Tsui Yee

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Using mental imagery to improve athletic

performance: Does it really work, and how does it
relate to you?
Psychology: Cognitive Perspective

Mental Imagery in Sports

Key Concept: Change
Related Concept: Behaviour, Cognition
Global Context: Identities and Relationships

Factual Question
Define mental imagery. What are some ways that mental imagery is used by athletes?

Conceptual Question
Describe the psychoneuromuscular theory (Jacobson, 1930), symbolic learning theory (Sackett,
1934), and any other theories or psychological models.

Debatable Question
Evaluate the psychoneuromuscular theory (Jacobson, 1930), symbolic learning theory (Sackett,
1934), and any other theories or psychological models. Do they model the real world?
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Why is your area of focus worthy of investigation? (Maximum 200 words)

There are a lot of evidence that supports the application of mental imagery to improve athletic
performances. However, mental imagery a skill that requires practice and dedication in order for it
to be effective. Therefore, it is worthy to investigate the extent of its efficacy to determine its
advantages to athletes, to whom time is very valuable. Personally, I am interested in this topic
because I have just took on a new role in the school ball hockey team as a goaltender after playing
as a forward for two years. The mental demands and amount stress that a goaltender is subjected
to is arguably greater than a runner. I also find myself able to perform better, able to plan my
movement and saves better, and feel more confident and calm after watching videos of
goaltending highlights the night before a practice or a game. I am curious whether the technique
of applying mental imagery to pregame preparation and as a practice routine would be significantly
benefit my performance and development of skills for the next season.

How is your title helping you to investigate this focus area? (Maximum 300 words)
The title of Using mental imagery to improve athletic performance: Does it really work? helps me
frame my research, and denotes that I should evaluate the benefits of using mental imagery to
improve athletic performances, guided by my factual, conceptual and debatable question.
Specifically, the factual question should give me sufficient grounding to the project, and give me an
idea of the real life application of visual imagery by athletes, supplementing the psychological
theories that I will research about. The conceptual and debatable questions gives me a chance to
acquire knowledge, and develop insight of the theories related to mental imagery, which will be one
of the perspective I will be arguing with when I finally determine whether using mental imagery
would improve athletic performances. The title also serves to keep me on task, preventing me from
reading related hockey articles for too long.

Action Plan
Week beginning Plan of activities to undertake Amendments
3 April Determine topic for research, start research.
5 April Determine key concept, related concept,
global context, factual question, conceptual
question, and debatable question.
13 April Ask Mr Burford about scope of project.
25 April Confirm topic, key concept, related concept, 23 April changed topic from the theory of
global context, factual question, conceptual motivation in sports psychology to the use of
question, and debatable question of choice. mental imagery by athletes.
25 April Start research Finished reading most collected materials +
- Research will be guided by factual, answered factual question on 17 of May; ongoing
conceptual, and debatable questions. answering of conceptual question and debatable
- Collect resources, make a list. question (to be completed as I write the first draft
- Read through materials and make notes of the magazine article).
when necessary.
8 May Make outline for the magazine article.
8 May Begin writing the first draft of the article. Began writing first draft of article on 20th of May.
6 - 14 May CAS Trip
26 May Finish the first draft of the article. Proofread First draft of article is finished on the 30th of May.
the first draft. Make any changes if
necessary.
30 May Complete evaluation, check over the Journal.
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2 June Finalise everything. Hand in project.

Define mental imagery.
Mental imagery consists of intentionally bringing images to mind or rehearsing performances
without actually physically enacting the performance. Mental imagery is not limited to visualization,
and it has been recommended that it involve all the senses. (Gallucci, 2008, 96)

Imagery that promotes the acquisition of sport skills is considered to serve a cognitive function
related to either specific skills (cognitive specific) or general strategies in sport (cognitive general)
(Paivio, 1985). Imagery focused on the steps necessary for goal attainment serves more of a
motivational function. Motivational general imagery augments affect and arousal; motivational
specific imagery focuses on the specific steps for goal attainment. (Gallucci, 2008, 85)

Mental imagery can be defined as pictures in the mind or a visual representation in the absence of
environmental input. Not everybody can conjure up mental images at will. Sir Francis Galton
discovered this in 1883 when he asked 100 people, including prominent scientists, to form an
image of their breakfast table from that morning. Some had detailed images, others reported none
at all.

