How to Use Visualization as an Athlete

Why Visualization Works: Your Brain

Your brain is remarkably flexible, constantly growing, changing, and expanding. Every time you experience something, your brain strengthens and weakens the neural pathways associated with that experience.

 

Interestingly, these experiences do not have to be real to affect your neural pathways. Imaginary and real experiences result in a similar reaction in your brain. For example, imagining a threat elicits nearly the same response in your brain as actually experiencing that threat. Thinking about lifting your left hand is similar to actually lifting it in terms of your brain’s response.

 

Therefore, your brain cannot distinguish whether you physically experience something or imagine it. This involves conscious visualization, not random images, feelings, and thoughts. Visualization is the deliberate stimulation of the brain areas you use during sports.

 

In other words, when you visualize an action, activity, situation, or experience, the same brain areas are stimulated as if they were actually happening. If you practice an idea repeatedly, your brain responds as though it is a real situation.

 

As previously mentioned, research also shows that mental exercises are almost as effective as physical exercises. For instance, a comparison between people who went to the gym and those who did virtual workouts (training in their minds) found that gym-goers increased their muscle strength by 30 percent, while virtual trainers increased their muscle strength by 13.5 percent. Simply thinking about exercising made these individuals stronger.

 

Summary: Your brain cannot distinguish between imagination and reality. Therefore, you can mentally train and prepare your brain for real situations.

 

 

 

Visualization for Success

Oprah Winfrey said:

“Anything you can imagine, you can create.”

Just as imagining a threat triggers a response in your brain, visualizing success does the same. When you visualize landing a difficult jump on the beam or rowing faster than your personal record, it activates the same areas in your brain as if you were physically experiencing the scenario.

 

Visualizing this way promotes the formation and strengthening of the neural pathways associated with this success.

 

A well-known example of someone who used visualization to become successful is Jim Carrey. Every night, he wrote himself a check for over 10 million dollars at a time when he was not yet famous. Three years later, he received exactly this amount for his lead role in *Dumb and Dumber*.

 

Summary: Visualizing success promotes the formation and strengthening of the neural pathways related to that success.

 

 

 

Visualization Against Stress

Visualization can help lower your stress levels. In a study, surgeons, nursing students, and police officers noted that visualization helped them better handle problems and reduced their sleep and stomach issues. By mentally “practicing” difficult situations, they could better cope with these scenarios and the accompanying stress.

 

Summary: Research shows that various professionals can better handle stress in difficult situations through visualization.

 

 

Visualization for Physical Strength

Besides visualizing success and reducing stress, you can become physically stronger with the help of visualization. Studies show that visualization helps build muscle strength. Additionally, visualization can improve your motivation, pain management, and endurance in sports.

 

Summary: Visualization contributes to your physical strength, motivation, pain management, and endurance.

 

 

 

Visualization Step-by-Step Guide

The key to effective visualization is to engage all your senses and be as specific as possible. The more you imagine the complete picture, the better the result will be.

 

For example, feel the grass under your cleats, hear the crowd before you step onto the field, feel the sweat on your forehead, feel the basketball on your fingertips, see the direction of the waves, feel the landing in the long jump pit, smell the horse you are riding, and feel the headwind on your bike. This way, you trick your brain and will unconsciously start to exhibit behavior that makes this situation a reality.

 

 

 

Successful Sports Visualization in 3 Steps

Step 1: Choose a Method

Choose a visualization method that works best for you, such as:

– With closed eyes and intense focus

– Writing

– Guided meditation

– Vision board

 

 

Step 2: Visualize the Desired Outcome

Choose your goal. For example, staying relaxed around a competition, not letting the score affect your game, breaking free from audience pressure, or looking ahead and enjoying the process more.

See the entire event as you want it to unfold. Use all your senses from a first-person perspective. Visualize the complete picture:

– The situation

– The time

– The place

– The people you are with

– The environment

– What you feel

– What you wear

– What you smell

– What you see

– What you hear

– What you taste

– The excitement you feel at the success

You can make physical movements that coincide with the visualized images, like bobsledders do. This further strengthens the connection between your mind and your goal.

 

 

Step 3: Practice Regularly

Visualize daily, for example, after your meditation sessions.

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Note: It is essential to maintain a positive mindset when visualizing. Visualize positive results and the feelings those results evoke. If your mental images turn negative, start over (unless you are intentionally visualizing possible problems and how to solve them).

 

Summary: Engage all your senses in your visualization and be as specific as possible. Incorporate visualization into your daily routine.

 

 

2 Common Misconceptions + 1 Pitfall

While visualization can be a powerful technique to achieve your athletic goals, it is sometimes misunderstood or misapplied.

 

 

Two Common Misconceptions:

1. Visualization is the same as daydreaming:

  – Visualization is a focused exercise with a clear goal in mind. Daydreaming is a spontaneous and unfocused mental activity.

 

2. Visualization guarantees success:

  – Visualization can enhance your performance, but it is a supplement to (and not a replacement for) your training and athletic lifestyle.

 

 

Visualization Pitfall

The main pitfall of visualization is becoming attached to the outcome. This can lead to increased pressure.

 

Heather McPhie commented:

“You can forget the passion, the reason you started. Some of my best results came when I was insanely sick or when there was a really weird variable that forced me to simplify.”

 

To make visualization effective, feel the outcome and the success, but detach from it. Meditation can help achieve this, as practiced by the Chicago Bulls and several Norwegian football teams. This clears the mind.

 

Summary: Visualization is a focused mental exercise, unlike daydreaming, and it complements your training regimen. It is important to feel the outcome but also to detach from it. Meditation can assist in this process.

Summary

Thoughts have a tremendous impact on your (sports) performance and achieving your goals. Visualization is a powerful tool to realize your ambitions. The experiences of top athletes and scientific research support the power of visualization.

 

The effect of visualization stems from the fact that your brain cannot distinguish between what you imagine and what you actually experience.

 

When visualizing, it is important to see the complete picture in detail and engage all your senses.

 

Want to apply visualization techniques to achieve your sports goals?

Schedule a free consultation to discuss how to best integrate visualization into your current training regimen.

 

 

Sources

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