Archive for July 2011
- In: Golf | Sport Psychology | Sports
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I don’t think it was a coincidence that Tom Watson made a hole-in-one at the 2011 British Open after having watched footage Friday morning of Gene Sarazen’s hole-in-one at the 1973 British Open at Royal Toon. “Maybe that’s what inspired me today“ Watson said. I think it did more than inspire him. There are many athletes who watch videos of other athletes whose fetes they want to emulate as a form of visualization and if their lives are in harmony they will re-create in competition that which they saw in the videos they watched. Running backs in the NFL do it, heavyweight boxing champions do it, the list goes on and on. And by the way, when Tom’s namesake, 20-year old British amateur Tom Lewis, led all scorers at the end of the first round, I believe you can chalk that up to his playing with his idol, Tom Watson. Just being in Watson’s presence enhanced Lewis’ feelings of self-worth and as we all know, there’s a high correlation between self-esteem and performance.
Roger Clemens is a good example of how the Psycho Self-Imagery process works. By way of background, I once read in the media that he often purposely threw at a batter’s head in order to intimidate him and thus affect his ability to hit a baseball. And since that time, I’ve never been a fan of his. Over the years, Roger has been his own worst enemy. When athletes have extra-marital affairs, when they are doing drugs, when they are dishonest and lie to a congressional committee, when they repress their feelings resulting in low feelings of self-worth, and when their lives are in disharmony, they will actually create negative events in their lives, on and off the field of competition. And Roger Clemens is the perfect example. Instead of heading for the Hall of Fame, he could be heading for prison.