An abundance of evidence from brain scanning research shows that the same areas of the brain
used for normal perception are also activated by mental imagery. (Miyashita, 1995). In general,
imagination activates some of the same brain areas as normal perception. For example, "thinking
about a telephone activates some of the same brain areas as seeing a telephone." (Posner, 1993)

My definition of mental imagery

Mental imagery refers to the cognitive task of experiencing an event or performing a task
involving vision and other sense, without actually undergoing the event or task.

Examples of how athletes use mental imagery

Pre-game preparation
- Familiarise the athlete with a special competition site, race course, complex play plan,
routine, etc. (supported by symbolic learning theory, Sackett 1934).
- Also used to learn a new sport skill.
- Recalling previous achievements and positive outcomes (such as making a big save or
scoring a goal) of previous competitions, practice sessions, game period, etc.
- Motivate athlete to keep up with the outstanding performance by feeling confident
in self and seeing success.
- Reduce negative thoughts and aid recovering from a mistake (managing stress
and anxiety).
- Refocus during game/ performance (regulating arousal).
- "Regularly visualize yourself winning matches by running powerful, vivid and
emotional images of success through your mind, seeing yourself playing brilliantly
in every department of the game" - Roger Federer
- Mike Cammalleri, left wing ice hockey player, alternate captain of the New Jersey
Devils
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AH2NhZhJRo
- Kayla Harrison, who is seeking to defend her Olympic judo title at the Rio Games,
spends time daily imagining success at the Olympic Games.
- HARRISON: Every night I visualize myself wnining the Olympics I
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picture myself bombing the girl in the final and standing on top of the
podium and watching the flag go up and feeling the gold medal go around
my neck and hugging my coach. I visualize all of that every night.
- Swimmer Missy Franklin, who won four gold medals at the London Games, uses
visualization as a way of reducing anxiety of the unknown.
- FRANKLIN: When I get there, Ive already pictured whats going to
happen a million times so I dont actually have to think about it.
- Diver Troy Dumais, a four-time Olympian, uses visualization as a way of mentally
practicing his performance.
- DUMAIS: If you can see yourself hitting a dive, the chances of you hitting
a dive increase greatly.
- Fencer Mariel Zagunis, a two-time gold medalist, uses visualization as a way of
reviewing her game plan for her opponents.
- ZAGUNIS: In saber fencing, points happen literally in split seconds, and
tides can change and turn very, very quickly. So part of visualization is
preparing yourself for every situation, so when it shows itself, youre ready
for it.
- Plan the next move to be executed.
- Golfer Jack Nicklaus: "I never hit a shot even in practice without having a sharp
in-focus picture of it in my head. It's like a colour movie. First, I "see" the ball
where I want it to finish, nice and white and sitting up high on the bright green
grass. Then the scene quickly changes, and I "see" the ball going there: its path,
trajectory, and shape, even its behaviour on landing. Then there's a sort of
fade-out, and the next scene shows me making the kind of swing that will turn the
previous images into reality and only at the end of this short private Hollywood
spectacular do I select a club and step up to the ball."
- Myself: predict where the ball will end up after a rebound/ whether the forwards
will pass through the center (see flashes of the possibilities in my head), and
see the positions I should adopt for each of the possibilities.

Applied in rehabilitation from physical injuries, to keep sharp and mentally prepared for return
- Rehearsing strategies, game plans, a routine, etc.
- Organise goals and provide motivation to achieve the goals.
- Relaxation imagery promotes physical relaxation, which would aid the healing and
rebuilding of the injured area. It will also help aid the stress that comes with dealing with
pain inflicted by the imagery.

Additional notes:
Some psychologists argues that mental imagery is a skill, not an innate ability, thus requires
practice for it to be effective in helping to improve athletic performances. Brain studies also
shows that mental imagery impacts many cognitive processes in the brain, such as motor
control, attention, perception, planning, and memory. It is also found to be able to enhance
motivation, increase confidence and self-efficacy, improve motor performance, prime the brain
for success, and increase states of flow.
- Surgeons, musicians and others whose profession require a high degree of focus, and
performing at a high-stake environment are known to use mental imagery as well.
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Describe the psychoneuromuscular theory (Jacobson, 1930), symbolic learning theory

(Sackett, 1934), and any other related theories or psychological models. Evaluate these
theories and/ or other theories or psychological models. Do they model the real world?

