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Preparing you for your sport - MENTALLY
Preparing you for your sport - MENTALLY
Being physically strong and talented is of course super important for all athletes but they also need to have the right mindset.
Top athletes use mental visualisation and imagery in their training in order to reach optimal performance.
Scientific Benefits of Visualisation for Athletes
Scientific Benefits of Visualisation for Athletes
The science behind visualisation and how some of the best athletes in the world use visualisation to improve sports performance.
Visualisation is the process of creating a mental image or intention of what you want to happen or feel in reality. An athlete can use this technique to 'intend' an outcome of a race or training session, or simply to rest in a relaxed feeling of calm and well-being.
Visualisation in sports or mental imagery is a way of conditioning for your brain for successful outcomes. The more you mentally rehearse your performance, the more it becomes habituated in your mind. You are programming your mind for success.
Athletes who use visualisation can eliminate some of the unknowns that create competitive anxiety. When athletes use visualisation, they not only see the action unfold but truly feel the event take place in their mind’s eye.
How to Use Sports Visualisation For successful Performance:
How to Use Sports Visualisation For successful Performance:
Visualise the outcome you want – When you mentally rehearse your performance in your head, make sure you see the event as how you want it to unfold. If your mental images turn negative, stop the mental tape, rewind and restart then visualise again to see the performance you want to see.
Use all your senses from a first-person perspective – Visualise your sports performance in detail. What would you see, hear, feel, smell and taste. Feel how your body would feel as you go through the motions of your performance. Try adding in some physical movements that coincide with the visualised images. Feel the excitement of successfully fulfilling your performance goal.
Practice frequently – Mental rehearsal for athletes is a skill that becomes better with repetition. Practice your visualisation or imagery daily.
Examples of Olympic Athletes using Visualisation
Examples of Olympic Athletes using Visualisation
Canadian bobsledder Lyndon Rush credited imagery with helping him keep his head in the game throughout the long, arduous four years of training between the 2010 and 2014 Olympic Games.
RUSH: “I’ve tried to keep the track in my mind throughout the year. I’ll be in the shower or brushing my teeth. It just takes a minute, so I do the whole thing or sometimes just the corners that are more technical. You try to keep it fresh in your head, so when you do get there, you are not just starting at square one. It’s amazing how much you can do in your mind.”
Emily Cook, veteran American freestyle skier and three-time Olympian, described how her specific imagery scripts and mental rehearsal involving all the senses have helped her maintain longevity in her sport.
COOK: “Visualization, for me, doesn’t take in all the senses. You have to smell it. You have to hear it. You have to feel it, everything.”
COOK: “I would say into a [tape] recorder: ‘I’m standing on the top of the hill. I can feel the wind on the back of my neck. I can hear the crowd,’ kind of going through all those different senses and then actually going through what I wanted to do for the perfect jump. I turn down the in-run. I stand up. I engage my core. I look at the top of the jump. I was going through every little step of how I wanted that jump to turn out.”
Nicole Detling, a sports psychologist with the United States Olympic team explains the importance of having a multi-sensory approach when visualizing.
DETLING: “The more an athlete can image the entire package, the better it’s going to be.”
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