Mental Imagery itself can be useful in a number of circumstances including:
1) Developing self confidence
2) Developing competition strategies which teach athletes to cope with new situations before they actually encounter them
3) Helping the athlete to focus his/her attention on a particular skill he/she is trying to learn or develop.
Mental Imagery can be used:
a) To see success. Many athletes "see" themselves achieving their goals on a regular basis, both performing skills at a high level and seeing the desired performance outcomes
b) To motivate. Before or during training sessions, calling up images of your goals for that session, or of a past or future competition or competitor can serve a motivational purpose. It can vividly remind you of your objective, which can result in increased intensity in training.
c) To perfect skills. Mental imagery is often used to facilitate the learning and refinement of skills or skill sequences. The best athletes "see" and "feel" themselves performing perfect skills, programs, routines, or plays on a very regular basis.
d) To familiarise. Mental imagery can be effectively used to familiarize yourself with all kinds of things, such as a competition site, a race course, a complex play pattern or routine, a pre-competition plan, an event focus plan, a media interview plan, a refocusing plan, or the strategy you plan to follow
e) To set the stage for performance. Mental imagery is often an integral part of the pre-competition plan, which helps set the mental stage for a good performance. Athletes do a complete mental run through of the key elements of their performance. This helps draw out their desired pre-competition feelings and focus.
f) To refocus. Mental imagery can be useful in helping you to re focus when the need arises. For example, if a warm-up is feeling sluggish, imagery of a previous best performance or previous best event focus can help get things back on track. You can also use imagery as a means of refocusing within the event, by imagining what you should focus on and feeling that focus.
When should mental imagery be used to improve mental skills in sport?
To become highly proficient at the constructive use of imagery, you have to use it ever day, on your way to training, during training, after training, and in the evenings before sleeping. If you want to perfect and use mental imagery to your fullest advantage, you can start by doing two things.
In every training session, before you execute any skill or combination of skills, first do it in imagery as perfectly and precisely as possible.
See, feel, and experience yourself moving through the actions in your mind, as you would like them actually to unfold.
In competitions, before the event starts, mentally recall the event focus plan, significant plays, skills, movements, reactions, or feelings that you want to carry into the event.
Positive mental actions and feelings lead to more positive results.
Author Resource:
To read more on the subject of Mental Skills or Imagery in Sports or to check out the videos on the blog visit Mental Skills in Sport
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