Notes: What is Imagery?
What is Imagery? Imagery is a sort of daydream that you create and you control. You will often hear imagery referred to as visualization. In reality, imagery requires more than visualization. It should involve all the senses; seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting and feeling.
Why Use It? Practicing imagery can help you to set and achieve goals, control emotions such as anxiety, frustration, anger, recover from a n injury quicker, prepare for unexpected events, and develop awareness and self-confidence.
How Does It Work? Imagery creates a mental blue print. In essence, it allows you to practice physical skills without actually performing them. Imagery gives the athlete a chance to deal with an event mentally before having to face it physically. It can be a kind of dress rehearsal. this does not mean that imagery can take the place of practice; but it can enhance practice and performance.
How Do I Get Started? Imagery is a guided experience from an expert practitioner. However, try these exercises to give you a sense of the experience.
Exercise 1: Learning to Focus on an Object. Pick out an object related to your sport. Focus on every detail of that object. Look at it, feel it. Use all your senses. Now close your eyes and imagine that very object. See all the detail and the colors. The smell. The texture. When you are ready, open your eyes. Were you able to imagine the object? What things were easier to imagine than others? Could you feel it? Hear it? See it?
Exercise 2: Developing Clear, Vivid Images. When you are relaxed and in a comfortable environment, imagine home (either now or own you are up). Look at it from the outside. See the color, size, and shape. Walk towards the entrance. Notice how the wind brushes against your hair. Open the door. What is the first room you see? Can you see the furniture? The pictures on the wall? is there a carpet? What color is it? Now turn around and walk out of your home? Open your eyes. How clear and vivid was your image?
Exercise 3: Controlling Your Imagery. Close your eyes and imagine your house again. Watch it grow bigger and bigger until it is twice its normal size. Imagine everything around the huge house is dwarfed in comparison. No slowly have it go back to its normal size. Next, imagine your house is slowly shrinking. It is getting smaller and smaller until it reaches the size of a walnut. Imagine the surrounding now. What does it fell like to tower over you home. When you are ready, have the house come back to its normal size. Take a few moment to imagine the house this way. Open your eyes when you are comfortable with the image.
Exercise 4: Use All Your Senses to Create the Image. Find a quite place and sit or lie down. Start to take complete breaths (nice deep inhale from 1 inch below your belly button, about one inch in, and a equal or longer exhale through the mouth). Feel your self easing into relaxation. Now imagine a beautiful beach. You feel the warm air and gentle breeze. You can smell the ocean only ten feet away. Notice how the sand feels in your toes. You are drinking a cool lemonade. How does it taste? Is it sweet or tart? Notice how it refreshes you. You feel completely warm and relaxed. The sky is a beautiful blue with a few lazy clouds passing by. Slowly, the day is getting later. Imagine the sky is getting darker and the wind a little colder. it is time to head home. The you are ready, open your eyes.
Remember, these are examples of simple exercises that clients can experiment with to prepare and ready them for the more detailed imagery sessions I will guide. My guided sessions will be specifically tied to games, events, pre-game routines, closed motor skills (e.g., free throws) and important moments within games. Clients may receive audio files to help them train on there own. All client material is found in the GOGO’S Workshop™ section of the website.