LESSON #5: VISUALIZATIONS
Reminders
1. Relax
2. Switch between 1st person and 3rd person
3. VAK + E
- Visual = everything you see
- Auditory = everything you hear (ref’s whistle, coach’s voice, sneakers squeaking, crowd noise, cheerleaders, etc.)
- Kinesthetic = everything you feel (jersey on you, body, the wind as you run).
- Emotion = confidence, poise, and body language
*No fantasizing, keep it real!
Iverson and Visualization
Monks Who Visualize Heat
HELP! I CAN’T VISUALIZE!
You know a lot of guys ask me this question: “How do I visualize if I can’t see images in my head?”
Here are a few suggestions. Try them one at a time, or use of all of them:
1) Hold a basketball: Hold a basketball while you visualize – something about having a basketball in hands help people form mental images
2) Try Feelulization: Try to just FEEL what it feel like emotionally to hit a game winner, or FEEL physically what’ it is like to shoot, feel it in your body
3) Echo Drill: Try watching a YouTube video and watch a highlight, then pause, clause your eyes and attempt to reply what you just watched. That way you sort of get images in your head.
4) Deeper relaxation: Get into a deeper state of mental relaxation before visualizing. I assume you have dreams when you sleep, so you can see images in your mind. You need to get deeper into a trance state before you visualize.
Does this help? Let me know at geniuslifeteam@gmail.com
Benefits of Visualization
- Calms nerves
- Increase skills acquisition
- Increases ability to adapt to environment
- Instill greater and greater confidence
- Makes it incredibly more likely you will excel in crunch time and under pressure
Deja Vu
Now, strange things happen when you visualize and I’ll relate one to two to you really quickly. They are things called Deja Vu experiences. This is like going beyond confidence, into some Matrix type stuff. When you visualize consistently and with great attention to detail, oftentimes, when you are in a pressure situation – you will feel as if you have already played the game.
For instance, I had a play which got a three poitn shot on the right wing. I’d get at least one shot there a game, sometims two or three.
So I would visualize, just like I did above. And I still remember the first time it happened. The ball was coming to me on the wing, and – it’s hard to explain – but I KNEW THAT I WAS GOING TO MAKE THE SHOT. There was zero doubt. It was like I had seen this move before, and all I had to do was watch it happen. This wasn’t about confidence, I AHD ALREADY MADE THE SHOT. It was just a rerun.
Sounds crazy huh? But it’s not. This is a common experience for people who visualize. Just read Maxwell Maltz’s book Psychocybnetics. It’s listed on the Resource page.
Jordan on Visualizing:
And also, how about this: listen to Jordan talk about his deja vu experiences from visualization. This is a direct quote from the documentary “Michael Jordan to the Max.” He is speaking of what happens in the clutch:
“I tend to be calm; things tend to slow down… I go into situations where people don’t know the outcome, but I’ve already experienced it in my mind, just playing tricks with myself, so it didn’t feel new to me and I wasn’t afraid to fail with it. Once I began to understand that, I became a master of the game of basketball.”
What’s happening the brain when you visualization
- Hemisphere = Right hemisphere, the creative side is activated.
- Waves = Go into theta
- Neurons = fire like it’s real and send signals to muscles. Therefore you are building muscle memory without moving your muscles!
- Subconscious = is being programmed, the “well” is being filled with water.
- Memory = you are creating “fake” but very, very useful memories. This is what triggers the Deja Vu experiences, and what keeps you calm in crunch time.