Visualization & The Competitive Goalkeeper

I’ve been intrigued by The Secret. Yeah, I know it is a load of hog-wash…or at least you would think it is, and I’m sure that each and every one of you have utilized the powerful law of attraction to get what you want out on the football field, you may have never realized it. In fact, many of the concepts outlined in The Secret have been scientifically proven. One of the most powerful concepts a goalkeeper (or any athlete for that matter) can utilize is visualization. If you think it, well, you will be able to hold it in your hand, at least that is what the book outlines.

Dr Denis Waitley created The Psychology of Winning, and is possibly one of the greatest American lecturers on high performance human achievement (he trained the astronauts in the Apollo Space Program). There was one part of this book (I don’t rate the author’s own narration overall, but she has done a great job of bringing these awesome thinkers together, you should buy The Secret DVD instead) where Dr Waitley points out the powerful process of how Olympic athletes have used visualization to enhance their performance…when they are not even out in the training field. Here it goes:

“I took the visualization process from the Apollo program and instituted it during the 1980′s and 90′s into the Olympic program. It was called Visual Motor Rehearsal.

When you visualize then you materialize. Here’s an interesting thing about the mind: we took Olympic athletes and had them run their event only in their mind, and then hooked them up to sophisticated biofeedback equipment. Incredibly, the same muscles fired in the same sequence when they were running the race in their mind as when they were running it on the track. How could this be? Because the mind can’t distinguish whether you’re really doing it or whether it’s just a practice. If you have been there in the mind you’ll go there in the body.”

Now think about the above words for a second. With the power of positive visualization you can enhance your preparations for any competitive soccer match well before the game kicks off. Other great tools that you can utilize include training diaries, video tape replays of good performances and good relaxation techniques during the training week to make sure that your mind is in a positive state. I’m sure if you asked any goalkeeping great how they achieved their lofty goals of success, they would tell you that they saw themselves achieve great goalkeeping well before they instituted it. Remember, If you think about it in the mind, your body will certainly take you their on the soccer field.