Visualization

What is Visualization?

The most important mental skills runners/athletes can use include goal setting, positive self-talk, positive mental attitude, staying in the present, and visualization or imagery.

How valuable is imagery to an athlete? Almost all Olympians use the technique, including Lance Armstrong, Tiger Woods, tennis players, generally all athletes to whom performance in critical.

How does it work? There has been an abundance of studies proving its effectiveness. European studies of free throw shooting serve as the best examples of its validity. Several groups are formed: 100% Practice/0 % Imagery; 75% practice/25% Imagery; 50/50; 25/75. The group that performs the best always is the 25% Practice/75% Imagery. Given all the hype about practicing one would think that more practice would be better; these results prove the power of imagery in sports performance.

I mentioned this on Saturday, that visualization allows you to “act like you’ve been there before.” It allows you a greater sense of confidence since you’ve already done it. The subconscious mind is unable to discriminate the real from the imagined. On the science of muscle side, when you use imagery you are actually performing micro-muscle movements that mimic the action you are imaging. So in a small way you are actually practicing.

There is one significant prerequisite for imagery/visualization to be most effective. You must be relaxed; i.e., you have to be physiologically relaxed, achieved through yoga, progressive muscle relaxation, deep breathing or some other method.

There are two kinds of visualization. Associated imagery is your experiencing something first hand through your own eyes. Dissociated imagery is as if you were watching yourself performing something. In the first case you are experiencing your run through your eyes as if you were actually running; in the second, you are watching yourself run. The latter is not nearly as effective for positive behaviors.

Since most of the examples of using imagery involve athletes who perform a specific skill, like hitting a tennis ball, a golf ball, a baseball, shooting a basketball, or competing against other athletes say in a diving competition, etc., what about running which is basically putting one foot in front of the other?

There are a myriad of possibilities for running imagery. You can see yourself having good running form, persevering, running relaxed, having a kick, having mental toughness, being in the “zone,” persisting through bad weather.

Next time I will speak more about the specifics of imagery training. I will post some scripts for doing so on my BLOG.