Imagery and Visualization

Modalities

As mentioned above, the terms imagery and visualization are often used interchangeably, but all of one's senses can be used to increase the vividness of one's imagery, and thus, it need not be limited to vision. Certain sensory images can readily bring the athletes to their sports arena: the golfer who smells the newly manicured greens, the gymnast who can feel the texture of the chalk on his or her hands, and the baseball player who recognizes the sound of a well-hit ball or the pop of the catcher's mitt. For athletes, the kinesthetic sense has the potential to increase the vividness of their imagery of engaging in sports activities. This is the sensation of where one's body is in space and how it feels while one is moving it. It appears that the more richly each sense is experienced and the more overall sensory experience the imagery contains, the greater the impact on the athlete.

Internal versus External Perspectives

When an athlete imagines that he or she is actually participating in the sporting event and that he or she is either practicing or engaging in competition, it is referred to as the internal perspective, whereas the external perspective is when the athlete takes the role of an observer. He or she is “just watching” from the outside. Even if the athlete imagines that he or she is watching his or her own performance, as if seeing a replay on television, it is still considered an external perspective. Some research has pointed to internal perspectives being more helpful in generating kinesthetic feedback that could improve performance. However, there are differing opinions on this matter. There is no strong evidence that one modality or perspective is “better” than the other.

Though anyone can use imagery techniques, it has been shown that there is a fair amount of variability in one's ability to do so. How vivid the imagery is will be crucial to its effectiveness, and [Page 699]while some people are able to really engulf themselves in the experience as if it were happening in real time, there are some who have difficulty doing so. Similarly, there is also variability in one's ability to control what happens in one's imagery. For some individuals, it can be a perilous exercise that can lead to an increase in anxiety and, in turn, a decrease in their performance if they are unable to imagine perfect execution and are unable to solve problems to maximize performance while in their imagery. This is a critical message that should be remembered. Imagery can be a powerful tool, but not all tools work for all people with the same effectiveness.

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