I’m guessing that’s the last picture you expected to see after reading the subject of this Mental Toughness Tip. I know I’d be like ‘What? I can cut seconds by taking a nap? I don’t get it’ or ‘This is what mental preparation looks like, sleeping?’
Above is my CrossFit Athlete Virginia. Virg and I have been working together for about 8 months now, and her results both in the gym and in her life have been mind-blowing (and she can’t always see them as she’s so close and so competitive).
Virg has embraced the principles of Mental Toughness and brought them both to her training and competition with breakthrough results, including winning the last competition she entered (after tanking at the same competition last year).
This photo was taken in competition in between workouts (WODs). In this photo Virginia is both chilling out and doing a visualization I programmed for her. She is mentally preparing for her next workout in her mind, while giving her body a break.
Science has shown that there is no difference in the mind between doing your sport for real or visualizing it in your mind: the same muscles fire in the same order in the same sequence either way. So, one of the best ways to prepare for competition is visualization.
You can visualize your competition, the skills you will need to perform, something you’ve been struggling with, how to control your emotions when you get upset, how to react to a specific situation, how to deal with pressure, how to perfect that new movement you’re learning – really you can visualize anything you want to master in your sport!
And, as it turned out, Virginia’s visualization made the difference – a second’s difference in fact – as she beat out the next competitor in the competition by 1 second in the end.
You can watch her Virginia’s (awesome) workout and win at this link.
Often the difference between winning in losing is only a second. To shave seconds off your time, to get that extra edge, to do that one extra movement that makes the difference in your success, visualize daily.
See what you want to be and then you will see that you can be what you see. Visualization is the key. (Try saying that 5x fast!).
Try it out and let me know what you discover.