How Olympians Train Their Brains

By Katrina Chen, Psychology, Northeastern University

Shooting that perfect three-pointer, sticking that landing of the backflip, perfecting that ski jump. All of these take extreme skill, focus, and for many Olympians — mental visualization. Prior to competition, many athletes use psychological techniques to enhance their concentration and performance.

By rehearsing a detailed mental image of the desired outcome, athletes can improve physical performance in their sport. Negative subliminal emotions of fear and anxiety often overcome athletes under stress and lead to athletic mistakes and failures. Repeated visualizations can train the subconscious mind to guide the body during the performance. There are two main theories that are used to explain this phenomenon.

The psychoneuromuscular theory states that by imagining movements, the brain subconsciously creates neuromuscular patterns similar to those constructed during physical movement. When movements are visualized, the neuromuscular system is exercised and neurons in the brain are fired to signal the muscles. All of this is done without the athlete actually moving. So, when a tennis player like Serena Williams visualizes a serve, the electrical activity in her brain mimics the electrical activity in her brain when she is actually serving the ball.

By rehearsing a detailed mental image of the desired outcome, athletes can improve physical performance in their sport.

Similarly, the symbolic learning theory suggests that mental imagery creates a blueprint for the upcoming motions. This blueprint contains the goals, motion sequence, and solutions needed for the performance. The more the mental image is visualized, the stronger the blueprint, and therefore the stronger the performance. By practicing visualization for around 10 minutes a day and five times a week, both during off season and right before competition, amateur and elite athletes alike can significantly improve their performance in sports.

The more vivid the mental image, the more effective the results and the stronger the athlete performs under pressure. In visualizing the performance, athletes can either use the internal perspective — which involves looking out of your body as if you are performing the sport — or the external perspective, which is visualizing your body as if you are watching yourself from a camera. Most athletes choose to visualize using the internal perspective, but both perspectives are equally effective.

Imagery is the key competent to sport visualization, but for Olympic skier Emily Cook, her pre-competition routine goes beyond visualization. “You have to smell it,” Cook said in an interview for the New York Times in 2014. “You have to hear it. You have to feel it, everything.”

By imagining the smell of the snow, the roar of the crowd, and her muscles firing, Cook increases her focus and confidence while executing high-skilled, freestyle-skiing sequences. The most effective mental visualization encompasses multiple senses, not just the visual sense. Incorporating visual, aural, physical, and emotional thoughts that occur during competition allows an athlete to most effectively improve all aspects of their performance.

More advanced visualization techniques are used by elite athletes during their training and before competition. First, an athlete will slow down the speed of the mental image and ensure the perfection of each motion. Then, they will slowly increase the speed of the visualization. This technique improves specific skills in their performance and ensures that athletes do not overlook key details in their performance. Additionally, athletes can make use of emotions to fuel their performance. To establish confident and strong performances, athletes can create powerful emotions through visualization. By intensifying and speeding up their visualization, athletes can help their subconscious brain, leading to a more powerful and successful performance.

The more vivid the mental image, the more effective the results and the stronger the athlete performs under pressure.

For example, a runner like Usain Bolt trying to improve his sprinting times can use visualization to run faster, but this is not possible without the use of emotions. He must visualize both the image of himself running and the positive emotions felt during his run. These emotions may include excitement, pride, and a sense of power. With the combination of these positive emotions and a sped-up image of himself running powerfully, Usain Bolt could significantly improve his performance.

Psychology and the unconscious mind play an imperative role in athletic performance that often goes neglected by athletes and coaches. The positive outcome of mental visualizations has proven to assist athletes in their confidence and performance. Perhaps before your next gymnastics meet, volleyball tournament, or dance competition, try visualizing your motions and imagining all your senses — you may just be shocked by the outcome.