Week Number = 4
Date = 10th April 2014
Aim of the Week = To introduce the imagery technique in order to work on your self-confidence.
Imagery Technique
Good morning X. I want to continue today with another training programme. This time I will introduce to you the imagery technique which hopefully will be another step in improving your self-confidence. In the previous weeks we have done the goal setting and self-talk techniques and you worked on them very well, therefore I am hoping that this week you will have no problems with the imagery technique.
Introduction of the Technique
Imagery is when you start to imagine a set of different situations that you are in, for example playing in a football game, in your mind.
Types of Imagery
There are five categories of imagery that help with achieving what you want to achieve.
You will find motivational-specific which basically means that you may see yourself winning a match or picking up trophy and it's good if you want to improve on your motivation and effort, but we don't need to concentrate on that as your motivation and effort is high.
Other imagery types are the motivational general arousal (it reflects on feelings of relaxation, stress, anxiety or arousal), the cognitive specific (seeing yourself performing certain skills, it helps when you want to improve performance) and the cognitive general (images of strategy and game plans).
The type of imagery that you want to concentrate on is the motivational general mastery. This is based on seeing yourself coping in difficult circumstances and mastering challenging situations. This imagery type is important when you want to develop your self confidence, and that's why it's needed for you.
Exercises for You
During this week I want you to practice this very easy exercise every day so that we can see if the imagery technique is useful for building your self confidence.
What I want you to do X is very simple. You will need to make yourself comfortable in a chair. I want you to take in a long slow breath that you will hold for three seconds, then relax and breath out slowly. I want you to repeat it twice and close your eyes.
After you've done that think of a situation where your confidence is very low. For example, the last few moments before start of the game. I want you to think of everything that is there before the match starts;the venue at which you play, the pitch at which you play, your manager on the sideline, your teammates around you, the opposite team, the referee, in simple words; everything that is there around you. I want you to picture that.
I want you to run the image through your mind until your concentration wavers. Then count from one to three and open your eyes.
After you have done it several days I want to go out and, if possible, play a game of football. I want to see whether this imagery technique would help you in feeling more confident when you play competitive football.
After you've done that please send me a feedback as I won't have time to see you personally this week. Good luck X!
Athlete's Feedback
"Hello coach, thank you for spending your time and giving me another training programme this week. I must admit that I have never practiced the imagery technique before and I really wanted to try it because it looked very interesting to me.
Firstly, I must say that this was probably the easiest exercise so far and I could do that pretty much all the time. It helped me relax and whilst I was thinking about the situation in which my confidence is low I imagined myself as a very confident player. I managed to get a game during this week so I practiced that imagery technique straight before the game and a few days earlier for everyday. I must say that at the start of the game I felt quite confident. I was still having the pictures in my head of me being confident and it worked. Before the kick-off I wasn't scared that I may fail but instead I wanted to go out there a play a good game of football. After some time my confidence started to drop off a bit because not everything went in the right direction but I like that technique and I think that if I practice it more over the next few weeks I may get used to it and my confidence may build up automatically.
Thank you coach"
P7: Planned
ReplyDeleteYou have used imagery in order to once again improve self confidence in your athlete and once again used the information gained in week 1 to inform your decisions. This has ensured that the programme is directly relevant to them and their needs / identified weaknesses. The concept of imagery has been described to the athlete in enough detail for them to gain a foundation level of understanding about imagery skills, it’s uses in sport and performance and the different types.
The exercises provided to the athlete are appropriate to their current skills level which was limited and would enable them to develop their imagery skills in direct relation to their sport and aim. The progressive nature of them was also excellent,
M3: Monitored
You have gained some feedback directly from the athlete about their success with the exercises provided. The use of a self evaluation form may have been useful in order to find what they found easier and harder to develop in relation to their image.