A big part of top elite athletes success is their trained ability to see themselves performing at maximum potential, before doing so in real life. This practice is called visualization or mental rehearsal and can be practiced anytime anywhere, and most importantly by Anyone! However, just like practicing on the field or court, visualization takes some hard work and focus, and you will get out of it the effort and time that you put in… In this article I will list some points that will help you get the most out of your visualization and mental rehearsals – and this means you will see greater results when its time to compete!
Find a Relaxing Environment
The first step to effective visualization is entering into a relaxed state of mind, and this cannot be achieved unless we are in a relaxing and safe environment to begin with. Along with finding a comfortable position to sit or lie in, it helps if you are somewhere quiet with no distraction
Relax your Mind
In our day and age, it is easy for your mind to be running a mile a minute, whether it is past, present, or future, our minds are busy places, and we have to train them to relax and slow down. Breathing is one of the keys to relaxing, as you being your visualization, practice taking deep and long breaths, expanding the stomach, and exhaling through your nose. Along with breathing, there are many different techniques to focus on quieting the mind, here are a couple that I find work for me:
- Relaxing Paradise: One way to relax your mind is to close your eyes and think of a real or imaginary place that you can escape too, this could be a beautiful beach or beside a lake in the mountainside. Imagine yourself in this place, completely relaxed and without a worry… A rule to effective visualization is to make things as real and vivid as possible (more on this later), try to add detail to your relaxing paradise.
- Bubbles: Another way to relax the mind and let go of stresses, worries, and frustrations is to use the bubble method. This may sound a little bit silly, but give it a try and you may be surprised with how well it works… As you are beginning to relax, focus on your breathing, long and deep inhale and exhales… On the exhale, in your minds eye, imagine that you are letting go (blowing out) all of your stressed, anxiety, and frustration into a Bubble. When you are finished your exhale, you can see the bubble float up and out of sight, out of your vision and control at the moment. As you see the bubble filled with different issues disappear, you can let them go for the time being.
Make the Transition to your Sport
During these initial exercises you want to focus on deep relaxing breathing. With every exhale be conscious of your body releasing more and more tension allowing you to move into a deeper state of relaxation. Once you feel like you are calm, relaxed, and focused, begin to shift your visualization to your sport or event, again there a few ways to do this…
- Visualize Yourself: You can focus solely on yourself and how you feel as an athlete. What do you look like when you are ready to play at your best? Visualize yourself and how you feel when you are 100% ready to compete and have the best game of your life!
- Visualize the Playing Venue: I like this practice especially if you are visualization in preparation for a specific event. This tool works even better if you have seen the venue you are playing at, this gives you more information from your sense (sight, smell, taste, touch) to make your visualizations more realistic. Practice visualizing yourself, in that same “game ready” state, now at the venue just before the game. How does it feel? What does it look like? What is the feeling in the air? How are the fans? The Environment? All of these details will help create a more realistic and effective visualization.
- 3RD Person Method : Another thing you can try and is an advantage to visualization is observing yourself from a 3rd Person. If you are focusing on your performance at a game venue, try seeing yourself from a fan in the stands, or from a bird’s eye view above… Again, go through the same routine, use information from each sense to make the visualization as realistic as possible!
Feel the Flow
There is actually a whole field of research that is dedicated to what is called “Flow Theory”. This concept was developed by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and has been studied extensively in the area of sport and athletic performance.
- What is FLOW? Let me ask you a question… Have you ever played in a game (and for those of you who are not athletes reading this it still applies in many areas of life) where you were in the “Zone”, you were on fire and could make any shot or any move effortlessly. You feel confident and at times it may seem that time is actually slowing down and you are in complete control… This is “Flow”, believe it or not, this is a heightened state of mind and one of the major goals we want to focus on when visualizing.
- Visualize Your Flow: One of the advantages of visualization is that you are in complete control; you can visualize yourself playing in a constant state of Flow. Continue to understand what it takes for yourself to get into your Zone/Flow, it may be playing hard defense, diving on a ball, making a good check, or scoring a goal… Then visualize this sequence happening and your transition into a Flow state, the more you visualize this, the easier your body and mind will be able to do this in the game!
Summary
If you are an Elite Athlete and have not used Visualization in your training and pre-game routine, GET EXCITED! This is an easy way for you to instantly improve your game without having to spend hours working on your skills (this is of course, still important!). Here are the most important points when practicing visualization:
- Visualize in a Relaxing Environment, and Relaxing Position
- Let go of your stresses and frustrations, this is time to relax and reflect
- Focus on All Senses: Sight, Touch, Taste, Smell, Sound
- The more senses you incorporate, the more real it becomes to your mind (IE- easier to replicate)
- Get Specific
- Along with using all of your senses, focus on as many small details as possible. (expressions on fans faces, the feel of the grass under your feet, the look in your eyes when you are ready to compete…
- Visualize your Flow State
- This is what it is all about! Visualize yourself playing in the Zone! How did you get there in your visualization, and how does it feel to be playing at the top of your game… Embrace it! You are now a step closer to making this a reality when it is time to compete!
My Challenge
For those athletes that want to give this a try, spend 5 minutes either in the morning when you wake up, or before you go to bed, to go through this routine (If you find yourself falling asleep, don’t worry, this is a good thing and mean you have achieved a relaxed state!). Do this for two weeks and track your progress. Please Leave a comment here sharing your results if you are willing! I would love to hear your thoughts and feedback!
Thank you for reading!
Sincerely,
Tyrell Mara
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November 26, 2010
