SWAG72,
Lots to go on there. I do believe you can learn to see an image.
What is said about the wildlife above by erding is right - but where you only have a fleeting moment to get a shot doesn't mean you don't think about it....you have done all the thinking before the bird lands on the tig.....settings done, light taken into account, even focus has been preset, all that is missing is the subject.
The same is true of a landscape - you will get to the point where you can see a place that will make a great picture.....maybe not today in this light, but tomorrow morning at dawn....and I'll stand there and use that lens with that rock in the foreground, and that tree on the skyline....and the sun will shine on that stream over there.......you go back tomorrow morning at dawn and set up ready to get the moment you have seen......
and it rains. But if you keep going back, you will get your shot.
You will also learn to "work the scene" - in the amount of time you have with the given light, you take a couple of shots, then change lens and shoot again, move, try another angle.....do this often enough and you will see the shots before you have taken them. As you look at the scene you will see how the elements will interact and it just "does".
Sport is no different. You still have to work the scene, and the lightt. You can't dictate the play, but you can dictate the side of the light you shoot the play from......which lens you use, stopped motion or blur.
Everyone learns to "work the scene". Street photographers just do it on the hoof, and act instinctively.
Landscapers recognise structure that will create the elements given the light (the one bit they have no control over, but can watch for.)
Sport photographers can work from different viewpoints, or perspectives with lens choice and settings choices. Backlight or frontal lighting, side lighting...whatever. They can choose to pick out a tiny detail, or the entire scene, or a single person in action.
So yes, with prctise, you can learn it. Look at as many pictures as you can, books - read how others do it. You might not fit into their mould, but their ideas might give you ideas. A friend of mine Colin Prior, is well known for his panoramics of mountains in Scotland (and other places in Scotland and around the world too) - he will watch the weather and know when the light is likely to be good. he will take a backpacking tent, camping stove and sleeping bag, plus his (in the old days a Fuji 617 and tripod, plus rolls of film and a couple of lenses) camera kit. Hike up to the top of the mountain, get all set, put his head down and wait for the morning - possibly shooting one venue in the evening for sunset and then moving on to get a second shot the following morning.
I have learned over the years that the most successful landscapers are the ones who are prepared to put in many hours to get one shot. I don't have that kind of time or patience, so my landscapes are rubbish - but I can recognise a good one when I see it!
You won't get much by simply wandering around and grabbing pictures. You have to set out to get something. As you work the scene you will think to add small details, or leave something pout, to emphasise an element, to expose for effect. Then your landscape vocabulary will start to expand and the success will then come. After all, you can't write an essay without knowing the alphabet and have an elemental understanding of grammer and punctuation....landscape or any other branch of photography is no different. The alphabet is made up of the various settings you have, grammer is made up from the lenses and filters at your disposal. By putting them together, you can compose your essay. Some will read it and like it, others won't because they don't like science fiction, or whatever.
Photography is very much like writing in that respect.
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I hope I can learn it and don't need to rely on my imagination, else I'll pack up the lens now! 
