Let’s face it: The difference in speed, agility, strength and stamina between top athletes is minimal. What separates the good from the great is the strength of their minds. What gives an athlete a competitive edge is the use of their psyche, and skills such as mental imagery. Many of the world’s best athletes are reporting using mental imagery to improve their performance and enable them to tap in to their potential. It has been proven that the implementation of mental imagery into training and competition increases performance. In fact, research has shown that imagining a muscle movement in the mind stimulates electrical activity in the muscle without actually moving it. Therefore, when an athlete imagines an aspect of their performance (skills, strategies, etc), they are making gains both mentally and physically, without actually physically exerting themselves!

Mental imagery is like dreaming, except with structure. It is imagining yourself performing exactly the way you want to. It is mentally correcting your weaknesses and using your mind to perfect and control various aspects of your performance. It can be used to arouse or relax the body and mind prior to or during your performance. So USE YOUR MIND. Take control over your performance through the use and power of mental imagery.

Mental imagery is a mental experience that mimics a real experience.  It’s using your imagination to rehearse and practice plays,  skills,  situations,  and events.

Why & How Imagery Works

• Imagery strengthens the connection between the mind and the body.

• An imagery session simulates neuro-muscular commands and cognitive processes that exist when you experience the situations/skills in real life.

• Imagery allows you to practice dealing with special situations that you do not experience often, but that you have to be prepared for (i.e., imagine a high-pressure championship situation).

• Imagery allows you to practice and mentally reinforce movement patterns. You can become more automatic at well-learned skills, fine-tune newer skills, and create new motor programs (commands) for completely novel skills that you cannot yet perform.

Tips & reminders

• Try to be relaxed at the start of your session: make sure that you can control your imagination.

• Have a clear, concise, and detailed agenda for each session. Plan what you are going to do and when—be detailed so that you are not chaotically making things up as you go. PLAN!

• Be complete and accurate:

• Vividness (involve all the senses)

• Controllability (control and manipulate movements, make corrections)

• Perfect Image (create the image you want to physically be able to perform. Rehearse!)

• Timing (slow-time to real-time)

• Follow-through (do the movement/ routine/ race/ strategy in it’s entirety)

• Perspective (internal vs. external)

• You do not have to be perfect. It is okay to lose concentration or to make mistakes.

• You may want to integrate music, recorded sounds, touch, smells etc. to enhance the realism.

• Your skill, efficiency, and ability to use imagery will improve with practice…like physical skills

• Schedule you sessions ahead of time so that you adhere to the imagery program.

• Do not fatigue yourself by making sessions to long. 5-10 minutes is great (do more if you can)

The sites and sounds that surround a sporting event are part of what makes competiting so much fun  but sometimes things like  screaming fans, a new venue, or a different time zone can throw an athlete off their game. One of the major mental skills in sport is the ability to focus one’s attention without being unduly distracted (which is especially hard when competing under pressure)

Click here for a worksheet that will help you deal with distrations.

It might be helpful to think of the SMART principle when setting goals.
Just think SMART:
• Specific
• Measurable
• Adjustable
• Realistic (but challenging)
• Time-based

And remember, the least effective goals are totally outcome oriented (uncontrollable), very long-term, unimportant, not realistic & challenging.

The most effective goals are very short-term, controllable, personally meaningful and important. Ultimately, goals should be monitored yearly, monthly, weekly & daily (use charts & tables, be creative!)

Click here to see some of the worksheets/ charts I find usefull.

click here to learn more about fluid intake.

When choosing a cereal or granola bar  it’s important to look at the foods labels to see how they measure up! Cereal, granola bars and cereals bars can all be great snack foods. They supply the body with an excellent source of carbohydrates, which can help to maintain our blood sugar levels throughout the day.

Click here to learn more about healthy cereals and granola bars.

I’m hoping we can create a community through this website and that people will use teamsask.ca to celebrate the success of Team Sask and it’s athletes and to stay informed. I think it would be really great if  the people who visit this site will help keep it alive and dynamic by adding comments, opinions and photos. So I hope to hear from you soon!

Thanks for checking us out!

Julie

My name is Julie Chabot and I am the Saskatchewan Games Council’s Communications Coordinator. I deal with all things ‘media’ related here at the Council and have been working on this website for the past couple months. So if you see any errors or notice any areas you think could be improved please let me know. Other wise enjoy the photos, videos and news updates and please feel free to a post comment.