Carolina Fitness Magazine - The Christmas Abbott Issue Fall 2015 | Page 19

VISUALIZATION
he ard a stor y onc e of an
American POW that passed
the time in captivity by playing 36
holes of golf in his head. He did this
everyday until his release. He finally
went to play golf in real life and shot
two over par.
Sealfit owner Mark Devine tells a
story of a swimming coach in college
that made him visualize his entire
event from start to finish with a stopwatch. Devine said it took months to
develop to the point that he could
make the entire 800m without losing
focus. Seeing each stroke and taking each breathe. He recorded each
split, and they roughly matched his
real world numbers By the end of his
swimming career he could visualize
a 3 second PR. And in his final meet
he swam that time.
Visualization can be a tremendous
performance aid when used with
focus. Visualization coupled with
small muscular activation forges
neural pathways that will function
for that movement pattern in the future as though you have spent hours
at practice. In addition to seeing
the movement in your mind try to
contract the muscles involved in the
visual. In many ways perfect mental
practice can be more effective than
sloppy physical practice. Targeted
visualization can fix technical issues
without adding to the wear on the
body.

of relaxation and visualization to
improve performance. The basketball players mentally rehearsed free
throws while the tennis players rehearsed serves. The study found that
the combination of relaxation and
mental rehearsal did achieve significant improvements in the basketball
players but the methods and data
were not able to be verified. The testing on tennis players was an attempt
to justify the results. The experiment
with tennis players was conducted
across several skill levels and while
there were instances of increased
performance it appeared to only be
in more proficient players. However,
a different study cited in the article
suggests that it is not the proficiency
of the player but the experience with
visualizing that made the difference
It may help to find images which pro- in effectiveness of mental rehearsal.
vide detailed clear images of a more
technically advanced athlete per- So it’s not just anecdotal evidence.
forming and compare that to video There are real studies, albeit oldor stills of yourself. If you can’t form er ones, that show the effectiveness
a clear enough picture in your head of incorporating visualization into
look at a photo, then close your eyes your training protocol. With some
and try to recreate that image in your practice it could improve your game
mind. Once you can run through the or lifts and save you real world wear
pictures mentally, without referenc- and tear. So take a few minutes
ing the real world photo take it a step each day to rehearse mentally and
see what a difference it can make
beyond. Add the movement.
for you.
In a 1980 paper published in the Journal of Sports Psychology, by Richard
C Noel, we see the results of a study
conducted on athletes in basketball
and tennis that used a combination

Try taking a commercial break to
picture, in the third person, a full
run through a throw or a squat. See
each body position and the transition from marker to marker. Picture
each marker position in sequence
mentally fixing as you go, making
the body in your mind perfect. Lower the hips here, upright torso there,
etc. Each one a still image. Then
move through them in your mind,
adding the transitions from position
to position until you can visualize an
entire rep at a slow speed. Then build
to real life speed. See if you don’t
find yourself improving in technical
performance in real life.

VISUALIZATION EX

Carolina Fitness Magazine 17