Enhancing Athletic Performance Through Mental Imagery

Can imagining success actually make you stronger? Listen to how mental rehearsal impacts athletic performance, from mindfulness techniques to creating personalized imagery scripts.

Professor Adam Nicholls a leading researcher in sports psychology bridging the gap between research and practical application in sports psychology. A professor at the University of Hull and a competitive Brazilian Jiu Jitsu athlete, Adam translates cutting-edge research into actionable strategies for coaches and athletes seeking to optimize performance and well-being.

"We're doing imagery to help their psychological side for preparation for when they're performing. We focus more on the feelings associated with different performances. So getting them to imagine themselves feeling confident, feeling mentally tough..."

In this episode Andrew and Professor Adam discuss:

2:25 Adam’s prolific content posting ability on LinkedIn, the hardest feedback to take is usually the best to receive and why Adam is so passionate about posting helpful content online.

7:45 When you imagine something your muscles are activated, how champion blind surfer Matt Formston uses mental imagery and doing mindfulness exercises to stay present.

16:50 Doing 10 minutes of mindfulness a day as a gold medal standard, mental imagery creates neural pathways in your brain and real life examples of athletes using mental imagery.

23:10 Being calm is a different thing for different people, zones of optimal functioning and the difference between internal and external perspective in imagery.

27:20 Many research papers on this are done with students instead of athletes, each person has a different level of imagery ability and aphantasia – the inability to use mental imagery.

33:20 Using a string tied to a paperclip to test mental imagery ability, using mental imagery to improve your golf game and creating bespoke mental imagery scripts to help athletes in their practise.

42:45 Adam’s method for creating scripts, the PETTLEP model of mental imagery and the importance of doing imagery in real time.

48:15 Using mental imagery in injury rehab, broaden and build theory and how Adam uses that as a framework for his scripts.

53:40 When is the best time to do imagery, the rise of mental imagery in American football and letting athletes set their own pace when doing mental imagery.

1:01:00 Mental imagery is more about the feeling than ticking a box, some schools are now building this in to classes and Adam’s love of competing in Jiu Jitsu.

1:07:30 Adam learning more from competing in Jiu Jitsu than completing years of studying, doing new things to challenge yourself and the importance of experimenting with mental imagery and sticking with it.

You Can Find Professor Adam at his LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/professor-adam-nicholls-77453b20b/?originalSubdomain=uk
Buy a copy of Professor Adam's book: https://shorturl.at/U92K7
Try the burpee challenge: https://fit4racing.com/the-zone/death-by-burpee-challenge/

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