“I believe a champion wins in his mind first, then plays the
game, not the other way around.” -- Alex Rodriguez,
retired professional baseball player.
By now most athletes have heard of mental imagery and
visualization as a tool for enhancing performance. These
techniques are not new. We hear about them all of the time.
Many elite athletes swear by the practice of mental imagery and visualization, while
others remain skeptical. Another barrier is that we fail to use it
on a regular basis. We do not establish it as part of our
routine. However, it can be such a powerful tool for
success. It helps establish the blueprint for success.
Many of us have even tried it informally by picturing ourselves
making the big play, winning the championship, or hitting
a home run. You may have even used it as a child, while
playing in the backyard.
Visualization is a powerful tool for optimizing an athlete’s
performance. The problem is that most athlete’s
visualizations are boring and uninspired. The most
powerful visualizations are motivating, creative, and
immersive. Visualizations facilitate entrance into
preparation and/or performance mode.
As early as the 1970s, Arthur Ashe successfully used
visualization and deep breathing techniques to help him
upset heavily favored Jimmy Connors in the 1975
Wimbledon final. During each changeover, Ashe sat
quietly with his eyes closed, focusing on the specific
shots he needed to hit to carry out his strategy.
“We looked at what happens when athletes engage in
(visualization) and confirmed that it is very beneficial. It
appears to reduce anxiety and helps the athlete to
engage.”--Hap Davis, Swim Canada sports psychologist.
Along with psychologist Mario Liotti, Davis found that
Olympic athletes who reviewed their triumphant
performance showed higher levels of testosterone -
associated with aggressiveness and social dominance -
and lower levels of cortisol, which is associated with
debilitating stress.
“The mind cannot tell the difference between an actual,
‘real-life’ event and a vividly imagined one.”-- Dr. Denis
Waitley
In the 1980s, Dr. Waitley used a program called Visual
Motor Rehearsal for Olympic athletes. With this program,
Olympic athletes were given the instructions to run the
race, but only in their mind. They had to fully visualize
themselves in the race. This required what is called
“Inner-Outer” participation. The athletes were then
measured with biofeedback equipment. The results were
impressive. What they found was that the same muscles
fired in the same sequence as when they were actually
running on the track. The researchers wondered how this
could be. How could the same muscles fire in the same
sequence as if they were really running the race? The
answer is found in the above quote, “The mind cannot tell
the difference between an actual, ‘real-life’ event and a
vividly imagined one.”
Young Tennis Star Uses Visualization
In 2019, 19-year old Canadian tennis player Bianca
Andreescu, stunned the sports world when she won the
U.S. Open, defeating tennis legend Serena Williams.
She attributed her success to the power of visualization.
Andreescu made history as the first Canadian in history to
win a Grand Slam singles title.
Serena Williams, a tennis legend, was about twice
Andreescu’s age and arguably the best tennis player of
all time. Despite Williams having been plagued by injuries
and possibly past her peak, Andreescu was not expected
to pull off the upset. She had shot up 100 places in the
Women’s Tennis Association global rankings, from 152nd
at the end of 2018 to 15th going into the finals.
Her parents, Maria Andreescu, a finance executive, and
Nicu Andreescu, an engineer, are originally from
Romania. The family lived there for a few years when she
was a child, though Bianca was born in Canada.
Andreescu had earned $2.42 million in prize money so far
as a professional, almost all of it in 2019, prior to her
match with Serena. She won $3.85 million for her U. S.
Open win — for a total of $6.27 million.
Andreescu started incorporating meditation and
visualization exercises into her training at the age of 12 or
13, at her mom’s suggestion.
“I think if you can control your mind, then you can control
a lot of things,” Andreescu said. “When I’m on the court in
front of these big stages, I’m really good at just blocking
everything and staying in the zone.”
Yves Boulais, the tennis director of the Ontario Racquet
Club, where Andreescu trains, said that Andreescu is
“abnormally calm for the stress that our sport brings.”
He added much of her success stems from her “level
head” and the practice of relaxing and centering herself
she cultivated from a young age.
