Visual, Kinesthesic & Audio
Those are the different channel that we use in order to interpret the information of our environement.
We all use them all but we are not necessarly prioratising them the same way. Some people will be more Visual, some more Audio and some more Kinestesic. Let’s take some examples:
- 98% Audio, 1% Kine, 1% Visual > This person is all in on his Audio channel
- 60% Visual, 30% Audio, 10% Kine > This person is more balance but still have a clear preference on using the Visual first and when it’s not possible using the Audio channel
You get the idea.
And me, I am primarly Visual, I suck at Audio, and because when learning abrstract concept it’s difficult for me to visualise things I have develop a strong sense of the Kniestesic channel to compensate. Therefore if I were to estimate my percentage those would look like this: 75% Visual, 20% Kine, 5% Audio. Even if I don’t use it realy often I know that sometime I have no other choice than to use my audio channel.
Let’s look at how it apply to Golf and what are the training habit you may have develop as a consequence of you modalities.
How does it apply to Golf
Let’s simplify things a bit by taking in consideration the primarly modalty of each individuals. And establish how those preference will affect the way you learn and play during the game.
- Visual
Being a dominant Visual, this one is easy for me to explain. This basicaly people that like the beauty of things. They like seens beautifull swing, beautifull golf course. The develop a sense of doing things nicely. Even sometime prefer doing things that looks good rather than being efficient. Which cause them to score less well as a consequence.
Being Visual myself I am obsess with the way my swing look. I want my technique to be perfect and to look awesome. That’s why I constantly record myself, make video of my game. Because I like seen myself and I like seen the progress I made. Almost more than I like scoring.
To summary, a visual type will have a perfectionnist tendency. Need a lot of visual feedback to improve. Which is going to help him a lot during the learning phases, but once he reach a decent level of performance will cause him to introduce inconsistency in his game. And therefore prevent him to reach his full level of performance and getting stuck in the potential improvement zone.
- Kinesthetic
Kinesthetic peoples are the peoples that are usualy refer as FEELERS. Those are people that want to feel confortable with what they are doing. They want to feel eveything: Club, Ball, Contact, Trajectory …
The feelers are the natural golfers, they are focusing on doing the same things over and over in order to increase their level of awarness and their level of performance.
This is the opposite of the visual type. Kinesthetic people will have a tendency of focusing too much on increasing their performance without focusing on increasing their maximum potential.
This create a major risk. Because even tho in the beginning they will have pretty good result with their game, and start scoring better and better. They will almost hit a glass ceilling. And at this point the will plateau and no longer understand how to improve their game.
- Audio
This one is the toughest for me to explain. Because this is the one I never use in golfer. Using Visual and Kinsthetic, I pretty much cover everything I need.
Peoples with audio channel and their primary way of understanding their environement will focus on the sounds in Golf. The sound of the club during the swing, the sound of the contact and the club hitting the ground, the sound of the ball flying in the air.
So that being said, I think Audio peoples are similar to Kinesthetic people. They are focusing on doing the same things, and undestanding the sound that are being generate in order to adjust and improve.
So in the same way this help in the performance aspect of things, but create the major risk of building a glass ceilling due to a lack of time spent on increasing their potential.
- Using multiple channel
But as you may remember from the beginning of the post. We use all of those channel, but doesn’t prioratise them in the same manner.
So the carateristic that I mention above can actualy being balance by the second channel you prefer using or even reinforce.
Me V-K, balance out. Wher I spend most of my time in increasing my potential but still spent time focusing on performance. On the other end, someone with A-K, will have a tendency to really focus too much on the game and obsess with performance, creating as a consequence a massive glass ceilling.
So now that we have establish how the way you perceive and interpret information affect your game and how you go about learning and improving your game. Let’s understand how we can use that to our advantage.
What to do about it
Their in not much thing you can do about the channel you are using. They are part of the way you opperate in the world since you are a child. Trying to change that will require tremendous amount of effort for not so much return.
So the best things to do is to first understand you modalities and then becoming aware on how they affect the way you train. And as you’ll become more and more aware of what you do and which part of the training you tend to forgot. You will improve as a consequence.
Awarness! This is an important key. Because once you become aware your subconscience will start working in the direction that you want.
Become aware of what part of the traing your are focusing too much time (Potential increase or Performance increase) and then decide the strategy you want to apply in order to move in the direction you wish. That’s why I advice you to look at my last post about Potential VS Performance Training.
As for my example. I choosed to completely embrace my natural tendency. And first train only on increasing my potential to the maximum of my abilities. To then focus on maximum performance.
Honestly I think this is not the way to go for most people. I balance way is proabably a better fit. But I have big goals and big dreams. And I can let any glass ceilling getting in my way of my maximum performance level.
Conclusion
Understand yourself, become aware of what you do and the habits you’ve built as a consequence of the way you use yur different modalities.
Then decide of the strategy you will use in order to perform and have as much fun as possible on the Golf Course.
2 strategies:
- Balancing potential training and performance training and studly increase you performance and your potential at the same time
- Going all in your potential improvement process to then focus performance. This is the path of over night success because on 10 years of training, you will spend 8 years without seing performance gain and the last 2 years your performance will explode through the rough
Depending on your natural tendencies, your goals and why you play Golf you may prefer one or the other. There is not right or wrong answer, there is just the answer that fit you the best!