Perhaps you’ve caught your kids doing it. Perhaps you’ve done it yourself. Come on, admit it, you know you like to do it.
“It’s the bottom of the ninth. The bases are loaded. There are two outs. You calmly stride up to the plate. All eyes are on you. The hopes and dreams of your teammates, your town, your adoring fans, and perhaps all of civilization rest on your shoulders. The pitcher takes the sign and stares intently in your direction. You take a relaxing breath and focus on the glove, then the hand, then the ball as it hurtles toward you. You read its motion, plant your feet, and let loose a mighty swing. The world turns to slow-motion as your bat approaches the ball. There’s a puff of dust as the bat contacts the ball and sends if soaring over the fence. You’ve done it! You’ve won the game!”
Yeah, it’s not limited to batting practice. You can do it just about anywhere, at any time. I sometimes do it when riding my bike. I’m climbing shoulder to shoulder with one of the top pros, or perhaps I’m cruising along at nearly 30 mph off the front of the pack, nearing a certain victory. Or maybe it happens when I’m running. I imagine myself flying along the road with a smooth, fluid stride. My legs are a blur of speed and grace. My hair waves in the breeze like Old Glory in dawn’s early light.
What I’m talking about is fantasy. No, not the hair part (okay, maybe the hair part), I’m talking about the topic of this article. We all like to dream. We all like to envision ourselves accomplishing great things. The cool part is that, as an athlete, fantasy is a valued training tool. To make it more respectable, we call it visualization.
Visualization means mentally practicing something. The night before a race, I close my eyes and imagine myself on the course. I “see” the road and mentally prepare what I want to do at each point. I envision myself with good form and speed. In short, I rehearse the perfect race – like hitting the game winning home run in batting practice.
The great part is that it helps. Personal experience and plenty of actual studies show that the feedback you get from positively visualizing actions and experiences provides benefits when it comes time for you to perform for real. While physical training develops the muscular strength and muscle memory to hit or run, mental training also plays a role in performance success.
Over the years, since studying psychology way back in college, I’ve come to marvel at the power of self-fulfilling prophecy. This phenomenon basically means that you’ll do as well at something as you think you will. If you think you won’t do well, you’re likely to be right. On the other hand, if you think positively, you’re likely to do better. Self-fulfilling prophecy is a key part of successful visualization. You anticipate options and variations in your mind, so you react to them better when they happen for real. You see yourself doing well, so you become more convinced that things will work out that way. It’s a really powerful edge that every athlete should include in their training.
The best part about visualization is that sometimes things work out exactly as you imagine; sometimes you get to live the dream. I competed in a duathlon up in Michigan this spring. I was excited because I knew the course was basically flat (at least by Pennsylvania standards). I imagined myself sailing along the open roads, averaging speeds that I only hit for brief moments due to the hills back home. And you know what? It happened. There was a moderate breeze that for a few miles enabled me to sustain 27-28 mph. Although I was working hard, I was also relaxed. I had been there before in my mind, so I could maximize it, enjoy it, and truly appreciate it all at the same time. To quote Yogi Berra, “It was like déjà vu all over again.”
You don’t have to give up your imagination when you grow up. You don’t have to be embarrassed or afraid to dream. Call it visualization and explain it as a training technique, and you can fantasize all you want.
There is great power in your mind. Unlock it. Apply it. Live the dream.