Go for Gold: Using Visualization to Master the Race Track

Visualization is any technique for producing images, diagrams, or animations to communicate a message. Visualization through visual imagery has been an efficient way to convey both abstract and concrete ideas since prehistoric times. History is filled with examples of visualizations: cave paintings, Egyptian hieroglyphs, Greek geometry, and Leonardo da Vinci's revolutionary methods of technical drawing for engineering and scientific purposes.

Modern use of visualization holds the exact same principles when used. If an executive asks his assistant to take notes for a letter or a memo, the dictation is given and the words are transformed into physical symbols. That whole process is visualization. To make pictures out of thought patterns. When one goes on a strange race track, using visualization to master the race track is the secret to success.

The best example using visualization to master the race track is the movie National Velvet which tells of a young 12 year old girl, played by Elizabeth Taylor, who trains her beloved horse to win the Grand National for horseracing. All under the guidance and tutelage of Mickey Rooney who incessantly made the young girl visualize the ride, the race, and the race track. To win a race, being able to ‘picture’ the tracks may just be the key to win.

Going on the track fresh and win is a dream come true, but it is not recommended. One has to master the tracks in the mind to make room for unexpected events that may affect the race negatively. By using visualization to master the race track, the jockey will know when the turn is, where there are any damage to the track, etc. What is great about the race is when visualizing and training, the horse also visualizes the same way.

Constant repetition is the only way to master anything, both in the mind and in physical reality. Without the repetition, no matter how one visualizes, the outcome may not be positive. The anomaly to visualization is that one has to be able to transfer that ‘picture’ inside the mind and make it physical. Without constant repetition, the transfer to reality may fail, and even if the mind is willing, the body cannot win.