Coaches Corner

Coaches Corner

Harriet Jones - National Talent Coach

Imagery and Visualization - May 2021

Imagery and visualization are important mental tools often used by athletes and can be extremely affective. The two terms are often used interchangeably despite their slightly different definitions:

• Visualization is more about having mental images or pictures.
• Imagery is considered a mental process that can involve all five senses (sight, sounds, smell, taste & touch).

Let us look more into Imagery. Athletes might utilize kinesthetic (touch) imagery by imagining the feeling of a particular movement. For example, a diver would create a guided mental imagery of a come out sequence (tuck to dish) and feel the motion rather than see a static mental image of it. The imagery might also include what they can see during a dive (sight) and what they can hear when entering the water (sounds). Imagery such as this is much more active and quite different than simply seeing a mental picture.

Different ways athletes can use mental imagery:

• Imagining diving at the peak of your game
• Mentally rehearsing a routine before a competition
• Using imagery to review skills when injured
• Imagining feeling confident
• Relaxation using mental scenes

Training and Performing

Technology and brain scanning equipment have helped us better understand why imagery can be such a powerful mental tool to add on to physical training. It seems that using mental imagery activates the parts of the brain associated with visual processing. This means if you imagine performing a dive, some of the same brain areas are activated as when you are actually performing the dive. In this way, our brain is responding as if we are performing when doing mental imagery. Knowing this means athletes who cannot get to the pool can at least be using mental imagery as part of training. In addition, athletes who are injured may continue to at least rehearse skills at a mental level.

Recommendations for Mental Imagery

1. Make a decision about the place to best practice mental imagery. Some people do it at home and away from practice. Some do it at the pool before or after the physical practice is done. All are effective.
2. It is best to try to get into a relaxed state before doing mental rehearsal. This helps to go more deeply into the mental rehearsal.
3. It might be best to close your eyes to enhance more concentration and relaxation. However, some athletes like to mentally rehearse at the site of competition with their eyes open, as if watching themselves perform.
4. Choose a focus. It can be a technique you want to successfully execute or it might be the whole competition. For example, you can imagine what it will feel like receiving a comment from your coach, walking over to the board, standing on the board, the approach on the dives - everything!
5. You can even time the visualization as if you are competing.

So if you have never tried imagery or visualization I hope you feel like you now have enough information about it to give it a try and add it into your training program.