It seems to me the instructor is saying you are too much in the head looking for the right formula without puting any into practice until you got the right one. To say it's the ego getting in the way is a nice way of saying you are procastinating. You think unless you got it right in the head you cannot act. You may go through the motions but in reality you're pulling back.
With martial arts it has to become instinct. So a formula as such becomes quickly redundant. You need to let go of wanting to have it as perfect as the master in your next attempt and and just seek to improve on what you had done before. How can you get better if you don't know how to do it badly?
Yes visualisation will help. How about trying it consistently for a couple of weeks? Watch out for the monkey mind that keeps picking up and dropping each shiny gem it finds without ever settling to put one to work. Or put another way, stick the key into the lock and try it before you collect more keys.
Alex
