What is imagery?
Imagery is creating or recreating an image in your mind.
Many people use the terms imagery and visualization interchangeably. The main difference between the two is that visualization is only using one sense, whereas imagery uses several of them. The more senses you can use, the more vivid your mental image will be.
You can use imagery to help with injury recovery, learn new skills and techniques (hint this is great for swimming), practice your race strategy, gain more experience pushing through those rough moments.
Imagery also helps lower race anxiety by allowing you to see and experience yourself overcoming the obstacles you worry about. For example, if you can imagine yourself navigating race morning calmly and with confidence, it will make it easier to do so on an actual day.
Arguably the most valuable benefit to practicing imagery is that it allows you to simulate every possible race condition you could experience, so you are prepared for anything. This also trains your brain to be proactive when adversity pops up on race day, even if it isn’t a specific scenario you rehearsed.
This allows you to practice how you want to respond to various challenges, distractions, and scenarios.
Tips for practicing imagery:
Practice regularly & intentionally
Start with simple, familiar images or skills
When done at the wrong time, it can be detrimental to performance
Consider how you can incorporate all of the 5 senses to make the image more vivid
Start with 1-2 minutes
If you are new to imagery, start with familiar images as it can be difficult for some to create the pictures in their minds. It is definitely a skill that takes both time and practice, just like any other skill.
