Sports Psychology, Visualisation and Preparing to Win
Visualisation, also known as mental rehearsal or imagery, is perhaps one of the most recognised forms of mental skill training. It’s widely used by top class athletes across a broad spectrum of sports and those who reach the top of their game often attribute their medal success to their ‘psychological edge’ over fellow competitors on the day.
“The man who has no imagination has no wings” – Muhammad Ali
In Vancouver, brand new, purpose-built bobsled, luge, and skeleton venues have been constructed specially for the 2010 winter Olympics. This effectively makes the courses uncharted territory so even the competitors with past winter Olympic experience will have no past experience of the venues to draw on. At top level, the difference between winning a gold medal or a wooden spoon can be a tiny fraction of a second – the same time difference that competitors might expect between a known course and an unknown course.
With medals at stake, athletes realise that they need to make the most of every opportunity to get to know every bump and bend on the new courses. Mental skill training will allow athletes to gain maximum benefit from every second spent on training runs. Capturing the sights, sounds, smells, and ‘feel’ of every run provides the opportunity to then continue training through the use of visualisation.
Research has proven that the thinking process used in mental rehearsal actually stimulates the brain to send electrical impulses to the muscles involved in the movements – without recruiting them to actually move. This means that a precise sequence of moves can be committed to muscle memory without repeatedly physically performing them.
Anyone who ever saw the Disney version of the first Jamaican bobsled team story, Cool Runnings, will remember the comical scenes of inexperienced team members getting to grips with the physical practicalities of the sport utilising everything from bathtubs to go-karts. As fitness and physical skill improved, the focus turned to mental skill.
The team were depending on their driver’s ability to commit every centimetre of the course to memory. He knew every lump, bump and bend; he knew the exact speed they needed to negotiate every stage; and, most importantly, he knew how it needed to ‘feel’ to get it right. It made great Disney entertainment to view him sitting in the bath pretending to be going down the course but in fact, we were watching skilled visualisation in practice.
Any athlete who is truly prepared: physically prepared and mentally prepared for competition is prepared for any eventuality – not just what they have previously experienced. Mental skill training provides the tools to cope with ‘the unexpected’ and to remain focussed on what can be controlled rather than what can’t. In the true spirit of Olympic games, athletes from the 92 competing nations are pooling information and sharing their experiences of the new courses. The difference between winning gold or the wooden spoon in Vancouver may well come down to who has the best mental skill – who has what it takes to truly visualise their success.
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To learn more about using visulization in sport to achieve winning results check out the *NEW* updated Coaching Edge Mental Skills for sport course coming soon! To register interest e-mail support@zonedinperformance.com
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