Stress Management, Relaxation & Motivation
Sessions 4 & 5
Essential Questions:
1. How do my thoughts impact my emotional and physical health and why is it important to be positive?
2. Why is knowledge and understanding of the mind-body connection important?
3. Why is the mind-body connection important in sports and in other activities which require a performance?
We will discuss the importance of positive thinking and the mind-body connection. We will discuss how this applies to mental imagery and visualization in sports and other activities. Below, you will find links to articles about positive thinking and mental imagery:
The Free Throw Experiment
Visualization is an often-taught mental rehearsal technique in sports. It is an extremely powerful tool and numerous studies have been done to test this. You may have heard of this basketball study or a different one with similar results.
A study conducted by Dr. Biasiotto at the University of Chicago was done where he divided people into three groups and tested each group on how many free throws they could make.
After this, he had the first group practice free throws every day for an hour.
The second group just visualized themselves making free throws.
The third group did nothing.
After 30 days, he tested them again.
The first group improved by 24%.
The second group improved by 23% without touching a basketball!!!!
The third group did not improve which was expected.
We're not condoning being lazy and not practicing. What we're trying to drive home is imagine what you could do if you implemented both practice and the mental rehearsal technique of visualization. The sky is the limit. You can apply this to all sports and if you do, it can do wonders for you and your team.
Tips on How to Use Visualization..
You need to involve Sight, Sound, and Feeling to really gain from the benefits of visualization.
Now, there are some important things to consider when visualizing. If you just picture yourself shooting free throws in third person as if it was a movie, you probably won't improve as much as you could.
You need to visualize everything out of your eyes (in the 1st person). You have to be there at the free throw line feeling the basketball. Seeing the goal. Hearing the noise.
As you shoot, you should FEEL the ball roll off your fingers. You should SEE the ball traveling through the air with perfect backspin. You should SEE your hands out in front of you with the perfect follow through. You should SEE your hands out in front of you holding the follow through as you HEAR & SEE the ball swish through the net.
Once, you do this, you're guaranteed to see results.