How to Master Visualization Techniques to Overcome Performance Nerves

USA Cheer has partnered with TrueSport, to provide new educational tools to equip coaches, parents and young athletes with the resources to build life skills and core values for success in sports and in life. TrueSport, a movement by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, inspires athletes, coaches, parents, and administrators to change the culture of youth sport through active engagement and thoughtful curriculum based on cornerstone lessons of sportsmanship, character-building, and clean and healthy performance, while also creating leaders across communities through sport.

Visualization can be an athlete’s secret weapon, and it’s a skill that you can practice in the car, at home, or whenever you have downtime in your sport. Using mental imagery to work through key game-day scenarios can help you find the right balance of game-day nerves and calm energy that allows you to perform at your peak.

Here, TrueSport Expert Kevin Chapman, PhD, clinical psychologist and founder of The Kentucky Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders, explains how visualization can help you manage nerves, turn them into a performance advantage, and prepare for the biggest moments in a game or competition.

What is visualization?

Visualization, which Chapman also calls mental imagery, is the practice of carefully “rehearsing” a situation in your mind until it feels familiar. The more you picture a moment in detail, the easier it may feel when it actually happens in competition.

Think about moments like stepping up to bat in the final inning of a softball game, running shoulder to shoulder with a top competitor in the last lap of an 800-meter race, or taking a penalty shot on the ice. Those are all great times to practice visualization.

“Visualization is powerful because unlike performance anxiety, which focuses on what can go wrong, visualization can help you prevent those things from happening,” he says. “You can use it to prepare for competition and for things going right, but you also can use it to fix things that are going wrong.”

“We know that too much anxiety will hurt our performance, but if we have too little anxiety, our body won’t be ready to perform well,” Chapman adds. “We have to learn how to optimize that nervous energy in order to perform effectively. That’s where visualization and mental imagery can come in.”

Can I get rid of performance anxiety?

Visualization can help you manage game-day nerves, but the goal is not to get rid of them completely. “Performance anxiety implies that you care. Normalizing performance anxiety is key, because performance anxiety is a normal part of competition,” Chapman says. “It goes back to the motto that one of my football coaches used to say in high school: ‘If you ain't hyped, something ain't right.’”

In fact, if you feel performance anxiety, that can actually be a sign you’re ready to start using visualization. “Anxiety is about preparatory coping,” says Chapman. “You’re preparing yourself for a future threat. The future threat in competition is not playing well, not performing well, or losing the game. So, we don't need to judge anxiety. We need to accept it as something that's a normal part of sport and learn to optimize anxiety so that it works for us and not against us.”

As you practice visualization, you shift your focus from what could go wrong to what you want to happen, how it will happen, and how you’ll feel afterward. You’re still thinking ahead, but now you’re imagining success instead of disaster.

How do I use visualization?

To visualize a part of a competition or the whole event, your images should be detailed, specific, and realistic. You need to be able to picture yourself doing the action clearly and believe it is possible for you.

For example, if you’ve never run a sub-5-minute mile, visualizing a 4:55 finish probably won’t help if your current best time is 5:45.

Chapman calls his method the “sandwich of visualization imagery.” Here’s how it works.

• The bottom slice of bread: This is the setup. If you’re nervous about a free throw, this part includes everything leading up to that shot, like how you feel when you walk to the line. Put yourself in that moment.
• The meat: This is the main part of the visualization. It includes the physical details and mechanics. What is your body doing right? What are you focusing on, like your form? What are you tuning out, like crowd noise? This part can be a few seconds long or stretch across an entire race, depending on your sport.
• The top slice of bread: This is the finish. You picture what happens after everything goes well. You make the shot, it swishes through the hoop, your teammates cheer, or you get the trophy. Ending with a positive outcome helps complete the visualization.

When to use it

Visualization is useful before a competition, but it works best when you’ve been practicing it well before game day. If you’ve already built the scenario in your mind, you can mentally replay it before you compete.

“You need to be practicing it,” he says. “The neural pathways in your brain are strengthened through repetition, so it’s best to practice imagery often to ensure the motions are more automatic when you need it on competition day.”

Ideally, Chapman says to practice visualization at least three times a week for 15 to 20 minutes at a time. He recommends sitting comfortably with your eyes closed. If your visualization includes a ball, stick, bat, or other piece of equipment, hold it while you practice.

You can do the whole thing in your head, but Chapman also likes the idea of recording your visualization on your phone and playing it back. “I have athletes record their imagery as a narrative using present participle language—things like ‘I shoot the ball’—and make that recording as clean as possible. Then, they play that recording on a loop for 15 to 20 minutes, three times a week. During that time, they are distraction free. They have their gear in hand.”

He also says visualization can help during competition, like right before a penalty shot, or when you need to reset and refocus after things start going wrong. That’s why it helps to practice the situations you’re most likely to face, especially the ones that make you feel nervous.

Common mistakes to avoid

 Using it to get rid of nerves

Visualization should not be about trying to erase nerves or performance anxiety. A little nervous energy can actually help you compete. The goal is to manage the nerves that get in your way and use the energy you feel in a positive way.

Assuming that if you think it, it can happen

Visualization has to stay realistic to work. It can challenge you to improve, but it should still feel possible. As Chapman says, it needs to be “concrete and achievable.”

Not practicing it beforehand

Imagery is not something you should save for game day. Chapman says it should be part of your training routine, whether you’re at home, in the car, or in the locker room.

Thinking about negative outcomes

It can be helpful to prepare for tough moments, but Chapman does not want athletes to focus on negative outcomes. Instead, he says to picture what you want to see, not what you want to avoid. Focusing too much on bad outcomes can make them feel even bigger in your mind.

Takeaway

Visualization can help athletes manage nerves and performance anxiety, but it takes practice. The more you rehearse a moment before competition, the more familiar and comfortable it will feel when it actually happens. Your visualization should be detailed, specific, and realistic.

The goal is not to erase nerves, but to use them in a way that helps you perform your best.

The TrueSport Champion Network is a community of coaches, parents, program directors, and athletes who believe in the power of youth sport to build life skills and core values for success both on and off the field. Join TrueSport Champion Network to help promote the positive values of cheer, dance, and STUNT!

The TrueSport Coaching Education Program empowers coaches—the most significant influencers in young athletes’ lives—with a transformative learning opportunity to obtain the knowledge and resources to cultivate, champion, and uphold the rich promise and highest potential of sport.

USA Cheer is proud to partner with USADA’s TrueSport® to bring relevant educational content to the Cheer and STUNT community in order to promote a positive youth sport experience. We are excited to provide access to TrueSport’s experts that take coaching beyond skills and help truly develop the overall athlete by building life skills and core values for success on and off the mat, sideline, field, and court.

Feel free to share these resources with your coaching staff, parents, or athletes!

About TrueSport

TrueSport®, a movement powered by the experience and values of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, champions the positive values and life lessons learned through youth sport. TrueSport inspires athletes, coaches, parents, and administrators to change the culture of youth sport through active engagement and thoughtful curriculum based on cornerstone lessons of sportsmanship, character-building, and clean and healthy performance, while also creating leaders across communities through sport.

For more expert-driven articles and materials, visit TrueSport’s comprehensive library of resources.

This content was reproduced in partnership with TrueSport. Any content copied or reproduced without TrueSport and the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency’s express written permission would be in violation of our copyright, and subject to legal recourse. To learn more or request permission to reproduce content, click here.