“It’s really rare. Bianca seems to have a peace about her
that kind of makes her take (her game) stride by stride,
not rushing. That’s what really makes her different.”
Throughout the 2019 U.S. Open she spoke about her
meditation practice. In her post match press conference,
she shared how she had visualized certain points of the
game unfolding before the match began. She also talked
about how she had been visualizing winning in this exact
scenario against Serena Williams for years.
Big League Visualization
Clayton Kershaw is the Los Angeles Dodgers’ long-time
left-handed star pitcher. Kershaw has played 15 years in
the major leagues. He is an perennial All-Star, three-time
National League (NL) Cy Young Award winner, and the
2014 NL Most Valuable Player.
Kershaw was drafted seventh overall in the 2006 MLB
draft. He worked his way through the Dodgers’ farm
system in just one full season, and reached the majors at
20 years old. When he debuted in 2008, he was the
youngest player in MLB.
As with any player, his dominance on the mound stems
from how hard he works in practice. How has Kershaw
achieved so much in only 8 seasons in the majors? He
gets more reps than other pitchers without the wear and
tear on his body. How does he do that? He uses
visualization.
Sports Illustrated senior writer Tom Verducci called
Kershaw’s visualization practice “shadow pitching,” akin
to shadow boxing for the Mike Tysons of old. Basically,
Kershaw will hit the practice field or bullpen and pitch his
game without ever throwing the ball. Standing on the
mound in shorts and a tank top, he takes the signs and
pitches the game, going through his full pitching motion.
Except the game is all in his mind. Verducci said that
Kershaw’s routine is to do this twice between every start.
Visualizing Speed and Control
A few years ago on television, a close-up shot of former
world motor racing champion Damon Hill showed him in
his Formula 1 car as his head swayed from side to side.
The most interesting thing about this shot was that Hill
was sitting in a stationary car, waiting to exit the garage in
an attempt to qualify for the race. Like many other
championship athletes, he was using his time leading up
to a performance to mentally rehearse and imagine
steering the correct racing line through each corner.
Techniques for Success
To augment the hours and hours of time spent honing
fundamental skills and developing peak physical
readiness, world-class elite performers from all kinds of
sports complete many practice throws, catches, swings,
laps of the track, lengths of the pool or throws of the
javelin in their minds before major competitions. Training
your mental skills can also make a better athlete and
winner out of you. We encourage more business people
and professionals to use and develop their imagery skills
and to advise them on how to use these skills to
maximum effect.
Creating, or recreating, an all-sensory experience can
have profound effects on physical performance and
psychological functioning. However, recent research
evidence suggests that to achieve maximum benefits
athletes and coaches should select the content of their
images very carefully. Imagery can be applied in many
different ways to aid sports performers, and is one of the
most regularly used tools of sport psychologists. It should
be the tool of all executive coaches as well. What does
performance psychology have to teach us about
imagery? Scientific research strongly supports the use of
imagery in sports and business as an adjunct to physical
practice.
Elite athletes and coaches use imagery regularly. Do you
really think world-class performers would devote time to a
technique that didn’t aid their performances?
Case studies of the use of imagery programs tailored to
individual needs have demonstrated some dramatic
performance improvements.
Most importantly, a number of controlled scientific studies
have shown that imagery can significantly benefit the
learning and performance of a variety of sports skills.
Most recently, researchers from Lero, the Science
Foundation Ireland Research Centre for Software, hosted
at University of Limerick (UL), found evidence supporting
Arnold Palmer’s famous quote that golf is mainly played
in “the six inches between the ears”.
According to this research, kinaesthetic ability, which is
an individual’s ability to feel an action without actually
performing it, may improve their golf game. Niall
Ramsbottom, a researcher at Lero and UL, explained that
recent research carried out by the team indicates that
with mental practice, golfers can improve their putting.
“Our results indicate that a form of mental practice, i.e.
the combination of action observation and motor imagery,
may enhance the golf putting ability of experienced
golfers,” he said, “and that could well mean a reduction in
a golfer’s handicap”.
