Anyone ever tried visualization techniques to improve?

[beachbum]

I know a huge key to success in competitive sports is visualization. If you're a basketball player, visualizing hitting a 3-pointer, sinking a free throw, shutting an opponent down on defense, etc. I remember Schwarzenegger mentioning something like if he was weightlifting without visualizing his goals and where he wanted to be, he was just spinning his wheels.

Now I've taken a class that work provided that tied these things called affirmation statements in with goal setting and other self-improvement stuff. The basic gist of them are to come up with vivid statements that describe what you want to be (not what you are now) that you read to yourself twice a day. While you read them, picture this "future reality" vividly and with as much emotion as possible.

For example, if you've been slicing the ball off the tee in golf, write a statement of something like "I effortlessly strike the ball off each tee guiding the ball down the middle of the fairway." Then visualize it with your eyes closed with the emotion of how great you feel when you do it.

Anyway, I just wondered if anyone has tried these type of techniques with poker. Poker has the same mental elements that any sport does, and perhaps are even more important. Anyone ever tried visualizing making a proper laydown or calmly reacting to a bad beat, for example? Just wondering what the experts think here too.

[jskills]

How about when I limp with 44 in middle position with several other limpers and I close my eyes before the flop comes out and visual a 4 coming out - all the while chanting FOUR FOUR FOUR come on biotch gimme a FOUR! And then I spike that set and feel like I have ESP.

Does that count? [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

Just being a wise guy, but only on the surface. Seriously, I think you've got a valid point. I play b-ball all the time and when I'm driving to the gym or (especially) one of our league games, it's all about visualizing making the right moves, playing well with my teammates, and being very relaxed about it. I haven't consciously tried this with poker, although I do find myself daydreaming about playing more and more as the time approaches each night when I am going to sit down and play ...

[neorab]

My grandmother tought me some basic visualization things when I was a kid that I have used to play hockey for a number of years. I am a goalie and before my games I will just sit and visualize angle situations and try and remember how players shoot on me (small league and I watch every game). Just sitting and trying to put yourself in the game to sharpen your thought process has been extremely important for me.

I tried to put this to use playing poker, but have had a much more difficult time. It may be because I have a much better grasp on hockey than I do on poker. (Nine years playing hockey seriously, 2 playing poker seriously) It may also be fore me that I visualize myself doing the physical motions of stopping the puck, glove save, butterfly, what have you so that I can do it with less thought.

I avoid extreme thought during a hockey game, there is no time. I try and go automatic, where players are, what they are likely to do next, where they will shoot to, etc. Through observation and experience, you know what you have to do. It's when you second guess yourself or try have to think that you get burned. Visualization helps me achieve this automation.

As I type this I am starting to see some similarities between poker and hockey. I think I'll give visualization another shot. I just don't know what to think or visualize when I do sit down to meditate.

[tek]

I don't visualize specific hands, but I will visualize situations and what I will do. Then if they happen, my play seems smooth and confident.

[beachbum]

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I just don't know what to think or visualize when I do sit down to meditate.

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Yeah, that's the tricky part. For sports it's a lot more straight forward. Especially in action sports like hockey and basketball, as opposed to golf and bowling, visualizing helps because you react in the heat of the moment. This trains you mind on what to do when you don't have time to think. At least in golf, you have time to think and analyze before you act.

With bodybuilding, Arnold mentioned visualizing goals. He didn't necessarily visualize the physical act of putting 400 lbs. up benchpressing (although he probably did that too). He mentioned visualizing where you wanted to be, like being Mr. Olympia or having 6% body fat come competition time for example.

I think visualizing both our poker actions and our poker goals would be helpful, even if it is more ambiguous than other forms of competition. Other thoughts on how to do this?

[TStoneMBD]

i dont really have any psychological stuff for me to overcome in poker anymore, at least not anything that visualizing could help me with. however, i used to get nervous in pressure situations, and sometimes my face would turn red when i had the nuts, or i couldnt breath when i was bluffing, or i just doubled up at the final table and wouldnt be concentrated at the task at hand. i think visualization has helped me with these psychological elements, and could help someone who has similiar tendencies.

[adsman]

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I just don't know what to think or visualize when I do sit down to meditate.

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Meditation is about emptying the mind, so thinking or visualizing only work against the meditative act.

I'm not trying to be a smartass here. I have taught meditation for over 15 years and just wanted to correct this. I actually think that meditation would be a much better tool for improving your poker playing than visualization. You can't visualize the turn of the cards - a purely random event. (But you can with sports for sure.)

Meditation is about subjegating the mind. The mind leads us astray and betrays us when we least want it, (the face going red when you have the nuts is a prime example). Meditation also promotes syncronicity, which is defined as, "being in the right place at the right time, and recognising it."

[Emmitt2222]

I dont think there are as many scenarios to use it for in holdem but one thing I thought about was visualizing a really bad beat and just picturing yourself really calm and collected. This way you may be more prepared for it and not go on tilt as much. Or it could make you play weak-tight...

[bernie]

I put a post in small stakes about a mental exercise I do once in awhile.

b

[Lephos]

I often sit down and visualize past play with certain opponents. If I have been facing a particularly tough opponent that I can never seem to beat for some reason, I will visualize as many hands as I can in which I play against this person. The effect of this is that I often catch subtleties that I did not notice when I was involved in the hand. I visualize this player folding and what circumstances caused him to fold. I visualize times when he raised or re-raised causing someone to fold. If he showed a hand, I will visualize that, and I can come up with a very effective way to play against this player later. He no longer feels so tough, because I feel more familiar with his play.

Also, I try to visualize betting strategies. If people bet this way, how will I react. I try never to visualize the cards themselves as this will not help you in the future.

Lephos