Visualization: Train without Training
Everyone quickly gets the physical part of training down. It’s the mental part that’s often overlooked or underestimated.
Preparation to achieve your goals takes place both physically and mentally. Famously said by Napoleon Hill, “Whatever your mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.” We discussed this in a previous mini-series on Self-Efficacy. Jiu-Jitsu is one of the most technical and physical martial arts, making it as much a mental game as physical.
Everyone quickly gets the physical part of training down. It’s the mental part that’s often overlooked or underestimated. In sports, visualization has long been a technique in every athlete’s toolkit, and you can make use of it too.
Let’s be clear — visualization isn’t about imagining and fantasizing about your desired outcome without doing anything. Train, and when you’re not at your GB School, visualize these two things:
- What you can do
- What you need to do — to get to your goal
Let’s use an example:
Imagine preparing for the next CN Winter Championship. As you prepare, you’re trying to master a sweep from a closed guard, and just in case, you need a plan B for a failed attempt.
Winning the match is, of course, the main objective. It would be best NOT to make it the object of your visualization. Instead, you need to drill the steps repeatedly for the sweep in your mind.
Get the grip, adjust your legs, make the final move. Every step needs to be actively imagined.
Doing this, in a way, doubles the time you spent physically practicing the move. You have practiced the movement physically with a partner, and now you’re drilling it mentally. Later on, the sweep becomes an instinct vs. a conscious effort.
It becomes ingrained in you. So much so that you can pull it off with your eyes closed.
Drilling any move is effective due to repetition. Repetition allows physical and psychomotor adaptations to take place.
Yagyū Munenori once said: “See first with your mind, then your eyes, and finally with your body.”
The first step is to choose your goal wisely. The next is to visualize how to achieve it. Then, take the necessary actions. When each step is planned, visualized, and acted on, a goal soon becomes achieved.
Competition is a skill, like everything you’ll encounter. With repetition comes mastery. What better way to hone your competitive edge than to compete often?
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Blog Written by Veronica Street - Gracie Barra Blue Belt
Sources:
https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/goal-setting-techniques