The research showed that golfers who already had a
good ‘feel' for putting, may benefit the most from this
mental practice.
“We found, kinesthetic imagery ability - an individual’s
ability to imagine the feel of an action without actually
performing it - may have an important role in determining
the effectiveness of the exercise on putting performance.
Putting is a feel-based motor skill and our research
suggests that those with good kinaesthetic imagery ability
may perform better following this mental practice
technique,” explained Mr Ramsbottom.
“The findings suggest that simply viewing a video of
another performing an action may bolster one’s ability to
imagine and subsequently perform that action,” he said.
Putting ability is crucial in golf as approximately 40% of
golf strokes are taken with the putter.
“Furthermore, golf putting ability was found to be one of
the most important skills in determining earnings on the
Professional Golf Association (PGA) Tour,” the report,
published in Psychology of Sport and Exercise, states,
citing previously conducted research.
The research involved 44 right-handed, skilled male
golfers completing 40 putts with instructions to ‘make the
ball stop as close to the target as possible’.
“A subset of golfers looked at an action observation video
which consisted of an expert golfer performing the putting
task in the same lab environment. They did so while
listening to a motor imagery script consisting of short
sentences describing key visual and kinaesthetic feelings
associated with performing the task. Having completed
these simple exercises, the golfers who were found to
have better kinaesthetic imagery (KI) ability benefited
more from the mental practice intervention than those
with poorer KI ability,” explained Mr Ramsbottom.
Visualization is another effective way to develop your
mental core. With this technique, you close your eyes and
visualize what you want to have happen. Your
subconscious is very tuned into pictures, so if you
visualize yourself being successful, for example, you can
literally see your desired outcomes and results.
One helpful technique is to make a scrapbook before you
do a visualization so that you have something to focus on
as you work on manifesting desires.
You may want to use visualization to alter the way you
see things and prepare for situations and events.
Visualization is a simple technique that works.
Using visualization or mental imagery to rehearse motor
skills has been shown to improve the performance of
athletes, medical practitioners, and musicians, as well as
aiding the rehabilitation of hand control and other motor
tasks, for example after nervous system damage. The
technique works because imagining performing a motor
action activates almost the same neural structures as
actually performing it.
Visualization does two things: If one of those
visualization scenarios occurs, you are optimally
prepared; you have already rehearsed mentally and done
it before in your mind, so you don’t even have to think
about what to do. And most importantly, by mentally
rehearsing beforehand, you just feel ready. It is your cue.
You are entering performance mode.
When you know that your goals are within your reach and
you are starting to doubt yourself: stop!
Take a breath and take a quiet moment for yourself and
really picture yourself reaching and even surpassing your
goals. Really embrace in the way that it feels to reach
your goal and excel at something that you set out to do.
When you do this, you are literally creating a neural
pathway, one that is powerful enough for you to draw
upon in those moments of self-doubt when you are
thinking about giving up. Mental imagery really is a
powerful tool and you can use it at any time, to envision
yourself going about reaching all of your goals, both big
and small.
Try this; close your eyes and visualize what you want.
See it as though you’re looking at it from your
perspective, with it right in front of you.
Once you’ve accomplished this beginning stage, let’s
move on to the physical side of things. Maybe you’ve
been mowing with a push mower for years and couldn’t
imagine the difference if you had a riding lawn mower.
Well, do the step above and picture yourself riding around
cutting the grass without any exertion. Then, go down to
the store where you saw it and take a picture of yourself
sitting on it. Once you do this, place those pictures
around your house, work, and anywhere else you deem
necessary.
Even though this has been known for centuries, it’s taken
our world this long to embrace it. Scientists from all
around the world are beginning to understand the positive
effects this can have on your life.
Creative visualization helps improve your performance by
the use of imagination. Athletes do it all the time. Think of
Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal running through their
serve in his head in a crucial match. The underlying basis
is both biological and mental – your thoughts and feelings
affect your body profoundly. When you feel anger, your
heart beats faster. Creative visualization is used to
prepare your body and mind when you go through
something physically demanding.
