This is my main problem, I know that shot is straight, but in my mind, in my visual perception I see it missing, I feel like I need somehow to adjust, trying to adjust causes the miss. When I'm trying to force myself to shoot it right, I steel feel that I'll miss it.
I'll try to aim at point on the cloth.
I have the same wrong visual perception on thin cut shots. How can be avoided such visual perceptions?
The last thing you want, is seeing yourself missing in your mind. If you do, your body will try to follow your minds lead. In other words you are pulling in two directions, your mind is saying, "I know I"m going to miss, I know I"m going to miss" as your body is struggling to make the ball.
If you read the book Psycho‑Cybernetics they did studies on visualization and it really works. They did it with basketball players shooting foul shots. One group practiced the shots. Another just stood in front of the basket imagined shooting perfect foul shots. A third group practiced the shots as well as standing in front of the basket and imagining the perfect shots.
They would imagine seeing the ball go in the basket, they could hear it and feel what it felt like just as the ball left their hands, the perfect shot every time but all in their mind. Turns out, the mind can't tell the difference between what is real and what is imagined. It believes what you tell it.
What happened was, the ones that actually practiced got better. The ones that just imagined shooting did not really improve. BUT, the ones that did both, Really improved greatly. They were training not only their body and muscles memory but their minds as well.
You never should miss in your mind. When you are doing that you are not only second guessing yourself but you are teaching yourself to miss. Missing becomes your minds objective and you now have to try to make the ball in spite of what your mind is telling you.
You used to hear this a lot years ago from golfers. Talking about sitting in a quite room and imagining playing, hitting every shot perfect, putting perfectly with perfect speed. They even do it as they are standing over the putt. They see it in the hole before they even pull the trigger.
No one ever discusses mental training on here much but it is probably one of the biggest elements of getting to that higher level. After all what is dogging it? It is just your mind lying to you, making you seconding guess what you know to be true. Then that can translate into a physical reaction, having you shaking as you try to make an easy shot you have shot a thousand times. Why not use/train that power of the mind to make you play better not worse.
