The Power of Imagery
Written by Lalo Torres
Competing in the sport of gymnastics and coaching my athletes now, the use of imagery (visualization) plays a big role in what I do – every day in training and before every routine in competition or even before a single Olympic lift. This is one of the most widely used mental skills and also one of the most fun! However, just knowing that most gymnasts or CrossFitters use imagery does not help you get better. Here’s how to do it for yourself!
What is Imagery?
Imagery is creating or recreating an experience in your mind & the end goal. It is similar to daydreaming or having a nightmare, but your imagery is more controllable than either of those. If you have ever thought about and pictured a routine that you completed, meeting, a skill, or even just a talk at the whiteboard (explaining the workout) when you huddle in all your athletes – you were probably beginning to use imagery.
However, what happens if you keep imagining all the possible things that can go wrong in your mind? What sort of end would you have?
Guiding Your Imagery for Positivity & Control
To attain whatever lofty goals you have set up for yourself, you need to practice positive imagery. Always consider how much control you have over your imagery. You want to be able to control everything that you do. If you find that you just see images, but you can’t change how you are performing, your imagery will be as effective. Overall, the more control you have over the images in your mind, the more you can use imagery to your advantage. Keep practicing, you’ll get better at this!
Tips for Practicing Imagery
- Use both internal and external perspective
- Experience all of your senses very clearly (what does that look, feel, smell, taste like?)
- Control all of your images when performing a skill
Once you are able to complete these three things, you can begin using imagery to help you improve more complex skills or imagine yourself doing multiple skills back to back. You can even use it outside of the gym to prepare for an interview, speech, first date…anything!
As with learning anything, break this down into pieces. Pick one of the tips to really focus on and practice each time until you see improvement then add in another piece. You should see gains pretty quickly because of the focused practice but also, just the awareness alone helps and you’ll be testing out different skills to see how you can ultimately gain complete control of your imagery.
Give it a try by setting aside 5 minutes a day to practice for starters and let us know if you have any questions or your own tips!
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