Imagery in Sport

Imagery is one of the most widely used psychological sport techniques and is used by many elite performers. It includes one or more senses to imitate, form or recreate a skill, situation or experience in the mind of an athlete. The athlete can use this technique at any time (pre, during and after competition) or any place.

The individual athletes will employ this technique in different ways depending on their preferences, ability to form the images and controllability, their ability to make visual representations and kinaesthetic feelings and their capability to use their emotional experiences.

This technique can improve the athlete’s performance by directly developing their skills and strategies or by improving their motivation, arousal regulation or levels of self-confidence. Athletes know they can improve in so many ways and from being able to see and feel themselves perform hundreds of times without actually playing in their sport is one way, simply just by replicating how they would like to compete from their mind’s eye.

There are multiple benefits for athletes using imagery. Firstly, it can improve psychological states (like the aforementioned motivation, arousal regulation or improving their self-confidence) and performance. It can provide additional training without having a physical impact (on the body or burnout).

The brain is more likely going to interpret it as the actual event if the images are more vivid which will increase the effectiveness of imagery. Furthermore, there will be greater activation of relevant motor programmes when perfectly visualising the execution of a certain skill. 

There are of course different types of imagery and each one has their own benefits. If we take a look at cognitive imagery (skill and strategy visualisation), there are two forms.  

Cognitive general (CG), where you visualise race plans and routines to give general performance benefits for performance.

Cognitive specific (CS), where you rehearse certain skills mentally to enhance your performance of these skills that you either want to master or know.

Now, looking at the ‘motivational’ side of imagery, there are three types. Before a competition this will help to control arousal or levels of confidence.

Motivational general - arousal (MG-A), which is used to enhance feelings of mood, affect, relaxation, stress arousal and emotions. It can be used to calm down or psych yourself up before a competition. 

Motivational general - mastery (MG-M) helps with control, confidence and focus.

Motivation specific (MS) helps the athletes to visualise achieving their goals and accomplishments i.e. winning.  

How do I get started? The best way would be to use a script and then record the script onto a device which you can listen to. This will create a deeper and more realistic experience. Remember to make it meaningful and purposeful for you. 

• To make it individualistic, think about your goals, ability level, required skills and who your competition is. 

• Think about how you are going to use the technique i.e. during a game, before you sleep, before training. When recording, who is going to speak, yourself, a coach or friend. Think about the voice, tone, tempo and clarity which will help you best focus. 

• What is the purpose of this imagery? Think about the 5 different types of imagery that you could use. 

• Use feelings, situations and environments that you know and can recall easily from memory as this will lead to richer and more intense images. 

Top Tips: 

• Practice makes almost perfect. Like everything, the more you practice the better you get. You could think of mental imagery as strength training for the mind. If you want to develop your mental “muscles” such as motivation, arousal control, focus and emotions.

• Use it often. For it to become more effective make it part of your routine, training and competition prep. 

• Use multiple senses to make it has lifelike as possible. 

• To begin with make the sessions short (a couple of minutes) and then you can increase the length when you get the hang of the technique. 

• Write a draft, test it and adapt it. Evaluate it throughout the weeks / months. 

• Specificity is key. The devil is in the detail. 

• Think PETTLEP (Physical, environment, task, timing, learning, emotion and perspective). Include these elements into your script (Holmes & Collins, 2001).

Imagery log: One problem that people find with imagery is that the outcomes aren’t very tangible. One way to deal with this difficulty effectively is to use an imagery log. You could note down key features of every session i.e. the quality of the visualised performance, any feelings or thoughts that have occurred (positive or negative), problems that appeared, what you managed to do well and what you could improve on next session.

You could use a number rating system if you feel it is difficult to express your feelings. This will allow you to see progress in your imagery, be more rewarding and should motivate you to continue doing it. 

References

Holmes, P. S., & Collins, D. J. (2001). The PETTLEP approach to motor imagery: A functional equivalence model for sport psychologists. Journal of applied sport psychology, 13 (1), 60-83.