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CIF champion, XC All American, Two College Conference Championships, Nike Sponsorship, Boston Marathon Qualifier Conference Presenter 20 different conferences 2
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Your mind cannot distinguish what you see with your eyes and what you see with your mind. You can manipulate your mind to believe what you are visualizing is real. 12
You are in a garden somewhere with a lemon tree, a table and a knife. Relax and breathe in the fresh country air. See through your own eyes as you walk over to the lemon tree. You pick the biggest lemon you can find. Bring the lemon back to the table and then use the knife to cut it into quarters. Bring it up to your nose and smell the tangy smell. Now, take the biggest bite you possibly can of the lemon. Chew and taste the lemon juice in your mouth. Squeeze your eyes shut tight. Feel the edges of your mouth slightly sting from the acid. Now do the same with the other 3 quarters of lemon. Did your mouth water? You had a physical reaction to an imagined event. 13
When I do speed work, I tell myself that I am creating neural pathways to becoming faster. My body then can go into autopilot during a competition the pathway is there. Think of clearing a path in a forest, the more it s travelled, the more the weeds are trampled down. 14
Mirror neurons: The mind controls the body to such an extent that it can force motor neurons to fire and create more muscle tissue and increase strength! Injured Olympians who use mental rehearsal and visualization are able to minimize training losses during their down time. Some have gone on to garner a gold medal after as much as 3 months of lost training time. Imagery may be part of a coding system that actually helps athletes understand movement. The theory says that every move we make in life is first coded like a blueprint in our minds and in our nervous systems, so that if we mentally rehearse an athletic event, we are actually blueprinting each move, making the gestures symbolic and making them more familiar to our body chemistry. By doing lots of mental practice, we are setting the stage for movement to become quite automatic and easy to recall. Laura Wilkinson is an extreme example of someone tapping into the power of imagery. Going into the 2000 Sydney Olympics, dive champion Wilkinson broke her leg and was in a cast for months. She could not dive physically, that is. But by working with a supportive coach and using imagery 15
practice, Wilkinson was able to stay focused. Several times each day, she d climb the 10 meter platform and walk through the motions of her complex high dives, mentally taking snapshots of each element. When the cast came off just before the Sydney games, she got up on the 10 meter platform and did some very elegant dives. Wilkinson s practice was so good, she lost very little training time and went on to win the gold in Sydney. 15
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When I ran cross country, I used to get a map of the course and commit it to memory. I would note every possible place I could get a strategic advantage. For example: Blind curves, hills, obstacles, flat stretches. I would see myself throwing in a surge as I entered a blind curve. I would see my competitor lose sight of me in the curve and exit, seeing me gain 100 yards in a flash. I would see myself attack a hill and relax my shoulders and pump my arms as I gained ground on the field. I would envision myself the last half mile, continually accelerating and throwing in surges as necessary to fend off competitors. I would call up the emotion of feeling relaxed and confident and powerful as I rehearsed mentally. The day of a race, I would warm up and slowly jog the entire course and etch in my mind every detail of the course and put myself in the game. I knew I was creating neural pathways. Behind every action is a neural pathway. Whenever you take a certain action, you create a neural pathway. Initially the neural pathway is just a thin thread, however the more you take the same action, the thicker the neural pathway became. When the neural pathway becomes as thick as a highway, we formed what we call habits. However it does not matter whether you physically or mentally construct the neural pathway. Whether you physically take an action, or you imagine yourself taking the action, 17
the brain would not be able to tell. That is the true power of mental rehearsal. 17
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They are masters of mood management, they know how to get themselves in the zone. They know how to alter their state and summon up the energy they need for the task at hand. 20
You ll find that as your beliefs about your limits change, the limits themselves begin to shift. Beliefs give rise to reality. Most of the time our actions are reflections of our mental pictures. These pictures were placed in our mind most often by WORDS. Choosing the right words can make or break a performance. 21
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Athletes call to mind past successes and draw strength from these experiences. We can use this technique in taking exams, performing a musical piece, giving a speech, etc. 27
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