Two things separate good athletes from great ones: physical skill and mental fortitude.
While there is a level of biological luck that goes into a person’s physicality, everyone still understands how to train their physical skills. You go to the gym, follow a regimen that you (or your trainer) set, and slowly improve over time. Everyone does it because, despite how you may feel after a particularly grueling workout, training your body is the easy part.
Training your mind is a different story. It’s deceptively harder than it seems. Compared to the physical training process that can be seen by others (and therefore provides some sort of perceived social pressure), mental training is a fully internal process. You can’t learn how to train your mind by watching a video and perfecting your form. Training your mind through a process like visualization is something that you have to learn to do on your own.
What Exactly Is Visualization?
Visualization is the process of imagining yourself completing a certain action, process, or behavior successfully. Now, that seems like a simple thing to do. Most of us think about things in the past daily, imagining what it would have been like to turn left instead of right or remembering a great moment in our past.
But visualization takes more focus than you might think. The process of visualization involves the use of all your senses and takes a similar level of concentration that strenuous workouts often do. In order for visualization to work properly, you need to set aside dedicated time to the process, similar to how you set aside time for the rest of your training regimen.
If you’re busy (which most dedicated athletes are), setting aside time to sit in a quiet place and visualize yourself doing something may seem like a waste of time. Wouldn’t that time be better spent doing the physical exercise? Not necessarily. Visualization provides you with a way to continue the practice without overworking your body to the point of risking an injury.
Now, there are more benefits to visualization than simply avoiding injury. Mental training can help you enhance your skills, decrease your anxiety over upcoming competitions, and motivate
you to do your best. Several studies show that athletes who dedicate their time to this stand apart from their counterparts, making it well worth the time spent.
The Science Behind It
Research shows that, in many cases, visualization works just as well as physically training the desired skill. When done correctly, the visualization process engages the same neural pathways that are engaged during your physical training. Proper training allows you to strengthen your mind and strengthen the motor skills used in physical activity without wearing your body down in the process.
Visualization mentally prepares you for the next time you attempt the skill you’ve focused on. With your neural pathways strengthened, you are more likely to succeed at that skill where you’d previously failed because you’ve already succeeded in your mind.
There’s also research showing that those who dedicate time to visualization on a regular basis are more likely to succeed at skills they’ve never tried before. Because those who visualize regularly spend their time focused on success, their brains are more prepared to succeed at new things when the opportunity arises.
But Does It Actually Work?
Research from a lab is one thing. Real life results are another. Many Olympic-level athletes use visualization as a way to continue their training off the field, including decorated gold medalist Michael Phelps. He says, “When I visualize, it would be what you want it to be, what you don’t want it to be, what it could be. You are always ready for whatever comes your way.”
Clearly, visualization worked for him, and it will work for you too.
Tips and Tricks for Mastering Visualization
Now that you know how visualization works and how it can benefit you, you’re probably ready to try it out yourself. But it’s a bit more complicated than just sitting down and closing your eyes. It requires you to focus and engage your senses in a way you most likely aren’t used to.
The process of visualization is a uniquely personal one, so no two processes will look the same, even between people on the same team. However, there are some common processes that
work well for most people. You can use these as a starting point when crafting your own visualization process.
Step-By-Step Guide
Establish Your Goal
Before you start visualizing your most recent practice, you need to establish what you want to get out of the visualization session. Are you focusing on performing a skill successfully for the first time, or are you looking to improve on a skill you’ve already done? Just like with physical
exercise, doing something just to do something isn’t going to help you in the long run. You need a goal to focus your energy on in order to find success.
As a note, while you need to set a goal, there is more to visualization than just your end goal. The process of reaching the intended goal is what visualization is. While it is important, don’t let it distract you from fully immersing yourself in the process.
Set the Scene
Find a comfortable place to sit before you begin. Whether that’s a couch in your home or your own bed, choose a place where you can focus without interruptions. Make sure you don’t get too comfortable and accidentally fall asleep, though. That would make it hard to actually visualize what you want to.
Choose a quieter place to allow yourself complete and total focus. If that’s not possible (or if you work better with a soundtrack), play some relaxing music to keep yourself calm and focused on the task at hand. Now, close your eyes and imagine the exercise you want to practice.
Use Your Senses
The key to making your visualization process real and successful is to tap into all five senses you would sense if you were actually out on the field or in the water. What does it smell like right before you dive into the pool? What do you feel on your skin when you’re running down the field? Next time you’re in practice, identify each of your senses and take note of them, so you can accurately recreate the situation when you’re visualizing.
Repeat the Process
Similarly to how you need to do a certain number of reps each training session and have a certain number of sessions per week to see the results you want, visualization is an exercise that needs to be worked into your regular routine. Set aside a certain amount of time regularly to visualize your success and work those neural pathways in the way they need to be.
Different Types of Visualization
- Motivational Visualization: This process focuses on the internal emotions that come when you’re competing. Determination, confidence, and resilience, among others, can solidify your motivation and mental fortitude before your next meet.
- Process Visualization: This process focuses on visualizing performing a specific task. This is probably the most common type of visualization among athletes because it has the most obvious influence on their day-to-day performance.
- Outcome Visualization: This process focuses on the outcome that you are aiming for, whether it be achieving a personal best or lifting a trophy with your team. Visualizing this often gets people closer to their goal by simply visualizing how it will feel when they finally achieve it.
- Situational Visualization: This focuses on overcoming obstacles that may come up during the competition. By visualizing the various things that could go wrong, you can plan how to deal with them before the competition, allowing you to easily adapt when you need to.
- Emotional Visualization: This aims to help you visualize the highs and lows that are certain to come with competing. This will allow you to handle the emotions as they develop and still perform rather than letting the fluctuating emotions weigh you down.
Potential Problems
Starting Small
If you’re having issues immersing yourself in your visualization, consider condensing the scale of the scene you’re visualizing. There’s a chance you’re trying to see more than you need to in order to find the success you’re looking for. Instead of visualizing the entire pool, with all its screaming voices, focus on only your lane. It’s the performance that truly matters in this process.
Start small and increase the scope of your visualization as you get used to doing so. While visualizing the full atmosphere you’ll be competing in is important, if you can’t do that on your
first or second try, don’t feel bad. Visualization is a skill that needs to be practiced just like everything else. No one expects you to be perfect on your first try.
Getting Help
If you’re struggling to immerse yourself fully in your visualization, there are a couple of ways that you can help yourself get there. Playing a video recording of a previous competition while visualizing yourself there can give you auditory and visual cues to remind you of what it’s like to be in that moment.
You could also get someone to guide you through the process. A sports psychologist or a well-trained coach can help talk you through it the first few times until you can manage it on your own. Even if you can manage it on your own, having someone to walk you through visualizing your success isn’t a bad idea. They can often offer insights and guidance that you may not have come up with on your own.
Belief is Half the Battle
An important thing to remember about visualization is that it works both ways. If you focus on succeeding at a certain skill, you’re more likely to succeed the next time you try it. On the flip side, if you focus on the last time you failed at said skill, there’s a good chance you will fail in the same way you did the first time.
Drowning in your failures is truly the quickest way to fail again, and the process of visualization is the best way to combat it. Focus on your previous successes to bolster your mentality as you head into your next competition. Imagine how it would feel to successfully execute a certain skill to help you do it.
Remember that your mental exercises are just as important as your physical ones, and training your brain will set you a step above the rest the next time you have practice. Even if you don’t have dreams of being an Olympic-level athlete, visualization is a great exercise to add to your routine. Taking the time to relax and envision success (in any aspect) is great for your future performance in the gym and for your own emotional well-being.
