The Importance of Visualization and Positive Self-Talk in Track & Field
written by Katlyn Hagley
The Mental Component to Practice
Close your eyes. What do you see? The backs of your eyelids? Images and pictures of moments that have come and gone? Or do you see pictures of events that haven’t happened yet? What do famous athletes like Michael Phelps, Muhammad Ali, Tiger Woods, Tom Brady, and many others have in common?
When they close their eyes, they visualize their goals and dreams.
They imagine themselves competing and performing their athletic event with precision, accuracy and success. One thing that separates advanced athletes from average athletes is their ability to train their mind as much as they train their body.
Sports Visualization
Studies on the brain have revealed that thoughts produce the same mental “coding” as actions. This means that visualization affects the same parts of the brain (i.e. motor control, memory, attention, perception, and planning) as physical practice does. In fact, our brain can’t tell the difference between a physical practice and a mental practice! Although visualization cannot physically prepare the body for performance like physical practice can, the effect that visualization and physical practice have on the brain is so similar that researchers suggest that doing both (mental practices and physical practices) is more effective than doing either practice alone. Guang Yue, an exercise psychologist from Cleveland Clinic Foundation in Ohio, compared people who went to the gym to people who visualized virtual workouts in their mind. His results revealed that there was a 30% increase in muscle strength for the group of people who went to the gym and a 13.5% increase in muscle strength for the people who conducted the virtual (mental) workouts. That means that the visualization group improved their muscle strength by almost half as much as the physical practice group, without ever physically working on their muscle strength! (Yue, From Mental Power to Muscle Power – Gaining Strength by Using the Mind, 2004).
Visualization is known as the process of creating a mental picture of what you want to happen in the future. Sports visualization is more than just mentally hoping for a positive outcome or seeing yourself winning your event. It is a form of mental rehearsal, and for the track athlete, this means taking the mind through every part of your event – from the warm up, to waiting your turn in line, to watching others compete before you, to what it looks like and feels like at the beginning, middle and end of your event. Visualization is the ability to fully imagine the positive outcome in vivid detail, a way to provide the mind with practice of what it looks like and feels like to succeed.
Self-Talk
Has anyone ever asked you, “What were you thinking?!”
Well, what were you thinking? When you are practicing or competing, what is your inner dialogue? What are you telling yourself?
Self-talk is considered to be anything said to oneself either aloud or mentally. Self-talk includes the act of reciting words to a song, a poem, a quote, or a mantra. Cognitive theorists suggest that there is a link between what people say to themselves and how they behave (Ellis, 1994; Meichenbaum, 1977). Self-talk can determine what you say and do. If you are constantly telling yourself you can’t do something, or something is too hard, or you will not succeed, chances are you’re right.
Whatever you create in your mind, you also create in reality.
1. Set your goal
The more specific your goal is, the easier it will be to mentally prepare yourself to accomplish your goal. For example, “I want to run a 5:10 in the 1600” is a much better goal than, “I want to get faster.” Make your goal specific and attainable.
2. Reflect
Too often athletes dwell on the negative. They replay their failures, mistakes and self judgements in their mind. When you reflect on a previous performance or practice, don’t focus on what went wrong, focus on what you can correct and make that correction in your mind.
Close your eyes. Remind yourself of all of the hard work you are putting into your training. Review a workout, a practice or a competition. Replay this moment like an internal movie in your mind. Add positive inner self-talk!
3. See your dreams
Next, in your mind, with your eyes closed, take yourself to the meet. Where is the competition being held at? What does this track and field look like? Who are you competing against? What do you hear? What do see? What do you feel? Try to include details from all the senses to make your visualization as vivid and as close to the real-life experience as possible.
Take yourself step-by-step through the meet; the warm up, the waiting process, the starting line, the event or race. In your mind, see yourself perform each task with perfect form, preforming your absolute best. Remind yourself of what each step of the process feels like. Add as many details to your visualization as possible. For example, if you are running a 600-meter race, what does each lap look like? What does each lap feel like? At the end of your event, what result do you see on the score sheet or score board?
4. Talk it Up
Positive self-talk begins in the mind. Believe you can. Tell yourself you can. Positive self-talk not only increases one’s motivation and self-confidence, but it is also yet another way to help prepare the mind and body for learning, focus and enhanced performance. Your visualization should include moments of personal self-talk where you tell yourself what you need to hear during each part of your event. For example, you know that your legs begin to hurt 400 meters into your 800-meter race. What do you need to hear as you begin that last 400 meters? Tell yourself that! What do you want to hear from your supporters? Tell yourself that too! Create a positive flow of inner dialogue. Remember, the mind can’t tell the difference. If you tell yourself you can do it, your mind thinks you did it.
5. Practice
How often do you physically train your body? Every day? Five or six times a week? That’s how many times a week you should be mentally preparing. Scientists say that practicing as little as five minutes a day is enough to begin to strengthen the mind-body connection. As with any practice, the more you practice the better! Have down time during practice? Visualize your goals. Have a few minutes before bed? Imagine your success.
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