How to Use Visualization for Athletic Performance & Confidence
Visualization can be a remarkably effective tool if you know how to use it and are willing to invest the time and effort into developing the skill. Here’s what you need to know to get started.
First, there are two basic types of visualization: outcome and process.
Outcome visualization is simply focused on the end result: seeing yourself standing on the podium or similar. As you can imagine, this is the less-effective approach, although not completely worthless.
Far more valuable is process visualization—attempting to mentally and emotionally experience an entire activity as if it’s actually occurring. This is the method I recommend you start implementing as part of your training.
Like any skill, effective visualization requires consistent, intentional, focused practice. Practice visualization with a single lift initially to work on focus and details before trying to expand into more extensive processes.
There are two best times to do it. First is right before you go to sleep or immediately after waking, as these are times during which your mind is more receptive and less likely to introduce doubt and reject what you’re visualizing as improbable or impossible.
Along those lines, remember that you need to be visualizing realistic experiences—don’t expect to snatch 400kg just because you visualized it perfectly every day for a year. That’s delusion, not confidence.
The second time to visualize is immediately before the real thing. This means visualizing a lift between sets in training, or before an attempt in competition. In competition, the focus should usually be primarily or exclusively on success, and the feeling of physical power and confidence; in training, you might do the same, or focus on specific technical aspects you’re currently working on. This is a good way to essentially practice before doing.
The first key to effective visualization is extensive detail—don’t leave anything out, even the most seemingly inconsequential. Include every single thing you would do, see, hear, smell, and feel—tactilely and emotionally. And remember this means that you’re viewing the experience from your own point of view—you’re not watching yourself as if you’re a spectator.
The second key is feeling confident throughout the visualization—that is, knowing, not just telling yourself, that you’re going to be successful. This isn’t something most of you will be able to do immediately. If you struggle with doubt and a lack of confidence in your lifts, you’re going to experience the same thing when visualizing initially. The difference is that with visualization, you can practice with unlimited repetition without fatigue or the physical consequences of failure, which create more of a setback to progress than simply not being entirely convinced during visualization yet.
Start the process with the very first thing related to the lift you’re visualizing. For example, loading the weight on the bar or writing the exercise and weight in your training journal—whatever it is that you would do that could be considered the very beginning of that set depending on how you normally do things.
From this point, see, hear, feel, smell and do in your mind every single thing through the process of taking that lift until the bar is back on the platform and you’re sitting on your bench and marking a successful lift in your training journal.
This means rubbing chalk into your hands and noticing the texture of your skin, adjusting your wrist wraps or belt and the sound the Velcro or leather makes, the smell of ammonia or the lingering taste of your pre-workout beverage of choice, paying attention to the sensation of first grabbing the barl and how the knurling feels in your hands, your exact movements while you prepare and set up with the bar before lifting, the feeling and sound of your feel grinding chalk dust into the platform as you spin them into position, the noise the plates make as the bar breaks from the platform and the feeling of the weight pulling against your arms, the added pressure against the soles of your feet and the sound of your knee sleeves creaking, the sound of the barbell and the feel of its contact against your body as you extend, the sensation of aggression and exertion, noticing your speed under the bar, hearing the clap of your shoes reconnecting with the platform and the pressure returning to your feet as the weight settles overhead or on your shoulders, the sound of expelling air and the strain in your legs and back as you recover from the bottom of the squat, and that thought in your mind of driving hard and fast and not letting up, the feeling of relief and satisfaction when you finally get past the sticking point, and the sounds of your teammates yelling for you, the feeling of the weight suddenly disappearing as you drop the bar, the sound of the heavy weight hitting the floor and the vibration up through your legs, and finally returning to wherever you started to make a note in your journal and prepare for the next set.
The final and arguably most important detail in visualization is emotion. This is what creates the ultimate authentic experience, because in life, nothing occurs without our having some kind of emotional response.
If you’re making a big lift in an important competition, there’s going to be emotion accompanying the experience—so if you’re visualizing that experience, you should be feeling the same way.
So along with the five physical senses, think of the emotional dimension and then experience it as it would happen. How do you feel when you lock that big lift in overhead? How will your face feel as it expresses that emotion? How will you celebrate in the moment and afterward?
Again, don’t just think about it, experience it. If your heart and breathing rates don’t accelerate while visualizing a lift, you’re not adequately immersed in it. Visualization works because when done well, your brain essentially can’t distinguish between it and the actual experience, meaning you’re practicing—and the more you practice anything, the more routine it becomes, and the more your confidence in your ability to repeat it grows.
If through effective visualization you’ve snatched the PR you have in mind 100 times, doing it in real life doesn’t create fear or uncertainty anymore, just like through accumulated experience in the gym, you’re completely confident now with weights that were once beyond your ability.
Over time, you build up to visualizing an entire competition or workout and begin using this to prepare for upcoming training sessions and meets to build confidence and better prepare for focus and engagement during the real thing.