Sit in a quiet spot and focus on the following for a few
minutes at the start of each day, or whenever the need
arises:
Imagine yourself going through the steps of executing
towards your goal and attaining it. Imagine you have
achieved your specific goal. Perhaps visualize yourself:
more successful, faster, stronger, healthier and happier.
Whatever your vision, imagine how you feel, and having
those feelings run through you.
Think of your family and friends noticing a difference in
you, how proud they are and complimenting on how great
you look or how happy you seem.
Visualize yourself in the situation or outcome you desire.
There can be many variations to the above visualization
practice. The important thing is that it has meaning and
importance to you.
The key is that, like all goals, it has to be realistic. Take
small, manageable steps. It helps to be as detailed as
possible in your visualization – imagine what your friends
will say exactly to you. Visualize the smallest of details of
the achievement or accomplishment.
Making your visualization as real as possible will make it
all the more attainable, and your determination to achieve
your goal will be stronger. It tells you – “You can smell it.
You can almost touch it. Now reach forward and go get it.”
Reviewing the Steps
1. Identify an experience that you’d like to have.
2. Get a vivid image of yourself having that experience.
3. Focus on the end-results ONLY! Do not let your mind
go into overdrive trying to figure out how it’s going to
happen (that’s not your job).
Turn Visualization into an Immersive Experience
Athletes who learn to turn their visualization into an
immersive experience will reap the biggest returns.
Coaches can help them do this by teaching their players
the four core tenets of high-powered visualization.
1. Perspective
Athletes can visualize themselves from
two different perspectives. Think of perspective as if
you’re playing a video game. One perspective is that of a
first-person shooter (i.e., seeing through your own eyes).
The other is from a third-person perspective (i.e., seeing
your body from an overhead or sideline view). An athlete
working on a specific motion or technique may benefit
most from a third-person perspective. The first-person
view may be best for visualizing well-developed skills
prior to competition.
2. Multi-sensory
There’s a reason no one watches silent
films anymore. Black and white TV has gone by the
wayside. Virtual reality is the latest trend in entertainment
because the more realistic the action, the better.
Consequently, the more senses athletes can incorporate
into their visualizations, the better. Encourage yourself or
your players to include what they expect to smell, feel,
hear, and taste, along with what they’ll see, in their
visualizations to make them more real experiences.
3. Effort
When athletes practice and compete it takes
focus, energy, and effort. Therefore, they need to
integrate components of the competitive environment
such as emotions, exertion, and muscular force into their
visualizations. For example, a defensive lineman could
imagine how much force he will need attack a blocker. Or
a pitcher may imagine the pressure he may feel with
runners on in the bottom of the ninth in a one-run game.
4. Movement
Progressive coaches in the 1990s might
have had their athletes lie down on the gym floor and
imagine what it would be like to beat their rival or win a
championship. While that was a decent start, coaches
can up their game by adding movement. Like Clayton
Kershaw, have athletes physically execute their sport
skills while imagining the game-like situation in as much
vivid detail and realism they can muster.
Mental Reps
Progressive coaches plug visualization into their
practices. Under Urban Meyer, that is exactly what the
Ohio State Buckeyes football program did. On the
practice field, athletes who are next to complete a drill
mimic the player in front of them instead of just passively
waiting their turn. The mental rep player is basically
doing the drill just without touching the ball or hitting a
pad. It’s an extra rep. What if your players doubled their
practice reps? They can, by using visualization.
Make Visualization an Immersive Experience
Incorporate visualization into the battle rhythms of your
team. Show them how mental reps count for extra reps.
Most importantly, encourage your athletes to use the four
core tenets of high-powered visualization. It will take
some practice, but the more realistic, the better.
Visualization in Basketball
Visualization is an extremely powerful tool used by some
of the world’s greatest athletes. The practice is
increasingly common in professional sports such as
baseball, golf, basketball and darts. For example, in
basketball, many players who are preparing to shoot the
ball immediately entertain doubt in their mind. Thoughts
intrude such as ‘I hope I don’t leave it short’, ‘Please don’t
miss it’ etc. If these are the thoughts you are allowing to
enter your mind, then you are setting your mind up for
failure. It is like that the last thought you allow to
penetrate your mindset is what is going to happen to the
ball.
