I think you're right.
Muzzling the little sucker is a skill unto itself.
Lou Figueroa
I’m aware that when I’m in the zone, there is no muzzle. That said there is a foreground/background dynamic happening. Where the auditory channel is my default for everyday living and is the foreground life track, the rest is relegated to the background, but comes forward on command of my auditory self.
When in the zone, the auditory part still lays out the game plan and deploys resources, it also relegates itself to the background. My visual self (subconscious) becomes dominant with some sense, more unconscious, of the feel part of the game. Since being in a visual mode is a different state than the everyday dialogue I live with, the state seems different, a light trance state. I need the kinesthetic part of the game to stay as unconscious as possible, that part is where feelings live and I want to be as detached as possible. Staying in a visual world that is foreground and everything else as background works best for me.
I happen to be auditory dominant so this relates to me being auditory in consciousness, visual in my subconscious and kinesthetic in the unconscious. Most people are visual in consciousness. Look up Markova stacks to get a sense of this concept at work. It was part of research into learning styles. Switching into the subconscious sensory mode induced a mild trance. My experience is that trance is my peak performance state. My subconscious is predominantly visual. If I start to go to my unconscious awareness, heightened feel, I can trance out and sometimes lose my pattern or the visuals or be disrupted by stress feelings. While feel is great in my background, putting it up front, I’m either brilliant or distracted. I need the right foreground but the dynamic for me is my own. Markova insights can let you find your own.
This is recent awareness for me. I’m just learning how to foreground/background my sensory state. Most of that has been done off the table. Thinking about possible scenarios and how to adjust based on table situations I face.
Sometimes on difficult cueing I become too grip aware. That’s probably not going to change. I can get up and decide the whole stroke/grip thing while up then shift my shot dynamic to the visuals, where to aim and putting the cue ball on a line to the target.
If a conversation nearby becomes foreground (auditory) I need to stop and pay attention to it. (Trying to ignore something rarely works). The talking is likely going to get boring fast then I can get back to
seeing the things I need to see to perform. The point is that when something pulls me away from a visuals foreground I need to stop and recalibrate back to a visual foreground awareness.
My team are testing these ideas. I just got a message from a teammate whose subconscious is auditory. His inner voice directs the action and is an active cheerleading source. He has phrases like “ok, you’ve got this” that help control his state. His last message was “ That inner talk is true to success. ”
The trick is to find out your dominant sense, that will be the one you process most every day. Then figure out what sense you are the least aware of. That will be the sense relegated to the unconscious. Whatever state is left is the one that when you foreground it, will put you in a light trance state. From that center position you have access to conscious and unconscious resources.
My personal experience has been that I’m not losing being in stroke as easily and seem to get back in quickly. Who knows it could be a placebo effect. I’ll take it whatever it is. Hoping it stays a difference maker.
Relating this to the missing inner dialogue I would say those people have their auditory stuff relegated to the unconscious. The conscious mind tends to be linear and able to dissect stuff in thinking. The unconscious experiences things more in wholes. The linear separateness of language structure is not the primary domain of the unconscious auditory. And abstract language concepts become more difficult. The auditory unconscious is sensitive to tones of voice though.
The flip side is that the subconscious and conscious mind are poised for hand/eye coordination, being visual and kinesthetic. They pick up sports skills quickly and easily, by watching and doing.