You might scoff at this kind of thing and prefer to stick to the more practical and mechanical, and I’m not going to spend time trying to persuade you to do it—we all make choices.
First, there are two basic types of visualization: outcome and process.
Outcome visualization is simply focused on the end result: seeing yourself standing on the podium or similar. As you can imagine, this is the less-effective approach, although not completely worthless.
Far more valuable is process visualization—attempting to mentally and emotionally experience an entire activity as if it’s actually occurring. This is the method I recommend you start implementing as part of your training.
Like any skill, effective visualization requires consistent, intentional, focused practice. Practice visualization with a single lift initially to work on focus and details before trying to expand into more extensive processes.
There are two best times to do it. First is right before you go to sleep or immediately after waking, as these are times during which your mind is more receptive and less likely to introduce doubt and reject what you’re visualizing as improbable or impossible.
Along those lines, remember that you need to be visualizing realistic experiences—don’t expect to snatch 400kg just because you visualized it perfectly every day for a year. That’s delusion, not confidence.
The second time to visualize is immediately before the real thing. This means visualizing a lift between sets in training, or before an attempt in competition. In competition, the focus should usually be primarily or exclusively on success, and the feeling of physical power and confidence; in training, you might do the same, or focus on specific technical aspects you’re currently working on. This is a good way to essentially practice before doing.
The first key to effective visualization is extensive detail—don’t leave anything out, even the most seemingly inconsequential. Include every single thing you would do, see, hear, smell, and feel—tactilely and emotionally. And remember this means that you’re viewing the experience from your own point of view—you’re not watching yourself as if you’re a spectator.
The second key is feeling confident throughout the visualization—that is, knowing, not just telling yourself, that you’re going to be successful. This isn’t something most of you will be able to do immediately. If you struggle with doubt and a lack of confidence in your lifts, you’re going to experience the same thing when visualizing initially. The difference is that with visualization, you can practice with unlimited repetition without fatigue or the physical consequences of failure, which create more of a setback to progress than simply not being entirely convinced during visualization yet.
Start the process with the very first thing related to the lift you’re visualizing. For example, loading the weight on the bar or writing the exercise and weight in your training journal—whatever it is that you would do that could be considered the very beginning of that set depending on how you normally do things.
From this point, see, hear, feel, smell and do in your mind every single thing through the process of taking that lift until the bar is back on the platform and you’re sitting on your bench and marking a successful lift in your training journal.
This means rubbing chalk into your hands and noticing the texture of your skin, adjusting your wrist wraps or belt and the sound the Velcro or leather makes, the smell of ammonia or the lingering taste of your pre-workout beverage of choice, paying attention to the sensation of first grabbing the barl and how the knurling feels in your hands, your exact movements while you prepare and set up with the bar before lifting, the feeling and sound of your feel grinding chalk dust into the platform as you spin them into position, the noise the plates make as the bar breaks from the platform and the feeling of the weight pulling against your arms, the added pressure against the soles of your feet and the sound of your knee sleeves creaking, the sound of the barbell and the feel of its contact against your body as you extend, the sensation of aggression and exertion, noticing your speed under the bar, hearing the clap of your shoes reconnecting with the platform and the pressure returning to your feet as the weight settles overhead or on your shoulders, the sound of expelling air and the strain in your legs and back as you recover from the bottom of the squat, and that thought in your mind of driving hard and fast and not letting up, the feeling of relief and satisfaction when you finally get past the sticking point, and the sounds of your teammates yelling for you, the feeling of the weight suddenly disappearing as you drop the bar, the sound of the heavy weight hitting the floor and the vibration up through your legs, and finally returning to wherever you started to make a note in your journal and prepare for the next set.
The final and arguably most important detail in visualization is emotion. This is what creates the ultimate authentic experience, because in life, nothing occurs without our having some kind of emotional response.
If you’re making a big lift in an important competition, there’s going to be emotion accompanying the experience—so if you’re visualizing that experience, you should be feeling the same way.
So along with the five physical senses, think of the emotional dimension and then experience it as it would happen. How do you feel when you lock that big lift in overhead? How will your face feel as it expresses that emotion? How will you celebrate in the moment and afterward?
Again, don’t just think about it, experience it. If your heart and breathing rates don’t accelerate while visualizing a lift, you’re not adequately immersed in it. Visualization works because when done well, your brain essentially can’t distinguish between it and the actual experience, meaning you’re practicing—and the more you practice anything, the more routine it becomes, and the more your confidence in your ability to repeat it grows.
If through effective visualization you’ve snatched the PR you have in mind 100 times, doing it in real life doesn’t create fear or uncertainty anymore, just like through accumulated experience in the gym, you’re completely confident now with weights that were once beyond your ability.
Over time, you build up to visualizing an entire competition or workout and begin using this to prepare for upcoming training sessions and meets to build confidence and better prepare for focus and engagement during the real thing.
You might scoff at this kind of thing and prefer to stick to the more practical and mechanical, and I’m not going to spend time trying to persuade you to do it—we all make choices.
