Sweet Daydreams

Ah, the lazy days of summer. Weary in the aftermath of the pressures and demands of training and competition, most athletes welcome summer vacation with a sigh of relief. This period of physical rest is important for allowing the body to rejuvenate. It's also the ideal time to develop the mental muscles necessary for peak performance. And believe it or not, it begins with daydreaming. Give permission to your imagination to soar. Allow yourself to experience the magic of thinking big without any pressure or expectations. Dreams are not commitments, but possibilities. All human accomplishments start with a dream or a vision. Having a vision of excellence for your future increases the likelihood of realizing your dreams in sports as well as other areas of your life. In sport psychology, mental imagery involves athletes imagining themselves performing well and successfully. This visualization process is one of the most essential tools used in mental training. It is important that you first know exactly what you wish to accomplish before attempting to "see" yourself achieving that goal. In your mind's eye, you are enjoying the athletic event and feeling a sense of satisfaction with your performance. To begin, you should close your eyes and clear your mind. Enter fully into the image, incorporating as many senses as possible. You should see, hear, feel, touch, smell and perform as you would like to perform in real life. Guide yourself through the whole event with perfection, experiencing complete control of your body and mind. If you make a mistake while visualizing the performance, go back and make the necessary corrections until you have guided yourself through a whole performance with complete satisfaction. Every time you see yourself performing exactly the way you want to perform, you physically create patterns in your brain. It is the brain that tells the muscles when and how to move and with how much exertion. Another reason that summer vacation is the perfect setting for developing mental skills techniques is that when an athlete is in a fully relaxed state, he or she is particularly open to mental imagery. Thus, daydreaming and mental imagery go hand in hand. You can use mental imagery to see success, and you can also use it as a motivational tool. Before or during training sessions or competitions, calling forth images of your goals can vividly remind you of what specifically you are trying to accomplish in that event. This can increase the intensity of your effort. Visualization is also used to perfect skills. The most successful athletes see and feel themselves performing perfect skills, routines, or plays on a consistent and regular basis. It also is used to become familiar with the competition site, a complicated play, or a game strategy. Mental imagery is useful for developing self-confidence, coping with new situations before encountering them, and dealing with stress-related reactions such as muscle tension and loss of focus. Grab a lawn chair, close your eyes, and dream big dreams. See yourself as strong, powerful, and fast, for as Flip Wilson once said, "What you see is what you get." Cheryl Hart, MS, the owner of 2nd Wind Motivation, helps individuals, teams, and businesses establish and achieve goals. She is a sport psychology consultant, motivational speaker and instructor of sport psychology at the University of Louisville. Cheryl has run 40 marathons and is an All-American triathlete and duathlete, competing internationally on Team USA with podium finishes. Contact her at offrunnin@yahoo.com or visit www.2ndWindMotivation.com.