Visualization and Mental Imagery with Sean Mahoney, MA

Hello! Welcome to the Monkey Mind Newsletter where we provide you with the tools to be a more successful and resilient athlete and human. 

CONTRIBUTOR
Sean Mahoney, MA

Sean Mahoney is a mental performance coach who received his Master’s degree in Sport and Performance Psychology program from the University of Denver. For as long as he can remember, Sean has been fascinated by human performance and how to gain an edge over the competition. For most of his athletic career, he focused on the physical aspect of performance but neglected the mental. Because of this, he struggled with performance anxiety, focus issues, and limiting beliefs pertaining to confidence and self-doubt. His lack of focus on optimizing his mental game prevented him from reaching his full potential.

Sean’s sport career began at a young age, with his efforts eventually consolidating towards football. Sean played competitive football through most of high school, but his athletic career changed course after he suffered a serious neck injury just before his senior year of high school. The injury caused him to retire from the sport and set him on course for a long journey of injury recovery. This experience led him to realize the importance of the mental aspect of injury recovery, and ultimately the mental aspects of performance in general. Sean‘s unique life experiences have fueled him with passion and drive to help others think, feel, and perform to the highest range of their capabilities as consistently as possible.

Sean has worked with youth, amateur, and professional athletes from a wide range of sports. Sean has worked with both teams and individuals and has experience working with adaptive sports and athletes with disabilities.

Education:

• M.A. Sport & Performance Psychology, University of Denver

• B.A. Psychology, Florida Atlantic University

Websites:

• northstarmethod.com

• cepmindset.com

Current organizations:

• Northstar Performance Psych

• CEP Mindset

TOPIC
Visualization & Mental Imagery

The use of mental imagery, or visualization, is the process of creating mental images of a desired outcome. The effective use of visualization is one of the most important mental skills a performer can develop and is a key factor in mental preparation. There are several reasons to train the skill of visualization, including but not limited to: skill learning/acquisition, solving technique problems, controlling arousal levels, recovery from injury, increasing motivation and confidence, planning for adversity in competition, etc. By using mental imagery in our mental preparation, we can plan our physical and mental responses to specific performance situations. We can plan on how we will execute a particular action in a gametime situation, how we would like to think and feel in particular moments, and how we will respond to challenges and adversity.

To optimize your mental imagery, keep these three fundamentals in mind:

1. Internal vs. external imagery (1st and 3rd person POV) – it is key to visualize situations from both a 1st and 3rd person point of view. In other words, envision the situation from your own view as well as a spectator’s view.

2. Vividness and controllability – to get the most out of visualization, our images must be vivid and controllable. It is crucial to create clear images in which we were able to influence the best possible outcome of the situation.

3. Use all five senses (sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell) – to create vivid images, utilize all of your five senses. Take a moment to notice what you would see, hear, feel, smell, and taste in each performance situation.

Just like physical skills, visualization is a skill that takes practice to master. It may be difficult to create a clear, vivid image of a successful performance at first. Start off simple, short and sweet, and gradually increase length and complexity of your images.

If you want to learn more: There are many well-established scientific theories that provide neurophysiological evidence for the effectiveness of mental imagery, specifically Psychoneuromuscular theory, Symbolic Learning Theory, Attentional Arousal Theory, and Bioinformational theory. Look into these theories if you would like to learn more about the science behind visualization. 

MENTAL PERFORMANCE TOOL
Create a Vivid Image

As stated before, visualization is a skill that requires practice. It is best to start by practicing creating short and simple mental images that are vivid and controllable. Use this exercise to get started:

• Pick a very simple skill in your sport/performance domain. Perform the skill over and over in your mind and imagine every feeling and movement in your muscles as you perform that skill. Try to feel this image as if you were inside your own body. Concentrate on how the different parts of your body feel as you stretch and contract the various muscles associated with the skill. Think about building a machine as you perform the skill flawlessly over and over again and concentrate on the feeling of the movement.

• Now try to combine all of your senses as you perform the skill over and over. Do not concentrate too hard on any one sense. Instead, try to imagine the total experience using all of your senses.

• Once you have mastered these exercises, you might consider follow-up variations to imagine more complex skills, grouping skills together, or placing the skill in the context of competition (such as reacting to certain defenses, executing strategy, etc.).

Reference: Williams, J. M., Krane, V., Vealey, R. S., & Forlenza, S. T. (2014). Chapter 13: Understanding and Using Imagery in Sport. In Applied Sport Psychology: Personal Growth To Peak Performance (Seventh). Chapter, McGraw-Hill Higher Education.

FEEDBACK

Tell Us What Topics You Want To See Included In The Newsletter

Are You In The Mental Performance Field And Would Like To Contribute? Reach Out!

Send Us An Email: [email protected]