In golf, if you fear hitting the tree or ending in the lake,
that is what usually happens. I remember playing at a
public golf course as a kid, seeing an open garbage can
off to the side of the fairway. As I prepared to tee off, I
could not stop thinking about that garbage can. Though
not quite overwhelmed with fear, I somehow focused on
the garbage can. I teed off, and sure enough, instead of
hitting a straight shot down the fairway, toward the green
and near the hole, I hit the garbage can and made a
perfect hole-in-one over into the top of the can. We all
had a good laugh, but it taught me a valuable lesson.
Though I could never in a million years replicate that shot,
my inadvertent visualization demonstrated that near
perfect concentration on a goal and proper (unintentional)
concentration can be very effective.
Basketball is no different. Sure you won’t lose your ball in
the lake or have the fear of the ball ricocheting off the tree
and hitting your face (or making an embarrassing shot
into a garbage can), but you will still miss the target. So if
you are serious about your basketball skills and you want
to improve your game dramatically, then I recommend the
following tips.
Tip #1: Visualize to improve shot accuracy.
When shooting the ball one of the challenges is
estimating how much force to put behind the shoot to
cover the necessary distance required for the ball to fall
through the net. You also must determine the height of
the shot. A great practice drill involves shooting the ball
with your eyes closed. This drill will demonstrate the
power of muscle memory and the incredible power of
your mind to influence or alter your physical ability. Your
shooting skill, accuracy and control will improve
dramatically. So, take a quick look at the basket, then,
with eyes closed, go through the process of setting up as
normal, use your usual technique, shoot the ball and
then, after releasing the ball, open your eyes and enjoy
seeing your ball fall through the basket. This will be
frustrating initially but with practice the results will shock
you. It is like athletes who run with tires strapped to their
waists, they make training more difficult. Then, when you
remove the ‘tire’ (shoot with open eyes), it suddenly
appears so much easier.
Tip #2: Develop a pre-shot routine to reduce the effects of
pressure.
This may sound like baseball superstition or golf tradition
but sports psychologists agree that it is an essential
ingredient for success in every sport. To develop a
pre-shot routine, each time you prepare to shoot the ball,
you should perform a consistent and specific sequence of
motions or movements. For example, I, as a left-hand
shooter of basketball free-throws, dribble with my left
hand, bouncing the ball 3 times, spin the ball with two
hands, stop, take a deep breath, and then shoot.
Whatever you decide to do, ensure you always do it for
every shot when in practice and in a game.
This ritual centers you, settles your mind, assists you in
feeling relaxed, along with a sense of familiarity, and
being in control. It also reduces pressure because if you
always use the same routine, your mind will treat every
shot the same and thus your technique will not be subject
to the stress and pressure of the moment.
Tip #3: Mentally visualize shooting to increase success.
In your spare time, spend considerable time visualizing
success as a shooter. A famous study was conducted by
the University of Chicago many years ago with basketball
players demonstrating the effectiveness of visualization. It
consisted of three basketball teams. Team 1 was
instructed to go to the gym every day for one hour and
practice throwing free throws. Team 2 was instructed to
go to the gym every day, but to lie down and visualize
themselves successfully shooting instead of physically
practicing. Team 3 was instructed to play no basketball
whatsoever (neither mentally nor physically) for the
month. At the end of the month, the three groups were
tested to determine their shooting proficiency. The team
who didn’t practice had deteriorated in their shooting
ability. The team who practiced physically had improved
by 24%. Amazingly the team who had only visualized
themselves throwing successful free throws had improved
by 23%. This study proves that you maximize your
success by visualizing your free throws (or other shots) at
every available opportunity. It is a powerful supplement to
mental rehearsal as well as physical practice. So, to
conclude, harness the power of the mind and the power
of muscle memory. As Henry Ford said, whether you think
you can or think you can’t, you are right.