The Power of Visualisation

Visualising outcomes may seem a little new age, some people may deem it nonsensical, and others wholly onboard with the concept. 

In this brief post I want to discuss how visualisations can impact us, physically.  This can then lead into a later post about how we can use some of these techniques to help us in other ways.

In his 1958 dissertation, as part of his thesis for a doctorate in education, L Verdelle Clark, reminisced on his physical educator, Chiltern Kemp, who incorporated mental imagery into his training programmes for his students playing basketball.  This influenced L Verdelle Clark to such a degree that he dedicated a chunk of his doctoral thesis to the study of mental imagery in sports learning.  In his research he recruited students from US Schools, in Detroit.  He had one group physically practicing 5 warmup shots, then 25 shots to score.  Another mentally rehearsed 5 warmup shots, then mentally took 25 shots for a score.  They repeated this for four days, on the fifth day both groups took 25 warmup shots, and 25 shots for a score.  The findings demonstrated that there's only a 1% difference in improvement between the physical practice group and the mental rehearsal group (the physical group improved by 16%, the mental rehearsal group, 15%).  The mental rehearsal group was also shown to demonstrate a statistically significant improvement in arm strength during the course of the experiment.

This really demonstrates how visualisation and incorporating mental imagery can be a way to success for anyone wanting to improve or develop skills.