The power of visualisation
Letter written by Graham Hyslop (Club Robina)
Thought I write into the bowler and share this with you! In these days of non-activity, this might help.
Some of you will be aware of a Qantas captain Richard DeCrespigny who successfully landed QF32 an Airbus A380 that had suffered an engine explosion shortly after take-off from Singapore.
He has written two books since then, the first is ‘QF32’ a blow-by-blow story of what went right when things went wrong and the second is called ‘Fly!’.
In ‘Fly!’ it concentrates on how the mind can be developed in many ways and understanding its many responses to stress.
One particular portion of the book refers to sport and tells the story of Steve Backley, a javelin thrower from the UK, who leading up to the Atlanta games in 1996 sustained a very serious ankle injury and was on crutches for six weeks.
This, one would think, would be the death knell for his chances of a medal at the games, instead, he put his mind to work.
He would close his eyes every day and go through the motions of holding the javelin, mentally taking every step of the runup and the release, he did this for the whole six weeks.
He went on to win Silver at the Olympics!
Now, what does this mean for you bowlers out there? I read this portion of the book on a weekend so each day until the following Friday when I next bowled, I closed my eyes each day and did exactly what Steve had done but visualising my bowls going down the green.
Come the following Friday at the end of the game the praise came pouring in, I had never bowled better!