Psychoneuromuscular theory (Jacobson, 1930)

The psychoneuromuscular theory is suggested to explain the the positive effects of motor imagery.
It is suggested that through imagining movements, similar, though weaker impulses are produced
in the brain and in the muscles (innervation in muscles) as though the subject is actually
performing the movement. Such neuromuscular response strengthens the neural pathways
between the muscles used in performing a physical skill and the brain, thereby theoretically
improving movement quality. A piece of evidence of this theory is that the electromyographic
patterns of the muscle activity of skiers who imagine they are performing a downhill run, are similar
to the electrical patterns of the skiers muscles when they have actually been skiing.
- Feltz and Landers: a lack of controlled investigation to assess the quantitative effects of
the muscle activity, and lack of direct evidence showing localized innervation in the muscle
that was imaginally moved
- Performing a sequence of highly timed movements has equal cognitive and motor
components.

Symbolic learning theory (Sackett, 1934)

The symbolic learning theory suggest movement patterns are symbolically coded in our central
nervous system, and that imagery will facilitate the coding of the movements into symbols, which
makes movement easier to execute. According to the theory, skills that are more cognitive in
nature are more easily coded than pure motor skills. Sackett supported his theory by showing that
performance in a finger maze - a more cognitive task - is improved with mental rehearsal.
Experiments and studies by Morrisett, Minas, Wrisberg and Ragsdale, and Ryan and Simons also
supported Sacketts theory by showing that mental rehearsal has a more significant effect on
cognitive tasks than motor tasks.
- Motor-learning theorists (e.g. Fitts and Posner 1967, Gentile 1972, 1987, 2000): Early
stages of learning are primarily cognitive
- Mental rehearsal shows benefit for experienced athletes as well, who has a
well-established movement pattern
- Does not explain why feedback from muscles to brain helps improve movement.

Yerkes-Dodson Law (1908)

- People perform best at a moderate level of arousal
(physiological or psychological stress)
- underconfidence, low concentration, and exhaustion.
- Slightly higher than average arousal level will benefit
people performing low difficulty tasks.
- Moderate level of arousal will benefit people
performing moderate difficulty tasks
- Slightly lower than average arousal level will benefit
people performing high difficulty task.
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Chat/ Interview
Uses mental imagery:
Can you describe how you use mental imagery to improve your performance? What is your
routine?

How has the use of mental imagery benefit your athletic performance? In what aspects do you see
improvements (e.g. emotion control, anticipation of challenges, learn from mistakes, etc.)?

Any other comments you would like to share?

Does not use mental imagery

Is there any techniques that you use to mentally prepare yourself for a race/ game or improve your
performance? Can you describe them? (e.g. watching videos, listening to upbeat music,
self-talking, etc.)

Mindy Fan 10H, athlete of the Athletics school team, Dragon Boat team

Mr Adam Copus, coach of school Ball Hockey team, currently the captain of the Hong Kong
Islanders team (plays competitive ball hockey locally and throughout Asia)
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Abbie Cheung, athlete in the school Ball Hockey team, Athletics team, and Badminton team
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Outline for magazine article (1200-1500 words)

Introduction - Define mental imagery and discuss its uses

Summary of theories concerning mental imagery, and a brief commentary on the extent which
mental imagery should work/ how it should be used with physical training

Empirical evidence of using mental imagery to improve athletic performances

Interview results

Individuality in mental imagery - how mental imagery can be tailored to suit the needs of different
athletes at different times
- Different athletes example
- Mike Cammalleri
- Mr. Copus
- Missy Franklin
- Roger Federer

Conclusion - answer the research question: does mental imagery really work to improve athletic
performances? Relate to the ordinary people: how mental imagery can benefit their daily lives.
- A flow state isnt just helpful for athletes surgeons performing challenging,
state-of-the-art procedures report experiencing intense flow comparable to pro athletes. But
flow states can also occur when were writing, dancing, cooking or even reading a book. It
helps us to become deeply involved with anything were doing, and according to
psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, author of Finding Flow, argues that its the secret to a
joyful life.
- Must be combined with actual practice
- Mental imagery impacts many cognitive processes in the brain: motor control, attention,
perception, planning, and memory, researcher Angie LeVan wrote in Psychology Today.
So the brain is getting trained for actual performance during visualization. Its been found
that mental practices can enhance motivation, increase confidence and self-efficacy,
improve motor performance, prime your brain for success, and increase states of flow.
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Using mental imagery to improve athletic performance: Does it really work,

and how does it relate to you?

