#Visualise your success plus#

I know what my stroke should feel like at different parts of the race, and I can just kind of picture that in my mind.' How can I use visualization to become a better athlete?

Ledecky stated: 'I have my goals, and I visualize things to help me achieve those goals. I was going through every little step of how I wanted that jump to turn out.”Īnother swimmer, Katie Ledecky, is a further example of an elite athlete who insists that visualization has helped her achieve five Olympic golds and 15 world championship gold medals.

I can hear the crowd,’ kind of going through all those different senses and then actually going through what I wanted to do for the perfect jump. I can feel the wind on the back of my neck. The following gives an idea of the detail she brings into play: “I would say into a recorder: ‘I’m standing on the top of the hill. You have to feel it, everything.” Because of this, the term imagery is growing in popularity as it encompasses the use of all five senses She has said, “ visualization, for me, doesn’t take in all the senses. Three-time Olympian, Emily Cook, excels at freestyle skiing and is convinced of the value of visualization and takes it to the highest level, though she quibbles with the name. When he touched the wall, not only had he won another gold medal but had shaved six one-hundredths of a second off his own world’s record. He swam that last length of the pool entirely relying on stroke count and the fact that he had visualized the event so often it had become ingrained in his every fiber. By the time he turned for the final 50m, he was effectively blind. It is on record that in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, during his signature event, the 200m butterfly, his goggles began to leak. Michael Phelps, the world’s most decorated Olympian, was an early and enthusiastic adopter of visualization techniques. The answer to that question is probably all of them! Certainly, most (if not all) elite athletes use visualization extensively and routinely as part of their preparation for competition. Which successful athletes are using visualization techniques? However, it’s also something you can start working on alone, too.

#Visualise your success plus#

They have in-depth knowledge of the technique plus knowledge of the individual to know which buttons should be pushed to give the biggest benefit. What an athlete should concentrate on is often guided by a sport psychologist or the sportsperson’s personal coach. What’s the weather like, where is the wind coming from, what can you smell, and what can you hear? What does your body experience, and how does it feel to win?

So an athlete is encouraged to engage all their senses when going through this exercise. The closer you get to reality, the better. Or it could be far more complex: an entire race or ski run.ĭespite its name, visualization is far more than a purely visual exercise. The action could be a short one: for instance, a tennis shot, golf swing, baseball pitch or football pass. 👇 Experience Transformation: Uncover Details Below 👇Īt its simplest, visualization is imagining an action or situation in the first person, and seeing it through to a successful outcome. Anything that can give you an edge has to be seized and made part of your training regime, and the importance of psychology cannot be overlooked. Sports have never been more competitive than they are today, and winning margins are becoming ever finer as we reach the upper echelons of human speed, strength, and agility. More and more athletes in all sports are using and crediting visualization with better outcomes and improved success. Visualization has become a buzzword in sport psychology, and in other aspects of performance, and for good reason.