A basketball player has practiced a free-throw shot a thousand times until it becomes completely automatic, but when that basket could determine the game, it hits the rim. Situations such as these are often called “choking under pressure”- a metaphorical expression used to describe performance decrements under pressure conditions despite individual striving to perform well. Pressure can be defined as any factor or combination of factors that increases the importance of optimal performance (Beckman, Cropel & Ehrlenspiel 2013). How can athletes overcome this phenomenon?
We know that performance improves with increases in arousal until a peak is reached, after which further arousal leads to a deterioration in performance. By achieving an ideal mental state, athletes are able to maximize abilities under pressure and perform at their best by choice rather than chance.
Visualization is the process of creating a mental image of what you want to happen or feel. While creating these scenarios, the athlete should try to imagine as much detail as possible and exactly how it feels to perform in this desired way. The senses can be visual (images), kinesthetic (feeling), or auditory.
When an athlete imagines him or her self performing to perfection, he or she is physiologically creating neutral brain patterns that are similar to the ones that are already engraved in the brain cells. Research is finding that physical and psychological reactions in certain situations can be improved with visualization. Repeated imagery can create experience and confidence in the ability to perform certain skills under pressure. This visualization allows the athlete to perform tasks by mentally preparing or practicing first in the mind. Mental imagery is essentially training the muscles to perform exactly how they are supposed to. An athlete can repeatedly recall these images, thus enhancing the skill through repetition- similar to physical practice. However, visualization is not just limited to athletes but anyone who desires increased success and performance.
Beckmann, J., Gröpel, P., & Ehrlenspiel, F. (2013). Preventing motor skill failure through hemisphere-specific priming: Cases from choking under pressure. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 142(3), 679-691. doi:http:// dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0029852
Up until about two years ago, I was in the Marine Corps for about ten years, and I would often hear a lot about visualization. In fact, it played a crucial role in many training exercises. Though I was fortunate to never have to use these strategies in combat, my husband has on numerous occasions. Years ago when the war was focused in Iraq, he had deployed there twice, and was relatively new to the Corps. I asked him if he used visualization strategies then and he couldn’t really remember doing so. As his experience grew, so did his understanding of mental concepts and strategies, and he actively used visualization in later deployments. Much like the sports psychologist told the hockey player, my husband’s mentors would suggest visualization, and even had visualization practices. Although hockey has rules, guidelines, and is much more simplistic than war, the practice was always beneficial, even when the unexpected happened (which was always). In addition, fighting a war is a little more skill than the 10% skill in sports, suggested by sports coaches, for many it isn’t too much more though. My husband would often tell me that the worst always came when his fellow Marine’s heads weren’t in the game. The visualization practice was also prevalent during the rifle range, when coaches will tell their shooters to visualize the bullet leaving the rifle, flying across the sky, and hitting the black target 500 yards away. Practice is training for the body, visualization is training for the mind, both are often invaluable whether on the sports field or the battle field.
I find that visual imagery is an interesting solution to the performance issues some of us have while attempting to win at our favorite sports or activities. I am constantly telling my son, who is a wrestler and football player in high school, that he needs to practice what he knows, imagine he is doing it, and then go out and accomplish what he has practiced and imagined. Now for a kid who gets nervous before he performs sometimes this works and sometimes those nerves get the best of him.
The psychology of performing and how it can get the best of us can be quite daunting to get over. Using visual imagery to succeed has its merits. Very few athletes are born with “the gift”. We need to work for what want and visualize we can do it. For a kid learning how to use a body that is continuously changing it can be challenging to complete a running pass when you don’t know how the coordination of your body is going to work that day. So visualizing what you want to accomplish seems like a viable option to go out and do what you need to get done.
It’s spring so that means NHL Playoff hockey in my house. Unfortunately, the past two playoff season my favorite team as you put it “chokes under pressure”. The same seems to be holding true this playoff season already.
After last year’s horrible playoff attempt, the goaltender was asked to see a Sports Psychologist to overcome his “choking under pressure” mentality. The goalie has one of the most mentally demanding positions in any sport. When you combine the speed of the game with the mental skills required to perform at your best , a goaltender ranks right up at the top.
Visualization is a key component when it comes to being a successful goaltender. Imagery is very much the language of the body in the sense that you can’t do things you can’t imagine. Goaltenders spend a fair amount of time imagining the various situations that can occur in the game and imagining themselves reacting to those situations become key in the heat of the game (Jensen, n.d.)
Visualizing can be done on or off the ice. They picture themselves in the net and as the opposing players come at them, they picture the shot and watch the puck all the way into their pads as they make the save. This helps them in a game by making them focus on the play all the way down the ice not just what’s in front of them.
This practice will help the goaltender overcome goals when the other team scores on him. Goaltenders should take the time between the goal and the face-off to visualize exactly what happened to allow that shot to become a goal. This allows you a minute to dwell on the goal, figure out what went wrong, and not let it happen again. It also keeps you from dwelling on the goal during the game, which is what was happening to my favorite team’s goaltender. It was a continuing distraction which would throw him off his game and allow the opponents to continue to score.
Hockey isn’t the only sport that highly values mental imagery or visualization. Mental imagery is intended to train our minds and create the neural patterns in our brain to teach our muscles to do exactly what we want them to do. Most sports coaches will say that sports are 90% mental and 10% skill. Incorporating visualization to the repertoire of an athlete takes their game to the next level, whether that level is confidence, performance, relief of anxiety or returning to play after an injury.
References:
Peters, J. (n.d.). Soft Skill Area (Psychology): Mental Preparation for Goaltenders. Hockey Canada: Goaltending Newsletter. Retrieved from http://library.constantcontact.com/download/get/file/1103795793109-268/SoftSkill_Mental+Prep_Final.pdf