Volume 23, Issue 30 | April 2, 2024 | |
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"Golf is a game played on a five inch course – the one between your ears."
~ Legendary Professional Golfer Bobby Jones, Winner of 13 Major Tournaments.
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Lou Holtz is the only college football coach to lead 6 different programs to bowl games, most famously when he led 12-0 Notre Dame to a victory in the Fiesta Bowl and the consensus 1988 National Championship. According to several of his former players, Holtz was fond of reminding them, “Anything your mind can conceive, your body can achieve.” Quotes from Bobby Jones (above), Holtz and thousands of others refer to the mental part of the game, of which using imagery for success is a critical component. Dr. Terry Orlick, internationally acclaimed as one of the founding fathers of sports psychology writes:
In sport, mental imagery is used primarily to help you get the best out of yourself in training and competition. The developing athlete who makes the fastest progress and those who ultimately become the best make extensive use of mental imagery. They use it daily as a means of directing what will happen in training, and as a way of pre-experiencing their best competition performances. (In Pursuit of Excellence, 3rd edition).
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Does Mental Imagery Really Work?
According to Bill Bodri, author of Sports Visualization for Elite Athletes (2018), elite athletes such as Jack Nicklaus, Jerry West, Nolan Ryan, Wade Boggs, Ted Williams, John Smoltz, Pele, Jordan Speith and Michael Phelps are all regular practitioners of imagining for success. Bodri goes on to report on studies of Olympic training, field hockey, basketball, gymnastics and weight training that “definitively confirm the effectiveness of mental imagery practice for training physical skills,” (p.18). Burton & Raedeke report that there are more than 200 studies that show that imagery is effective in improving performance across a wide variety of sports, “the bulk of the evidence clearly supports the idea that a combination of physical practice and imagery is more effective than physical practice alone,” (P. 69).
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How Do You Learn and Apply Imagery?
Learn the basics of imagery, then try this with your student-athletes! Most sports psychologists recommend a process similar to this:
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Have an idea for something very specific that you want to imagine doing well in your sport.
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Get your body comfortable. Take 1 minute or so to breathe a little bit deeper than you normally do and a little bit slower.
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Direct your thinking and focus on the act of performing your best in the action you selected. Orlick says that some athletes may need 6 months or more just to master this step, but it is important to stick with it until you get it right in your mind.
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Step into the image and listen to your feelings once you have mastered the best image of the activity or task. Now you are seeing things through your own eyes. Notice what it feels like in your body to perform the activity or task “at your best”. Notice also how it makes you feel to perform at your best. Notice too any sounds that may be present when you are performing at your best.**
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Correct mistakes using the same process. “Get It” refers to a imagery activity where you visualize yourself in the way you currently perform the task/activity, then create an image of yourself performing the same task/activity flawlessly. Compare the two images identifying at least one difference. Once you identify a difference make a third image seeing yourself (and feeling yourself) making the correction.
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Orlick advises that, “No matter how good or how limited your mental imagery skills are now, you can improve them through daily practice both at home and in your training setting. The more on-site quality imagery you do in your normal practice environment, the more quickly you will improve,” (P. 120).
How Can I Learn More about Imagery Training?
Check out these links:
Psychology Today: Athletes' Most Powerful Mental Tool
Association for Applied Sport Psychology
Imagery in Sport: Elite Athlete Examples and the PETTLEP Model
**Dr. Orlick advises that one of the best ways to perfect feelings-oriented imagery is to integrate a piece of your sport or performance equipment and actually move your body while doing the imagery. Instead of lying down, get into your normal starting position for executing the skill, (P. 117-118).
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Meditating on the Resurrection | |
Did you know that Play Like a Champion has sports themed reflections on the mysteries of the Holy Rosary? As we celebrate the Easter season, onsider praying either a single decade or an entire rosary with your team and reflecting on how God is speaking to you individually and as a team. You could also do a living rosary. To get the full set of sports themed reflections on the rosary, email [email protected]. | |
The Resurrection of Our Lord (John 20:1-18) | |
 |  | Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!” So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) Then the disciples went back to where they were staying. Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?” “They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus. He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?” Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.” Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”). Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.
Reflection: Mary does not recognize the Risen Christ until Jesus calls her by name. With deep respect and love, Mary responds, “Teacher.” Athletes have numerous teachers, coaches of the physical skills of sport, but also mentors of character and faith. Thank God for your coaches today and pray for them to model the Ultimate Teacher, Jesus.
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