In 1985 Charles Garfield PhD. wrote a book called Peak Performance: Mental Training Techniques of the World’s Greatest Athletes.
At the time the world’s greatest athletes were Russian. The communist sport system was steam ahead and the athletes coming out of Russia were considered cold, calculated, robotic. Not necessarily traits you want to have in your significant other, but when it comes to being an athlete the idea of performing without emotions getting the best of you seems ideal. And indeed it is.
In his landmark book, Dr. Garfield discusses a meeting he had with some of the top Russian scientists who revealed government funded athletic programs that integrated rigorous physical training with sophisticated mental training.
One of the studies these Russian researchers ran showed the incredible potential of mental training and visualization.
Four groups of world-class Russian athletes were put in identical training groups. The training was brutal and lasted for multiple hours during the week.
Here’s how the groups were split:
Group #1: 100% physical training.
Group #2: 75% physical training and 25% mental training
Group #3: 50% physical training and 50% mental training
Group #4: 25% physical training and 75% mental training
When the four groups were compared just before the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, the fourth group (Group #4) had shown “significantly greater improvement than Group #3, with Groups #2 and #1 following, in that order.”
What does that mean?
It basically means that your mental training is as important if not MORE important than your physical training.
And equally important is not what you do as it is THAT you do.
Unfortunately there is very little evidence available from this study. When the wall came down in the early ’90’s much of the communist sport school studies were lost.
But the gist of the study remains, and continues to be proven valid year after year. As an Olympian I understand completely the benefits to visualization, and the techniques I learned as an Olympia, I was able to apply to my goaltending in lacrosse.
The Basketball Free-Throw Study
You may have heard of the now famous study of basketball players who were split into three groups.
Group 1: Just shot free throws.
Group 2: Shot free throws AND visualized shooting free throws.
Group 3: Just visualized shooting free throws.
In this study Group 3’s improvement was AS good as Group 2 and BETTER than Group 1.
What does this tell us?
Visualization is more than just important…it should be mandatory!
But no one ever does it. And if they do they rarely do it properly.
Don’t Have Time To Train? Visualize.
While I was training to become an Olympian in the sport of luge. (Yes, I did that in my off-season’s to lacrosse) I learned about the benefits of visualization. Partially because I couldn’t afford, financially, to train as much as the other athletes on the national team.
My sports psychologist, Dr. Jerry Lynch taught me about the benefits of visualization and how, if done properly, it can replace…yes, actually replace…training.
Jerry told me, “The mind doesn’t know the difference between what’s real and what is imagined…with feeling. So while you think you are missing out on training and improving you can actually get the same benefits of training without actually being there.”
This was ground breaking for me. It eliminated all of my worry about not being able to get the same amount of training time as my competitors. To say it worked for me was an understatement. I was able to consistently beat athletes who had considerable amount of training time than I did, all by focusing on visualization.
I applied this same principle when I returned to play lacrosse in the spring. Many of the lacrosse goalies I was up against had already started playing earlier in the year. Many of them were playing lacrosse through the winter while I was unable to practice in Europe. But I was able to come back home and become an All-American, all because of visualization.
You Can Dramatically Increase Your Lacrosse Goaltending Ability Just By Visualizing
It’s true. If you look at those studies I referred to earlier you will see that you can improve your performance, and speed up your improvement by up to 50%
50%!!
Without any additional training.
No need for recovery. No need to get all sweaty. No need to get hit by more balls. No need to find a shooter.
You can do the same amount of training without actually leaving your bed. Seriously.
If you have ANY lacrosse goaltending experience under your belt, you have a foundation you can build on. Many lacrosse goalies think that they can only get better if they are actually getting shot on with real lacrosse balls and real shooters. This is simply not the case. Here are six tips for visualizing becoming a better lacrosse goalie:
- Visualize Before You Get To Practice: It’s all about being prepared and getting to Peak State. Before you head out to practice take some time to get quiet and close your eyes. Visualize going through your actual warm up before you get to practice. You will find that by seeing your warm up in your mind before you get to practice that you will have a much better practice.
- Visualize Before You Get To Bed and Before You Get Out of Bed: Whatever you fall asleep to will replay in your head up to seven times while you sleep. That’s right…your mind will work while you sleep. Actually it works harder while you’re asleep than when you’re awake but that’s another post. Do this before you fall asleep:
- Take six deep inhales and exhales. Melt into the bed each time you exhale. Now go through ten shots that you saw in your last game that you missed. See the shot going by you.
- Now this time say “Cancel. Cancel. New game. Levelling up.” Now visualize the same shot, but you saving the ball this time with perfect form. See yourself grabbing the rebound. Yelling clear. And passing the ball to a teammate.
- Do this three times for each goal. The idea is to not hype yourself and get all stressed out. See yourself with no emotion. Relaxed. Stress free. You will probably drift off to sleep before you get to the last goal and that’s perfectly fine. Your mind will work on these saves while you sleep.
- When you wake up don’t jump right out of bed. Set your alarm a little early so you can wake up slowly. Take some time to visualize today’s practice. See yourself getting out to practice early and being loose, warm, and relaxed. See yourself getting in the cage and going through your warm up.
- Only Visualize Positive Performance: You’ll probably want to visualize all of those bad goals again and again. Stop. Remember to say, “Cancel. Cancel. New Game. Levelling Up.” You want to replay in your minds eye the good things. You want an expectation of excellence.
- How Much Visualization Could You Do? If I told you that for every minute of visualization you did I’d give you a dollar. Unlimited supply. How much visualization would you do? (BTW the same thing works for your math test, that thesis your writing, that job interview you’re going on etc.) Visualize it all.
- Get My Audio Course: Seriously. If you’d like to learn more about visualization techniques especially for lacrosse goalies go here.
Visualization can increase your lacrosse goaltending performance fast. It can make you mentally bullet-proof and can make you a better goalie faster than you ever thought possible. The good news is that none, I repeat…NONE of your competition is probably visualizing. And not to the degree I’ve taught you here.
Coaches! Incorporate visualization training with your team. If you’d like tips on how to do that send me an email and I will send you some info on how to do that with your team.
Like this article? Leave me a comment below and be sure to share this on Facebook. There’s a lacrosse goalie in your life who needs to read it.
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