Guideline : Replay Until You Get It Right

Each time you use visualization, focus on what it takes for success as well as seeing the successful outcome. Perfection is not necessary for success. In 2006, the St. Louis Cardinals were World Series champions, but they were by no means perfect. Related to this point, the great golfer Ben Hogan wrote, “I stopped trying to do a great many difficult things perfectly because it had become clear in my mind that this ambitious over-thoroughness was neither possible nor advisable, or even necessary.”3 If you have difficulty visualizing success at a given skill, pretend your mind is a DVD player: press Stop if an error occurs, rewind back to the beginning, and then press Replay. The mind can transcend physical limitations. Even if the body suffers setbacks in completing a skill successfully, the mind has the control to do so. Continue working on the skill mentally until success is achieved, and the body will follow suit. Give Credit Where Credit Is Due Upon finishing each successful visualization, take a brief time-out to congratulate yourself on a job well done. A mental pat on the back or a few kind words to yourself after visualizing success will help keep you on an even keel. This simple gesture will have a positive impact on your self-image development as well as motivation. You will feel better about yourself and be more psyched to experience the successful attempt again. Giving credit where due is both important and difficult. A lot of successful athletes are perfectionists in the sense that when they do well, they write it off as a personal expectation, and when they do poorly, they chastise themselves for their failures. Sports participation can be a humbling experience. If athletes do not learn to recognize when they have done something well, discouragement is Finally, watch the mental clip at the desired speed. While it is helpful sometimes to slow the mental video down to figure out some of the more complex skills, you should always visualize at the desired speed prior to the physical performance, or else the timing of the action may be off. If your goal is in fact to increase the speed at which you are currently performing, see the increased speed in the mental video to raise the likelihood that it will happen. When athletes think about pressure situations (competitions), they tend to visualize faster than the desired speed. As noted previously, it is common for stress to cause the heart rate to elevate and to accelerate the pace at which people perform. A mental video of a performance skill done at an elevated pace will tempt the player to physically rush the athletic performance, whereas visualizing at “game speed” will have a meaningful impact on improving performance. Visualization Practice 1. Ready for some practice? Take a minute or so to picture yourself performing your chosen sport in a gamelike situation. See yourself performing well at game speed. Pay particular attention to feeling the way you want to feel in competition. See yourself warming up well and then performing well, and see the competition ending with the results you want. For instance, a defenseman on a professional hockey team might envision feeling strong during the morning skate, followed by playing a solid, physical game that night that results with his team winning. Note that it is important to see yourself as a winner. Experience what it takes to be successful and how it feels to perform at your best.