Visual Kinesthetic Recall
The fundamental principles of VKR™, also known as Visual Kinesthetic Recall, are taken from rare published information uncovered by Anthony Hirschman and Richard Wickline. In a key part of this database, Michael Jordan and Jack Nicklaus describe how they achieved their colossal results. What tipped Hirschman off to the mental advantage used by Nicklaus and Jordan was his experience with Serena Williams’ sport psychologist from Williams’ formative early teenage years. In 2001, this person alerted Hirschman to the fact that her client, who has gone on to become the greatest female tennis player ever, was trained to think and feel in a highly specific way. Those three athletes provided the model from which Visual Kinesthetic Recall was created.
Properly executed, Visual Kinesthetic Recall allows an athlete to literally “program” the result he wants to create…then do what it takes to make it happen.
There is a fast-paced and highly-detailed five-part video series available whereby Anthony Hirschman and Vernon Davis describe exactly what they and Richard Wickline did together to create Vernon’s ideal outcome…which was winning the Super Bowl the very same year Davis programmed that result would happen.
VISUALIZING YOUR IDEAL OUTCOME
Our conscious minds are active all day long for various activities. People think about what they are going to do, how to execute their plans, or engage in other less functionally relevant thoughts…like looking at YouTube…often to break the monotony of their own thoughts chattering inside their heads. What people generally don’t understand is that their subconscious mind is coloring what they think, how they think, and how they perform.
In the case of sports, an athlete can rehearse an action over and over again, until he feels he’s doing it perfectly. Then comes the competition and he frequently finds that he can’t replicate that perfect movement pattern, because of the added factor of stress and pressure.
Certainly, getting into the Zone helps to minimize the effects of pressure. But being able to literally program the subconscious mind is what REALLY matters. Why? Because when the subconscious mind…the storehouse of a person’s beliefs, past positive and negative experiences, and fears…influences the conscious mind’s behavior, ANYTHING can happen. Under the pressure of championship competition, usually what happens is that the person DOESN’T perform up to his own or his team’s expectations…unless he has been specifically trained to handle the pressure in an effective manner.
Visual Kinesthetic Recall (VKR) is a way to program the mind from the conscious level down to the subconscious level. The athlete’s conscious mind, with the help of the VKR coach, decides what it wants. The coach will take into account the four factors listed in bold (above paragraph), which will enable the athlete and coach to decide what the subconscious mind can handle…also known as the athlete’s Comfort Zone.
If the goals set in the visualization program are too extreme, the subconscious mind will cause the person to falter. In a real sense, the subconscious mind “short circuits” the conscious mind from having what it wants. However, when the VKR coach and athlete choose the right way to communicate with the athlete’s subconscious mind, success is often the result. This outcome occurs because the coach has prepared a script for the athlete to record in his own voice that the subconscious mind accepts and acts upon.
Once this script is recorded, the athlete will listen to his program while in a super deep relaxed state brought on by entering the Zone in a non-competitive or non-training environment. In that state, the athlete will be filling his subconscious mind with the ideal images and feelings to produce the desired result in competition…which is what the Visual and the Kinesthetic parts of the process are all about.
The more an athlete programs his mind with this methodology in a relaxed non-competitive environment, there is a higher probability the athlete will produce the desired result in competition.
Achieving the Ideal Outcome happens without thinking…in a smooth and fluid manner.
Hirschman and Wickline have discovered that the three greatest athletes ever in their sport (Michael Jordan, Jack Nicklaus and Serena Williams) program their most successful accomplishment, tapping into either the recent or distant past, to override any feelings of fear or self-doubt they may have in the moment of truth…when victory or defeat depends on how calm and alert they remain.
VKR becomes a decisive factor that will enable the athlete or team to emerge triumphant.
Vernon Davis used VKR to win Super Bowl 50 in 2016
The Davis endorsement letter reads as follows:
“To Anthony, You helped me visualize and believe I would contribute to my team winning Super Bowl 50. It really happened…though my team ended up being the Broncos instead of the 49ers. Still, earning a Super Bowl ring is a great accomplishment. I am so grateful.
Thanks, Vernon Davis #80”
Vernon Davis led his previous team, the San Francisco 49ers, to their first Super Bowl appearance in almost 20 years, vs. the Baltimore Ravens in 2013. Just prior to this Super Bowl, Hirschman and Wickline recommended to Vernon Davis that he not be intimidated by the Ravens’ great Ray Lewis, who had already been voted by the NFL in 2010 to be one of the three best linebackers in history (along with Dick Butkus and Lawrence Taylor). In the actual game, Davis took this suggestion literally.
In the photo below, Vernon Davis gets right into Lewis’ face after a play, declaring:
“It’s going to be a long day for you, Ray!”
Just to make sure the Ravens’ defensive captain got the message, Davis repeats with emphasis his statement into his opponent’s facemask.
Ray Lewis happened to be mic’d up by CBS for his last NFL game ever, so those comments are recorded for future generations to reflect upon. Vernon Davis’ performance in that Super Bowl was spectacular, as he tied a 31-year-old Super Bowl record for total receiving yards (104) by a tight end. A year later, Sports Illustrated did a feature article on Davis. In the article, there is a photo of him in that Super Bowl, with the caption applauding Davis for his great play in that game.
