The mental imagery

Mental repetition of one’s motor performance not only promotes motor learning but is the main component of mental preparation for its execution.

Therefore, what should be understood by mental repetition or imagery. As evidence of how this is a well-established theme in the field of sport psychology, a definition is proposed that, although now 40 years old, continues to be effective in its clarity.

In fact, the best description was provided by Richardson in 1969, who identifies imagery in terms of the quasi-sensory and quasi-perceptual experience of which the athlete is aware and which exists in the absence of the stimulus conditions that actually trigger those sensory and perceptual reactions that are specific to that sport action. This definition of imagery allows us to highlight the three aspects that characterize it:

1. The competence in feeling the sensations and experiencing the perceptions that are typical of the actual motor or sports action but which, in this case, are activated only through a mental process.
2. The awareness of the individual who is performing this mental activity as well as the results it produces.
3. The non-necessity of the antecedents and environmental context that determine sports performance.

Moreover, mental repetition has been a popular mental training technique for athletes for many years already. As early as 1988 Orlick and Partington reported that 99 percent of Canadian athletes who participated in the Olympics made use of it, as did Murphy (1994) highlighting similar percentages referring to athletes attending the US Olympic Training Centre. Techniques for performing mental imagery exercises are widely described in mental training texts and are based on the concept that repetition should occur as if one were actually performing.

Mental repetition can be extremely useful with children because they are readily available to make use of their imagination. Children continually make use of this cognitive process when engaged in games that require creativity and imagination. In this sense, mental repetition is an integral part of the mental processes that enable learning, memorization, planning and performance in school tests as well as in cognitive-motor tests. Mental repetition should be used by teachers to help young people derive pleasure from activities and to teach how to increase concentration, confidence and effective control while performing their actions.

Imagery can be:

Direct - Consists of the exact mental repetition of a skill as if one were performing it at that moment. In this way, the child repeats a jump, a catch of the ball, a run or a shot moments before performing this action as if he or she were performing it at that exact moment.

Indirect - Consists of mental repetition of images that are related to the actions to be performed. For example, if the goal is “to move as light as a feather,” one might imagine a feather moving through the air. Or one might imagine running like a cheetah if the purpose is to move as quickly as possible.