, please contact us.
STEREOPSIS -Â DEPTH PERCEPTION
The ability to appreciate depth or distinguish relative distances between objects is an essential skill for golfers.
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Effects ​of depth perception on golf:
- Esophoria or underconvergence causes the player to consistently guess a distance shorter than the true distance. As a result, shots and putts tend to come up short and balls hit below the sweet spot.
- Exophoria or overconvergence causes the player to consistently guess a distance longer than the true distance. As a result, balls hit above the sweet spot, shots are sent too high (fat) and putts tend to go past the hole.
- Suppression causes an inability of the two eyes to work together as a team. The golfer is typically comfortable with long hours of close work, but has reduced depth perception and tends to have orientation and alignment problems.
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Is your swing being limited by a deficit in binocular vision?
Anomalies of binocular vision such as esophoria, exophoria and suppression can be treated and improved by the regular practice of visualization techniques. For more info, please contact us.
ALIGNMENT
Aligning square to the target is one of the hardest skills for many golfers, even at the highest levels!
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Proper alignment happens when heels, pelvis, thorax AND club face are aligned. Not a single one of this aspects can be taken out of the equation.
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Effects ​of Visualisation skills on golf:
Visual aligning deficiencies can become a nightmare for golfers. For a 100 yard target, considering your shot is a straight 100 yard long, one degree of misalignment translates into a deviation of a little more than 5 feet. For a 200 yard shot, 5 degrees of misalignment will take you off by close to 50 feet!
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How good are your alignment skills? We can assess your alignment skills and help you develop proper alignment.
MAY WE HELP YOU?
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Titleist Performance Institute Level 3 Certified Medical Professionals are trained to:
- assess the golfer's physical abilities and condition (e.g. posture, golf stance and sequencing, functional movement and level of visual and visualisation skills)
- correlate the findings with the golfer's swing characteristics by analyzing and interpreting 3D data, biofeedback & kinematic sequencing charts and videos
- recommend therapeutic/rehab techniques and exercises to improve and sustain the golfer's skills and conditionÂ
- work in conjunction with the Golf Professional and suggest drills and cues with the purpose of developing a swing that will take in account and respect the golfer's physical limitations