Grow the Game®

JoJo Marasco New York Lizards MLL 2014 Photo Cred: Casey Kermes
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How to Improve Your Chances of Victory While Lying in Bed

Editor’s Note: A former two-sport DI athlete at Fairfield University, Kelly has dedicated his life to building better lacrosse athletes, on and off of the field. Sean contributes regularly from his state-of-the-art Sports and Mental Preparation Facility in New Jersey. Take it from here, Sean!

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What you need to know:

  • Visualization is one of the most basic of all mental conditioning strategies, but is probably the most underused.
  • It has been scientifically proven that the brain processes experiences the same whether you physically execute it or you just vividly imagine it.
  • Visualization should be used to maximize the efficiency and effectiveness of your physical preparation.

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The power of the mind is as miraculous as it is incomprehensible. There are incredible examples of prisoners of war who after being released performed amazing physical feats, having practiced mental conditioning during their detentions.

One such example is of a P.O.W. who was in captivity for over four years. To keep himself going he would visualize himself playing 18 holes of golf on his home golf course.

He went through the entire round in his head, twice a day. Every stroke.

When he was finally freed, he stepped onto that course after four years of not picking up a golf club and lowered his score by 10 strokes!

One of the most underutilized mental conditioning skills today is mental imagery.

Mental imagery (or visualization) is a technique that is used to exercise the mind by mentally creating the environment of performance competition and mentally performing the competitive tasks required in your sport.

It has been scientifically proven that the brain processes the experience the same whether you physically execute it or if you just vividly imagine it.

Simply said if you lie in bed the night before a game and you play the next day’s game in your mind, you are imprinting the blueprint of your performance in your mind making it more likely that you will achieve performance excellence during the actual game.

WOW! Let me repeat that. You are imprinting the blueprint of your performance in your mind making it more likely that you will achieve performance excellence during the actual game.

If you are like me and you are constantly striving to maximize your ability, then visualization is an essential tool you should add to your routine.

Here are some guidelines to follow that will help you get the most out of visualization:

  • Construct in your mind a psychological replica of your sport’s competitive arena (lacrosse field, hockey rink, gymnasium).
  • Place you and your opponent within that arena, performing your sport.
  • Build in the senses of sight, sound, and touch. The more senses involved in your mental imagery, the more successful it will be.
  • You want to experience the face[s] of your opponent[s].
  • You want to experience the energy in the arena.
  • You want to experience yourself making the plays that will make the difference in the game.

Get started today and take your performance to a new level!