Youth Training- “What a Champion Looks Like” Series (Part 2 of 8)
The Mindset of a Champion: Visualization
One of the standard sports psychology methods to becoming a champion is: honing your visualization of the outcome you want. All professional athletes have great skills. And work hard for those skills. But what separates the great ones from the others is their mental perspective.
Here are just a few quotes from great athletes:
Wayne Rooney (striker for Manchester United) once revealed “I lie in bed the night before the game and visualize myself scoring goals or doing well. You’re trying to put yourself in that moment and trying to prepare yourself, to have a ‘memory’ before the game. I don’t know if you’d call it visualizing or dreaming, but I’ve always done it, my whole life.”
Michael Jordan (Basketball) said “Every time I feel tired while exercising and training, I close my eyes to see that picture, to see that list with my name. This usually motivates me to work again.”
Michael Jordan had a reputation for putting in the work. It was not uncommon for him to be the first one at the gym and the last one leaving. But, as he quotes, what motivated him when his physical body was tired, was the picture of his name APPEARING on the varsity team in high school. (The first time he tried out, he didn’t make the varsity team. And he used that image as motivation for his work ethic.)
Maybe you’re in the same boat. Maybe you didn’t get the position you wanted. Or even make the team you wanted to make.
Maybe you don’t have the goals or assists you were hoping for.
Seeing yourself successful in that position or on that team, imagining what it will look like, will make a difference in how your reality unfolds.
It doesn’t replace hard work, but it definitely aids and elevates the consistent effort you give toward your sport.
In, 1989, Lori Ansbach Eckert, wrote a master’s thesis titled: The Effects of Mental Imagery on Free Throw Performance. In her thesis, she studied the effect of four groups on how their free throw completions improved. They included: 1-visualization alone, 2- practice alone, 3- visualization and practice, and 4- a control group of students who didn’t practice nor visualize. Each group shot 20 free throws at the beginning and the end of the study. Groups 1 and 2 performed better than the control group, but Group 3, the group that included imagery and practice, performed the best. (2)
This study was one in a waterfall of studies that begin to quantify the effect of a mindset to a real, athletic outcome.
So, how can you use your mind to improve your performance?
To use visualization (or imagery) you have two avenues: internal imagery and external imagery.
Internal imagery is you seeing your outcome in your mind as in the first person perspective. (This is you seeing yourself make the goal.)
External imagery is watching a video or seeing a photo of you completing your outcome. (Watching a video from a third person perspective of you making the goal)
So… if it hasn’t crossed your mind to stop and think through your shot or your break-away or that victory over your competitor, then STOP.
Stop right now and close your eyes. See the scene. The context, and imagine what it looks like.
What does it feel like? How does the crowd respond? Your teammates? Your adversary?
Let these images and series of thoughts become a familiar habit when you are preparing for your next game.
Secondly, ask a friend or family member to video you practicing a successful shot. Or in a real game, taking that shot and scoring. Then edit the videos together and watch them every night.
Champions who use visualization do it DAILY. So, make it a daily goal to see what you want happen: in your mind and on your screen. (By the way, Lebron James was recommended to watch an 8-12 min video to help improve his 3- point shooting- it doesn’t have to be really long.)
Develop the habit of using visualization before your event and you’ll be mentally ready for your next opportunity.
Sun Tsu is quoted as saying, “Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and seek to win.”
The win for the victor starts in your mind.
Keep moving,
Coach Priscilla
1– https://goodmenproject.com/featured-content/the-power-of-visualisation-in-sports-and-in-life-s1s/
2-https://digitalcommons.brockport.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1002&context=pes_theses
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