By Jim Freeman
"I used to be so delusional. I always imagined I could be more than I was, and eventually I grew and evolved into that person. I used to walk down the street like I was a ******* star...I want people to walk around delusional about how great they can be - and then fight so hard for it every day that the lie becomes the truth." - Lady Gaga
"Create a vision of who you want to be, and then live into that picture as if it were already true." - Arnold Schwarzenegger
"Even though you may not feel or look the part now, you must envision yourself in your ideal state, activating your personal power and living in alignment with your stand and purpose. I learned in the SEALs that there's no such thing as perfection, only perfect effort. Through practicing a 'perfect' version of ourselves mentally, we'll slowly become that person in real life." Mark Divine, The Way of the SEAL
"We have to visualize a successful victory before we even start a very difficult challenge. Stay hard!" - David Goggins
"I do not rush into actual work. When I get a new idea, I start at once building it up in my imagination, and make improvements and operate the device in my mind. When I have gone so far as to embody everything in my invention, every possible improvement I can think of, and when I see no fault anywhere, I put into concrete form the final product of my brain." - Nikola Tesla, My Inventions
"It sounds pretty funny, but over the years and definitely over the last four years, I've taken that visualization part to another level. I've basically visualized so many things on the field, making these big plays, scoring goals." - Carli Lloyd
"A lot of what we do is visualization. So to be able to go a year in advance, to the spot where we plan on winning a gold medal, and to take in the sight, the sounds, the stress, the excitement, that's going to serve us really well moving forward." - Kerry Walsh Jennings
"When you wake up in the morning, tell yourself: The people I deal with today will be meddling, ungrateful, arrogant, dishonest, jealous and surly." - Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
Noted Scottish author, poet and theologian, George MacDonald said "Seeing is not believing. It is only seeing." Tom Hanks is quoted as saying "Believing is seeing and seeing is believing." For the purposes of titling this article we will stick to the well-worn phrase used above. Whenever I suggest using some kind of visualization to players that I coach I'm often met with a certain amount of skepticism. One way I combat that is by providing plenty of examples of well-known people talking about how much the tactic has helped them reach their goals and improve their performance. Hence the rash of quotes at the beginning of this article just in case some readers may be a bit skeptical as well. The quotes by highly successful people across a variety of disciplines at the top of this essay describe the regular use of different imagery motivations and techniques. Some use a form of visualization that centers around long-term goal-setting and some use mental imaging that is for a more specific activity or competition.
Stoic philosophers like Marcus Aurelius, Seneca and Epictetus promoted the notion of Negative Visualization ('premeditatio malorum' or premeditation of evils). The idea behind that approach is to encourage people to be prepared for struggles to come and plan ahead on how that adversity will be confronted (including some of the people you will deal with that day). David Goggins expounds on that sentiment in his book Can't Hurt Me, "But visualization isn't simply about daydreaming of some trophy ceremony - real or metaphorical. You must also visualize the challenges that are likely to arise and determine how you will attack those problems when they do. That way you can be as prepared as possible on the journey." Being as prepared as possible is the goal of any successful athlete, surgeon, soldier or performer. Visualization is an enormously important part of pre-event training regardless of the activity.
Commonly used mental imaging techniques center around career or health goals and more specific performance objectives. We will explore mental imaging by giving examples of specific performance ambitions in this essay but the strategies are equally applicable for career or health aims as well. During the 1976 Olympics, Soviet weightlifters performed so capably that the rest of the competing countries were quite eager for them to reveal the secret of such overwhelming success. That secret, they acknowledged, was visualization. Aristotle used the word 'phantasia' and Cicero coined the term 'mentis oculi' (mind's eye) to describe the idea of forming a mental picture of events real or imagined. That is exactly what the Soviets were referring to. They went to the event site in Montreal well before the contest was held. They visualized being at the Olympics in front of a live audience and hearing the crowd. They imagined approaching the bar loaded with a specific weight and they saw themselves chalking up, gripping the bar and lifting the weight. Every detail was visualized and the strategy helped produce seven gold medals and one silver in 9 weight classes.
Carli Lloyd has often discussed her use of meditation and visualization before each game in order to see herself in numerous situations that could occur in the match. After scoring three goals in the 2015 FIFA World Cup final she commented that she had visualized herself scoring four goals in that contest months prior, "...if your mental state isn't good enough, you can't bring yourself to bigger and better things...I've just constantly been visualizing, constantly growing confidence with each and every game and I was on a mission." Lloyd scored a hat trick in the first 30 minutes of play and was so in the zone that she felt as though she had "blacked out" during that period of time.
In his book, The Art of Learning, Josh Waitzkin recounts how he used imaging techniques to aid in overcoming a broken hand that occurred seven weeks before the 2001 Tai Chi Push Hands National Championships, "I had an idea that I might be able to keep my right side strong by intense visualization practice...I did a daily resistance workout routine on my left side, and after every set I visualized the workout passing to the muscles on the right. My arm was in a cast, so there was no movement possible - but I could feel the energy flowing into the unused muscles...My whole body felt strong, and when the doctor finally took off my cast he was stunned. Four days before the Nationals an X-ray showed that my bone was fully healed, and I had hardly atrophied at all. The doctor cleared me to compete." The will to recover or sustain physical capability in an area of the body that has been damaged or unable to train speaks to the potential of mental imaging and the discipline it takes to be successful on a large scale.
