Sport Psychology Review: Visualization

This is part five of my Sport Psychology Series. I’ve been doing about one post per month and am always open to ideas that you might want to see!

*******************************

Please check out the previous posts:

Part I: Flow

Part II: Self-Talk

Part III: Emotion & Performance

Part IV: Joy

*******************************

Ever heard the saying seeing is believing? How about in the context of athletics?

Well I am a huge believer in the power of seeing yourself do something to make you believe it’s possible.

So I want to talk about visualization, which can also be called imagery, or mental rehearsal. Visualization/Imagery is basically recreating an experience in your mind using your senses.

Athletes might spend time a lot of time mentally replaying their worst performances over and over, trying to figure out what went wrong. While it is helpful to recognize and learn from one’s mistakes, ruminating over the bad races is not going to be productive for runners. I think we need to spend more time recreating out best experiences.

Have you ever told the story of your best race to someone, out loud? Did some of the feelings you had during that race come back? Did you get excited? That’s a small example of the power of visualization.

In my grad-level sport psych class, one of our assignments was to create an imagery script for our sport (most people in the class were athletes). Obviously I created mine about running. The script was supposed to be a story that we could read to ourselves before we competed or practiced that would help us to perform better. The goal was to use pieces of our best performances or practices (for me, races or runs) to create a mental script that would help set us up to feel the way we want to feel when we perform.

It is crucial to include emotion in imagery scripts. Otherwise, the individual will fall back into their usual emotional state when reading the script, and it won’t have the same effect. Knowing how you want to feel during the visualization is key, because that’s what will help the imagery have such a strong effect on performance. (And we already know how strongly emotion affects performance, right?)

The script should read like a story and be a combination of imagery and self-talk. In other words, it should be a combination of images and phrases that work for the individual. So for example, my imagery script contains images that I see during the Boston Marathon, my feet moving, the crowd, etc. as well as phrases that I want to be saying to myself throughout the race. Scripts are better if they are very focused and do not reinforce any thought that is not helpful to the person. The script can be read before competitions/races, or also daily before practice/training runs.

The script can be from an internal perspective (visualizing performing from one’s own vantage point), or an external perspective (visualizing oneself from an outsider’s perspective). Research has been inconclusive on which perspective is better, so I think it’s best to try both and see what works better.

When I completed this assignment, I included some phrases on overcoming obstacles such as, “When I feel pain, I will…” and “When I encounter negative thoughts I will…” but my professor said that by doing this, I was reinforcing and encouraging those negative processes. She suggested I remove them from the script. At first, I thought I needed to include those phrases because pain during a marathon is inevitable, so why not set myself up with how to deal with it? But after some thought, I agree with her. Ultimately, acknowledging the pain and the negative thoughts is validating them. My script needed to focus on how I DO want to feel and think, and not set myself up to expect negative thoughts and pain.

Want to create your own imagery script?

First decide what the script is for. Let’s say you’re doing it about running – you could write the script for a specific race, or a script that you can read before your everyday runs.

You might want to use your visualization/imagery script to help you to:

• refine skills or correct mistakes (i.e. maintaining proper running form)
• learn and practice performance strategies (i.e. starting out slow and gradually increasing speed)
• prepare mental focus for a race
• automate a certain performance routine (i.e. your pre-race warm up and stretching)
• build and enhance mental skills (like self-talk)
• enhance self-confidence (my script for Boston will definitely be geared toward putting me in a self-confident frame of mind)
• manage energy (i.e. have the optimal arousal level for you – not too calm, not too antsy)
• manage stress

Next, ask yourself when you feel your best. You need to recreate the races or runs where you ran well and felt awesome and everything just “clicked”. Start from the moment you woke up, and try to remember as many details about it as you can. Ideally this process would involve all the senses, and emotions and thoughts should be included as well. As you begin to write your story, you want to pull in as many elements from previous positive experiences as possible.

Focus on both the images themselves as well as the thoughts you will be thinking or saying. Figure out where to start and where to end your story. My script takes me from race morning until I cross the finish line, because I need to visualize the entire race in order to feel a little more relaxed and ensure myself that I will finish the way I want to finish.

There is no formal way to do this. In fact, the best way to do it is in a way that works for you and resonates with you. If a story is really well-written but doesn’t get your emotions going and doesn’t trigger those key images in your mind, it’s not going to be helpful.

Once you’ve written something, if you’re struggling to fill in the details or it’s not as vivid as you would like it to be, I suggest letting someone else read it and ask you questions. They might be able to ask questions that will help you fill in more gaps, and really make the story come to life.

*******************************

Of course you don’t need to create an imagery script to practice visualization, but I find the script making and reading to be a more effective method of visualizing than just saying “now I’m going to sit down and visualize myself crossing the finish line.” There’s nothing wrong with that, I have just personally found that a detailed script combining all of the elements discussed above is the best way to truly get the optimal images in your head and really make you believe it’s going to play out that way.

*******************************

Here are some other things I learned about visualization in my class…

Factors Influencing Visualization Effectiveness:

• The nature of the task or competition – a more controllable situation that’s easier to manipulate will make imagery more effective [I like to think of running as a relatively controllable situation, because we can adjust our pace and aren't relying on team member performance; obviously there are always some unknowns]
• Skills level of the athlete
• Imagery ability – vividness and engaging all the senses are key
• Combination with practice

Benefits of Visualization (research-driven – sorry I don’t have references!):

• Improves concentration
• Enhances motivation
• Builds confidence (because you see yourself doing what you want to do)
• Helps control emotional responses
• Helps in building or acquiring skills or strategy
• Prepares one for competition
• Helps one cope with pain and adversity
• Enhances problem-solving

What are your thoughts on visualization? Anyone willing to create a script?

Tagged as: Boston Marathon, Running, Running-Mental Aspects, Sport Psychology