“Before every shot I go through the moves inside my head. Here’s what I see. First, I see the ball where I want it to finish on a specific small area of fairway or green. Next, I see the ball going there—its path, trajectory, and behavior on landing. Finally, I see myself making the kind of swing that will turn the first two images into reality. These ‘home moves’ are key to my concentration and to my positive approach to every shot.”
We use our imagination all the time. We often use it to image ourselves doing something specific or being in a particular situation. We even use it to replay past experiences or imagine events that have yet to occur. Our first experiences as athletes may not have been actually playing a sport, but instead imagining that we are our favorite player, imagining what it would be like to play a particular sport, or imagining what it would feel like to be a champion. Who hasn’t imagined putting up a shot just before the clock expired to win a game; throwing the winning touchdown pass to win the Super Bowl; sticking the last tumbling pass in their floor routine at the olympics. The great thing is - we can use our imaginations to help us as athletes. Using our imagination to help us achieve our goals is often referred to by a number of different names including imagery, visualization, mental practice, or mental rehearsal. However, what they all have in common is the use of our imagination to create or recreate an experience of a previous or upcoming event.
Imagery can help us in a number of ways. It can…
Increase confidence. We can imagine ourselves achieving our goals. This builds our confidence that our goals are obtainable and that we know the steps to achieve them.
Expand abilities. Through imagining ourselves doing things or being in particular situation, we can expand our perceptions of the boundaries of our abilities.
Motivate. Thinking about past and future competitions can provide joyful memories, refocus us on our goals, and remind us of what motivates us to do the task at hand.
Manage nerves or energy. We can use our imagination to relax and change our energy level. We can think of things that get us pumped up or energizes us. We can also visualize relaxing places or images, allowing us to escape from the present moment.
Learn and practice skills. We can use our imagination to continue to practice a particular skill. We can role play doing the skill over and over again, committing it to memory. It can be used to correct errors, such as replaying past events or slowing down movement to better analyze them.
Prepare. Using our imagination, we can mentally rehearse key elements of our performance or even prepare for the unexpected. This can help us feel even more prepared for games, matches, and competitions.
Focus. We can get distracted during training or competition. We can use our imagination to focus on what we want which can help us get back on track by reminding us what is important.
Quick Tips for Imagery
Two things that can help us get the most out of imagery is making it vivid and controllable.
Creating a vivid mental image simulates reality, helping us better implement our imagery and making it more powerful. Using all of our senses in imagery can make our imagery more vivid. When we imagine, we often focus on our visual senses such as seeing ourselves perform, but just as important is what we feel, hear, think, smell, and taste. All of our senses are a part of our athletic experience. Paying attention in detail to our sensations such as the grip of the bat, the sound of the crowd, or the smell of the sweat can help make our imagery more vivid.
In addition to making the imagery vivid, being able to control your imagination is important. Focusing on controlling what you are doing in imagery can be important to simulating a desired experience. For example, if a volleyball player continually images seeing themselves miss a serve, fire the ball into the net, or hearing the crowd boo, they may perform poorly. Instead, it is important that our imagery represents our desired performance or outcome.
Finally, practice, practice, practice.
- Jacob Daheim, MA
Quote of the day: “Dreaming mean’s ‘rehearsing’ what you see, playing it over and over in our mind until it becomes real to you as your life right now.” - Emmitt Smith
Joke of the Day: "What do Alexander the Great and Winnie the Pooh have in common?... They have the same middle name.