Do You Have to See the Shot?

You’re pointing at seven metres. You’ve picked your landing spot and decided how high to throw.

Then someone says, “Visualise it.”

You know the shot you want to play, but you don’t see it happening in your head.

Are you missing something?

What I mean by a picture

In Week 3: Arc, I use “picture” for the shot you intend to play: its height, its landing spot and where you want it to finish.

Go back to the point you’ve chosen. You can look at the landing spot and explain how you want the boule to reach it, even if you don’t see the flight in your mind. You already have an intention for the shot.

Perhaps a picture does come: the boule rising, dropping onto the spot and rolling towards the jack. Or perhaps you can imagine how a familiar throw feels, the arm swinging and the boule leaving your fingers.

A few words might remind you: “Over that rough area, land there, then roll up towards the jack.” A phrase can simply remind you what you want the boule to do. A picture or feeling may come with it.

Knowing the shot you want to play is one thing. How you bring it to mind is another.

Seeing and feeling

In their work on movement imagery, Williams and colleagues distinguish imagining how an action looks from imagining how it feels. The terms are visual imagery and kinaesthetic imagery. These experiences can occur together.

Some people report no voluntary mental pictures at all, an experience known as aphantasia. David Wright and colleagues asked people reporting this experience about imagining movements. Some reported being able to imagine how a movement felt, although that could be difficult too.

So a feeling isn’t automatically an easier alternative to a picture. My starting point for practice is what helps you prepare the shot you’ve chosen. Does your preparation help you get ready to throw, or does trying to visualise become another task?

Try it with a familiar shot

After warming up, choose a point at seven metres or another distance you’re comfortable with. Decide on the landing spot, height and intended finish. Keep that shot the same for the next few boules.

Begin with your normal preparation. Between throws, notice whether you were ready to play or still trying to make a picture appear.

If making a picture is taking over, try preparing without deliberately visualising the flight. Look at your landing spot and remind yourself what you want the boule to do. If an image comes naturally, let it.

A familiar word or remembered feeling may help too. If you want to find a throw worth recalling, Why the Journal Only Asks for Your Best Shots explains what to keep from it. Use a reminder if it helps; you can also stay with your usual preparation.

What helped you prepare?

After those few boules, look at the landing and the finish alongside how ready you felt. A more settled throw can still land long. Keep both observations when deciding what to try again.

Your note might say:

“I knew where I wanted to land without picturing it. I felt ready to throw, but the boules still landed long.”

Write a few words in the Pétanque Performance Journal after practice, while you can still recall the throws. Keep the shot you intended, what came to mind and what the boules actually did.

Return to anything useful another day. The Throw That Comes Back explains how to check what remains when you come back to a shot or play it in a different situation.

When you hear “Visualise it”, come back to the shot you’ve chosen. That instruction can be a reminder of your intention, rather than a demand to make a picture appear.

Research

Williams, S. E., Cumming, J., Ntoumanis, N., Nordin-Bates, S. M., Ramsey, R., & Hall, C. (2012). Further Validation and Development of the Movement Imagery Questionnaire. Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 34(5), 621–646. Read the paper.

Wright, D. J., Scott, M. W., Esselaar, M., Braithwaite, E. C., & Holmes, P. S. (2026). Motor imagery abilities in individuals who experience aphantasia. Neuropsychologia, 230, 109530. Read the paper. The study asked 194 people about their imagery experiences using questionnaires.