Holistic Athlete Weekly Newsletter

Prepare to Win

We’ve heard it a million times: confidence comes from preparation. While preparation involves understanding your opponent, practicing the game-plan, getting comfortable with the technique needed to execute, and reviewing situational strategy — the mental side of the game must be a part of the process for athletes to perform well in big games.

Many in my field find value in “positive visualization,” which I believe is helpful, but only to a certain point. It may feel good to envision everything going perfectly, executing exactly as practiced, and to think about how good it will feel to win. Here are the two significant limitations to this strategy:

1. Visualization is often incorrectly used to imagine positive outcomes. We want to be process-oriented. If we’re going to use positive visualization, it should be to get mental reps at technique, execution of strategic role, and our response to various situations.

2. What happens when a pitcher positively visualizes striking everyone out and having a great feel for all his pitches, but all the sudden in the top of the 1st inning it’s 2-0 with a runner on 3rd and 0 outs? Now what? The player hasn’t properly prepared for this moment mentally, and could struggle to respond well.