Mental Rehearsal
The instructions on this page guide you through the steps required for mental rehearsal. You can use this technique to help learn any skill or prepare yourself for exams.
Mental rehearsal is used extensively by sportsmen and women to enhance their performance. It is said that Ayrton Senna could mentally drive around any Grand Prix circuit in the world within half a second of his real lap time.
You now often see racing drivers, tennis players and other sportsmen and women quietly reflecting before and event and rehearsing their performance mentally - but mental rehearsal isn't just for sports. You can use mental rehearsal (sometimes called positive visualisation) in any aspect of your life.
Proven technique
An experiment using basketball goal throwing as a task has been accredited to a Dr. Blaslotto, an American psychologist – however, there are doubts whether this person ever existed! However, there is a documented experiment by Prof. L.V. Clark of Wayne State University in the 1960s – this might well be the ‘Blaslotto’ experiment.
Three groups of average people were asked to take 100 free throws. None of these people had played basketball before. The results of the 100 throws were recorded.
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
Mental rehearsal instructions
Do this once a day, or whenever an issue is on your mind. If you're too busy, do it just before bedtime. If you go to sleep too easily, do it sitting up.
To stay on track, refer to this page as you go. Don't just try it once, keep the faith and stick with it for a month, see you how you feel!
Setup
What? Where? When?
Think of the situation in which you want to perform at your best.
Take a minute to think about various results you want out of the situation.
Get the right state
Ask yourself, "What would be the best way I could possibly feel to be at my best in this situation?"
Ask yourself, "What words or phrases express the ways I want to feel in the situation?"
Ask yourself, "When have I ever felt anything like that, or like some part of that?"
Amplify the state
Remember the good feeling from the past (or from imagination)
Start getting that ideal feeling by thinking of the past experiences and words and phrases.
Amplify the feelings just like adjusting a television: brightness, volume, intensity, whatever.
When you have as much of the feeling as you can get, go to the next step.
The rehearsal
Imagine the situation as if you were watching yourself in a movie.
Imagine that you are fully in that ideal feeling, as shown by your face, posture, movement, and voice.
If you don't like how the fantasy goes, rewind it a bit and adjust it until you like what you see. When you like what you see, step inside the movie, live it and feel it mentally.
Special tip: if the fantasy seems to have a mind of its own, you have probably found some deeper resistance to change. If so STOP right there and really focus your highest intentions on changing it at that point to be positive.
The Special Ending
To improve your confidence, creativity and objectivity, this part of the exercise helps your 'survival centre' realise that you are not physically threatened in situations where the challenge does not require a fight or flight reaction (such as an exam).
By improving this reaction, you will be smarter in the situation.
Choice 1: Understanding
This ending is good when you are dealing with someone who upsets, angers or hurts you. In your imagination, have them express a perfect understanding of your highest, positive motives and intentions.
In other words, they show that they really understand why you are doing what you are doing, and they explain it to you really well.
This makes some people teary or embarrassed when they do it. Go for it anyway. Also, this is not to build unrealistic expectations, it is to improve your readiness for whatever the real situation will be, so don't object just because this is unrealistic.
Choice 2: Winning (Probably the most relevant for training)
If performance is the number one priority, as with sports, sales, driving test, etc., imagine the perfect outcome.
Really get into the details of it. For example, see yourself at your best, then getting the trophy, passing the test!
Next: Section 4 questions