“Imagination is everything. It is the preview to life’s coming attraction” Albert Einstein
Imagery is a great tool that will assist you in achieving your goals.
It is a critical mental skill that allows you to use your mind to enhance your performance.
There are four areas to quality imagery that will help you to elevate your game now!
In this article, I will share with you two keys and next week I will share the other two keys with you.
Key #1 – Imagery Perspective
Imagery perspective refers to where the “imagery camera” is when you are doing your imagery.
There are two types of imagery perspectives: internal perspective and external perspective.
Internal perspective refers to seeing yourself in your mind as if you are watching yourself perform on the court.
External imagery perspective is where you watch yourself performing the action from an observer’s position as if you were watching yourself on television.
According to a sports psychology for basketball study, 62% of the coaches believed that an internal imagery perspective was more effective than an external perspective. In comparison, 7% suggested that the external perspective was better, however, learn them both and choose the one that is best for you.
Key #2 – Multiple Senses
The best imagery involves using all your senses – seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, tasting, and the mind. The best imagery consists of using all senses to reproduce the actual moves and plays you will be doing.
You want to use all the senses in all your scenarios to create and rehearse in your mind what it is you want to do. You also want to use all your senses to rehearse what you wish to improve upon in your mind.
It is essential to create an all-sensory experience that is vivid and clear. Good imagery includes more than just visualizing.
You want to imagine the different sights you may see.
You want to hear the different sounds you may hear.
You want to see the physical location and take notice of how you feel.
All the thoughts and emotions you would experience in competition you want to experience it in your mind.
The most powerful part of mental imagery is feeling it in your body and your mind.
That is how you ingrain new skills as habits, which in turn will make it become second nature.
