Visualization was something that I always did throughout my
life, but it wasn’t until later in my sports career that I started using it
correctly. Always the dreamer, I would shoot out on my driveway imagining a
million different ways that my jump shot was the game winner for a big
championship title. The roar of the crowd, the feeling of nervous excitement,
seeing the defender who stupidly goes under on a ball screen giving me just
enough room to get my shot off, watching the ball go in and complete the game
winning scenario. I may not have known it then, but I was laying the foundation
for the use of visualization throughout my career.
I would venture to guess that most
athletes at some point in their career use imagery as they see themselves
achieving the winning basket, the walk off home run, crossing the finish line
first, etc. Athlete’s from every sport uses some amount of visualization within
their training.
It wasn’t until the first time that I created
a vision board, that I started to incorporate visualization into my daily
workout routine. It hung on my wall, next to my dresser mirror and included a
number of different goals, aspirations, and things I wanted. Each morning and
each night I saw this vision board, looked at each of the pictures, and saw
myself achieving them. That wasn’t my only foray into using visualization. I
made a highlight video, put it to some inspiring music and watched it before
each game, every run I went on I saw myself improving in different areas, and I
tried to make sure that any thoughts that entered my mind were positive. I
wasn’t perfect at it, but with practice my thoughts and images became clearer
and easier to see.
Not
everything on that vision board was attained, but a lot of things were.
Visualization isn’t a guarantee to get whatever you want and even when paired with
hard work, you still may not get everything. But if you had the chance to
accomplish 80% of the goals you set, with visualization, wouldn’t you prefer
that over the 50% you would only accomplish without it? Give visualization a
chance, there is nothing to lose and only positives to gain.
As
for my visualization use now? It has turned from winning jump shots at the
buzzer, to walking across a stage and being handed a PhD.
Good
luck with your visualization journey! It’s sure to be an exciting and fulfilling
one! – Cat
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