Note to coaches & parents: Please check out the MyGoalMine web site and app today to see how your teams can benefit from an integrated goal-setting program that is operated from your phone. For info, CLICK HERE.
Note: This post has repurposed from an article published many years ago in Student Sports Magazine written by physiologist Carla Criste.
Imagine yourself scoring a game-winning basket in the Final Four, or catching that pass that gives your team a state football title.
While this may sound like daydreaming it’s actually part of a successful strategy used by many athletes known as mental rehearsal or visualization. The athlete imagines a competition, envisioning everything from arrival at the event to heading home with a trophy.
Not only does this process enhance your mental attitude, but it also has a profound physiological effect. The brain is incapable of distinguishing between something that actually happened from the same action that was imagined. It’s also kind of why some dreams seem real.
The bottom line is that the more vividly and frequently you visualize the action, the more ingrained it becomes in your central nervous system.
For a successful goal-setting program, looking at your goals every day on your phone can also easily include some visualization at the same time.
When you see that you have 500 shots to make in one day of practice or you have to do conditioning for football, it’s a natural step to also think about what might happen on the field or on the court when those goals are met.
There is no set standard for how frequently you should practice visualization, but experts recommend a minimum of 30 sessions at 5 to 10 minutes each in order to see results. Visualization is not a substitute for hard work and practice, but combined with an effective goal-setting program can definitely help.
For more on the My Goal Mine program, CLICK HERE.
