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THIS is the first of a four part series on Visualization in Sports.

Can Visualization Really Get You An Olympic Gold Medal?

Between 1956 – 1980, Russia (formerly known as USSR) was virtually untouchable in the gymnastics discipline. Larissa Latynina, Nikolai Andrianov and Boris Shakhlin were at the core of the Russian Gymnastics golden years - Larissa won an amazing nine gold medals, while Nikolai and Boris each won seven, cementing their places amongst the all time great Olympians.

During those Golden years for the Russians, nobody could argue about their performance. They won because they were simply better. They executed their routines to perfection. They deserve to win. But one question was always on everyone’s mind –

How did they manage to execute their routines perfectly all the time, if not most of the time?

It was only in the late 1980s that the secret was finally uncovered.

The Russians had employed the use of mental imagery training, what we now affectionately termed as visualization. They would not only train physically, but they would also mentally rehearse their routines hundreds of times before the actual competition.

The Russians have discovered a revolutionary way of improving sports performance!

Visualization can DOUBLE your progress!

There was a study conducted by Dr. Blaslotto at the University Of Chicago.

Dr. Blaslotto wanted to determine the effects of visualization on performance. He would gather a group of basketball players, and set out to test how visualization training would impact a player’s performance.

The performance measure would be the selected basketball players’ free throw percentage. For fairness, he would randomly assign the athletes to one of three groups, and he would take their free throw percentage before starting the experiment.

The first group would go to the gym and practice making free throw everyday for one hour.

The second group also would go to the gym. But instead of picking up a basketball and shoot, they would lie on the ground (I mentioned how to visualize in a later post, if you cannot wait, you can click the link here) and spend their time visualizing themselves making successful free throws.

The third group was the control, and they did not do anything.

30 days later, the three groups were retested.

The Results:
As expected, the third group did not show any improvement.

The second group of players, who had physically practiced, improved their free throw percentage by 24%.

What was truly amazing was that the first group, who did not physically make a single free throw, actually improved their free throw percentage by 23%! Just one percentage lower than those who practiced everyday for one hour!

BOTTOM LINE:

Combine physical training and visualization efficiently, you could potentially double your progress in any sports.

Having mentioned the tremendous advantage you will gain with visualization, it is important to know that physical training is just as important. You can visualize yourself making the perfect shots you always wanted, but if you do not have the physical fitness to last a whole day, your skills would be wasted.

Read The Next Article In The Series
>> Part 2 - Find Out Why Visualization Can Improve Your Performance As Much As The Physical Training Itself!