What makes a good athlete great? According to

Roger Federer, a struggling young player at sixteen, but
recognised as the greatest male tennis player at present
by some athletes and analysts, one of the keys to success
is to "Regularly visualize yourself winning matches by
running powerful, vivid and emotional images of success
through your mind, [and] seeing yourself playing brilliantly
in every department of the game". Such routine, termed as
mental imagery, visualisation or mental rehearsal might sound like a bizarre method to improve your
athletic performances, but the experiences of athletes of different skill levels, cognitive psychology theories,
and empirical evidence have shown its benefits.

In psychology, mental imagery is a quasi-perceptual experience, referring to the cognitive task of

experiencing an event, or performing a task involving vision and other sense without actually undergoing the
event or task. Because of its ability to improve the performance of a routine under a high-stress environment,
it is employed by many athletes competing at different levels for different purposes.

One of the left winger and current alternate

captain of the NHL New Jersey Devils, Mike Cammalleri
was once caught on video to be sitting on the bench
before a game against the Pittsburgh Penguins. His eyes
were wide open, tracking an imaginary puck, and he was
rapidly twisting and turning his hockey stick while jolting
his head side to side in a vivid rehearsal of the moves he
plans to make. In the game, Cammalleri ended up
executing the exact move he visualised and earned a
goal in the process. Mr Adam Copus, the coach of the VSA Ball Hockey team also shared a similar success
using mental imagery. Three to four years ago, he was able to successfully make his trademark 2-on-1 play,
which won the Thailand Mekong Cup for the Hong Kong team. He fooled the goalie by looking at my [his]
linemate as if I [he] was going to pass, but shoot [shot] on the goalies glove side high, without looking at
the net. Mr Copus credited his success on his warmup routine: picking [shooting at] the top corner [of the
net] without looking from the proper distance, picture that happening successfully on the bench, and retry
the shooting again.
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The benefits of using mental imagery to improve the performance of a sequence of movement, as
exemplified, is supported by the symbolic learning theory (Sackett, 1934) and the psychoneuromuscular
theory (Jacobson, 1930). The former suggests that movement patterns are symbolically ciphered in our
central nervous system, and that imagery will facilitate the coding of the movements into symbols, thus
making the routine easier to execute. The latter has a more physiological take, arguing that through
imagining movements, weak innervation is achieved in the muscles, which reinforces the neural pathways
between the muscles used in performing a physical skill and the brain, thereby improving the quality of the
movement.

However, these theories are inadequate in explaining why mental imagery improves athletic
performances on their own. Sackett implied that mental rehearsal is more beneficial towards cognitive tasks
than pure motor tasks by showing that navigating in a finger maze is improved with mental rehearsal.
Research by Morrisett (1956), Minas (1980), Wrisberg and Ragsdale (1979), and Ryan and Simons (1981)
also supports the postulation. Yet, mental rehearsal is found to benefit experienced athletes as well, who
have long established their movement patterns, like Cammalleri and Mr Copus. The cognitive and motor
component of the plays that they made is equally important as well. In addition, one can argue that the basis
of the psychoneuromuscular theory is unsound, because there is a lack of controlled assessment to quantify
innervation due to mental imagery. The theory also failed to explain how the kinesthetic feedback from the
muscles to the brain contributed to enhancing athletic performance, thus rendering the theory merely a
representation of an important aspect of mental imagery, rather than an explanation of the processes that
improves performance.

To further evaluate the benefits of visual imagery, studies and experiments can be referenced. For
instance, a study by Buck et al. in 2016 shows that people who watched a video of themselves performing
front squats, followed by a structured imagery protocol was able to have better measurements for front squat
strengths (three repetition maximum) than the control group, who viewed a placebo video only. Another
study, which relied heavily on questionnaires (Parnabas et al., 2015) found a positive correlation between the
use of mental imagery with sports performances among Taekwondo athletes of different levels, ranging from
those of collegiate level to national level. These studies connote that, contrary to Sacketts believe, mental
imagery poses significant advantages to motor tasks as well.

Alternatively, mental imagery can be used to help athletes regulate their anxiety or increase
motivation to reach the appropriate arousal level, and be in the state of flow. For swimmer Missy Franklin,
the winner of four gold medals at the London Olympics, visualisation is a way of controlling the fear of the
uncertain. She expressed that by picturing whats going to happen a million times, she can refrain from
thinking about it when she is competing. On the other hand, for athletes like Olympic judoka Kayla Harrison
and Roger Federer, as mentioned above, mental imagery is used to increase motivation and priming their
brain and body for success. By envisioning success and revisiting past achievements, they are able to
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regulate a moderate level of arousal, which, according to the Yerkes-Dodson law (1908), is a key to generate
peak performance.

