Imagery in Sport Performance

Many different types of psychological interventions are used to improve sport performance. Among these, the use of mental imagery has received a considerable amount of attention. Mental imagery can best be described as a set of structured mental practices that involve various multisensory representations based on an athlete's competitive experiences. In other words, the goal of mental imagery is to reproduce the cognitive and physical sensations of an athletic experience as closely as possible in order that the individual “feels” as if he or she is actually performing the sport.

Since the intent of mental imagery is to re-create experiences as close as possible to the actual performance, it should involve significant sensory input. Mental imagery should not be limited to only visual representations but should ...