Dr. Larry Widman suffered damage to a facial nerve after contracting the shingles virus in 2014. He was forced to deal with facial paralysis, vertigo and tremendous pain. His doctors told him that he had about a 50 percent chance of regaining use of that nerve. In his book, Max Out Mindset he explains what he did to attack the situation, "I took my anatomy books out, visualized the regrowth of the facial nerve, and practiced five minutes every day." Dr. Widman combined visualization with goal-setting and meditation to successfully address his condition in a manner similar to what Mr. Waitzkin did with his broken hand. Aside from the imaging techniques that both men used, they each exhibited a mindset that was optimistic and relentless. Visualization apart from those two qualities will prove to be considerably less effective.
In Steven Pressfield's book, The Lion's Gate: On the Front Lines of the Six Day War, an Israeli reconnaissance pilot describes his pre-flight activities during the 1967 conflict, "Preparing for these missions, I would hole myself up in the operations bunker and go over every detail of the coming flight. This is not like studying for exams. You are running the mission like a movie through your mind, anticipating every possible emergency, then planning and mentally rehearsing your response." Including this detailed and cinematic approach to pre-flight training allowed the pilots to successfully confront danger, emergencies and potentially lethal events that could typically be unforseen and possibly fatal.
A number of examples of mental imaging in an assortment of pursuits have been presented above. All involve "seeing", "hearing" and "feeling" the circumstances of the proceedings prior to actually performing in that event. Jack Nicklaus once said the he never took a swing of any kind without first seeing it in his mind. He would do so during every practice and every tournament. Pre-event visualization is best done in a state of relaxation. After meditating for 10-15 minutes, take another five minutes to practice some mental imaging. It can be done in the morning and again at night before bedtime. Begin by sitting comfortably in a chair or on the floor and closing your eyes. See yourself playing or practicing your activity as intensely and clearly as possible. Imagine being surrounded by your teammates and fans, even smelling the popcorn being sold at the concession stand. Repeatedly see yourself taking swings, passing the ball, or receiving serve. Image the score and the context. Feel the pressure of the contest and imagine yourself effectively managing it. See yourself bouncing back immediately from an error. Envision yourself making a variety of shots, scoring goals and sinking putts. This mental practice takes advantage of the brain's ability to create new neural pathways. We can literally rewire our brains to produce more productive and efficient neural patterns. Another method is to see all of the above through the eyes of the participant as opposed to those of an outside observer (looking at yourself). Becoming immersed as deeply as possible in the imagining of your future performance will inevitably yield greater results. Unfailingly, one will get distracted while visualizing. When that happens, calmly and non-judgmentally return to your mental practice session. Don't allow the mental imaging process to turn into a negative by castigating yourself for getting distracted.
If you struggle developing a mindset of optimism, aggression or relentlessness, you can use mental imagery to improve in those areas as well. Visualization isn't limited to physical acts. It can also be used to improve mental states. See yourself being aggressive and imposing your will on situations and circumstances using some of the methods explained above.
Dr. Jim Loehr states that the brain "is unable to differentiate between something vividly imagined from actual reality." (The New Toughness Training for Sports) In that book he also recommends the use of "mirrors, photographs and videos to strengthen and improve the accuracy of the mental pictures you have of yourself performing." Many years ago I used to show a video to my high school baseball team of Rod Carew hitting a baseball over and over. It was set to some soothing New Age music and showed the hall of fame hitter taking swing after swing at different kinds of pitches from each side of the plate. We would sit in the darkened library and watch...well, some watched and some fell asleep. The point was to implant the images of Mr. Carew's swing in the minds of our players right before we would go practice in order to slowly change their motor patterns and improve performance.
All of this has some applications for coaching and instruction as well. Using visuals of any kind is generally considerably more effective than using verbal instruction when it comes to teaching players how to improve a physical skill. W. Timothy Gallwey explores this matter thoroughly in his excellect "Inner Game" books (Tennis, Golf, Skiing and Work). He advises the learner to visualize the task and observe skilled participants engaged in that same task instead of relying on a coach to provide verbal cues such as "lift your elbow" or "bend your knees". He gives the example of a child learning to walk. They do so naturally without their parents standing over them providing verbal instruction. Children learn naturally by observing other people walking and then they begin to do so themselves. The reliance on verbal instruction often gets in the way of the natural learning process and is sometimes accompanied by feelings of being judged by the coach or instructor. Removing judgement from the quality of the effort is one key to unblocking the learning process and allowing for natural learning to take place. Players tend to pass judgement on themselves while practicing or playing and don't need further judgement added to the mix. Instead the athlete should view an error as a fact-finding mission, learn from it and move on to the next play or repetition. Coaches should see themselves as guides in the learning process rather than assuming a sort of dictatorial presence in the sporting lives of their players. I realize that many coaches like to comment and provide a significant amount of verbal feedback when working with their athletes. I would encourage those coaches to try to add some visual instruction to their toolbag.
Visualization is one of many devices that can be used to train the mind and improve performance and it only takes a few minutes a day to get results. It is a form of preparation routinely applied across a wide range of fields from surgery to public speaking to special operations to golf. A bit of patience and discipline is all that is required. Human performance expert, Dr. Frank Niles comments "it's massively effective, as long as you practice it."