The Yerkes-Dodson law proposes that under

or over arousal, associated with a lack of motivation
or anxiety and fear, will hinder a ones performance.
The use of mental imagery to help an athlete to
hype up, or to feel in control of the situation is
therefore useful to regulate levels of self-efficacy and
motivation, and control the stress and tension that
comes with competitions. This will eventually assist
the athlete to enter the zone, otherwise known as
the state of flow, where one feels genuine enjoyment in an activity that he or she is fully immersed and
focused on, in order performance at his or her best. A study by Dhiman and Bedi (Effect of autogenic training
and mental imagery on the trait anxiety of the hockey players, 2010) clearly illustrates the ability of mental
imagery to decrease the trait anxiety level of hockey players of the Netaji Subhas National Institute of Sports,
Patiala. Their mean score for trait anxiety measured using the Spielberger test (1973) decreased from a
mean of 36.81 to 29.55 after mental imagery is implemented.

Regardless of the credibility of psychological theories concerning the benefits of mental imagery,
studies have found that mental imagery influences many cognitive processes involved in sports, such as
motor control, attention, perception, planning, and memory. As proven by the experience of athletes, and
as researcher Angie LeVan once wrote in Psychology Today, mental imagery can heighten an athletes
motivation, self-efficacy and state of flow, and improve motor performances. But how does this relate to
you?

If you play sports, you can develop a supplementary mental routine to your physical training, to
enhance your athletic performance or condition yourself when recovering from an injury. Mental imagery
routines can also be applied to everyday challenges, particularly those that involves performance under a
high-pressure and high-stakes environment. For example, if you need to give a speech or perform in front of
an audience, you can mentally rehearse your speech or performance piece to familiarise yourself with the
routine. You can also formulate reasonable backup plans, in case something goes wrong on the day of the
show. Mental imagery can also be applied to reduce uneasiness related to undergoing a certain stressful
task that requires intense focus, like taking an exam or meeting a deadline. By visualising scenarios opposes
your arousal level, you can easily find yourself in the zone, performing at your best.
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Evaluation
I think the overall quality of my work is satisfactory. I used quite a lot of examples to explain the
ways that mental imagery is be used by athletes to make the article more comprehensive and
relatable to the readers; and called upon two psychology theories and one law to evaluate the
benefits of mental imagery on athletic performances. I was also able to critically evaluate the
theories by examining their claims and supporting evidence, and further justified the benefits of
mental imagery with numerous studies.

To collect data and acquire knowledge that is necessary for me to write this article, I read multiple
eBooks on Google Books and studies found online; used various websites, articles, blogs, online
resources such as Prezi, downloadable documents and videos; and asked my schoolmates and
hockey coaches about their experience with mental imagery. Taking the validity of the sources into
consideration, I made sure to use credible sources by checking that they are reputable. These data
collection method and measures that I have taken ensured that the information that I have
gathered is of considerable quality. However, I missed out on a potentially valuable source of
primary research. Simon, my goalie coach who plays in the Hong Kong mens ball hockey club and
played internationally presumably forgot to respond to my follow-up questions. I should have
perhaps reminded him about the questions, which would yield details on how mental imagery
helped him when he played in the junior ice hockey league.

My study is limited in the sense that it is a bit too theory-centered. It lacked the truly unique insight
and originality that a good magazine article will have. Therefore, to improve, I could have designed
and conducted an experiments myself, and draw from the results to make my arguments in the
article. In addition, my study also only covers a small fraction of the theories pertaining to mental
imagery, which makes its level of comprehensiveness rather limited.

Concerning my time management, I had a late start on the research, because I changed my topic a
few weeks into the project, after I realised that my original topic does not have as much related
resources. As a result, I struggled a bit with completing the article, evinced by the fact that I
completed the article first four days later than I planned, since I had less time to plan, conduct, and
organise my research. To improve, I should have started my article perhaps when I am halfway
through my research, and completed the other half of the research as I wrote my article. That way,
I would have a brief idea of the direction I would like to take my article, and therefore would not
have wasted time researching about things that is not closely relates to my article.

Other than the improvements that I have mentioned above, if I had to redo this project, I would like
to ask more athletes that I know on their use of mental imagery. This would give me better insights
on the different ways mental imagery can be employed to improve athletic performances, other
than helping with the cognitive component of performing a movement, and the regulation of
emotions before a competition. I would also format each of the source that I have used into MLA
format immediately, so that I would not need to spend an extensive amount of time organising all of
the sources that I have used at the end of the project.
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