Mental rehearsals (also known as visualizations) are an excellent tool to use for your training, development, and motivation in martial arts. This tool has been useful to everyone from top professional athletes like Michael Jordan and Michael Phelps to fortune 500 CEOs to ordinary people in therapy. The beauty of mental rehearsals is that they can be used for more than just your martial arts training. It’s a tool you can adapt to other activities such as other sports, job interviews, sales calls, presentations, technical skills, etc.
Why Should YOU Do Mental Rehearsals in Martial Arts?
The main reason is to prepare for difficult performances. Consider your martial arts training. You’re either training for self-defense, competition, belt testing, or overall health. No matter what the reason, eventually, you will be faced with a difficult performance to do. In my case, I practiced martial arts to compete in tournaments and for self-defense. When I did actual practice, I found that no matter how well I performed on the training floor, I still grappled with internal doubt in my abilities. I realized then that despite performing well in actual practice, I had mental anxieties about how I’d perform in the ring or on the streets. What helped me overcome those anxieties and fears was practicing mental rehearsals. And in overcoming those anxieties and fears, I found that combining actual practice with mental rehearsal actually helped me perform better overall.
An Example: How I Overcame My Anxieties and Fears
Here’s an example of how I used mental rehearsals to improve my performance AND give me more confidence in my training. Although I had been training for years and had a few amateur fights under my belt, I was tormented by anxiety dreams. These dreams would be a mix of self-defense scenarios where I was attacked in various locations, such as a bar, a club, the beach, etc.
No matter who I fought in the dream, the outcome was the same. When my punches hit my opponent, they all had the power of a feather drifting to the ground. My opponent would laugh at my weak strikes and I started to believe that my punches would lack power in real life. After talking about it with a friend, I realized that these dreams were manifestations of a fear that I wasn’t as prepared for a real fight as I thought I was.
So, I started meditating and then recreating these self-defense scenarios in my head. I visualized myself, from a 1st person’s point of view, getting in my stance, keeping my hands up, blocking an attack, and countering with mine. When the attack landed and it didn’t hurt the opponent, I froze the moment as if I were watching it on a video player. I rewound the scene and said to myself, “strike through the target,” before resuming my counterattack in slow motion. This time it worked. I rewound the scene a few more times and repeated my moves. I finished that session with the mantra, “strike through the target.” Once I started doing those mental rehearsals those dreams stopped and I felt more confident and it showed in my performance.
What is Mental Rehearsal and Why Does it Work?
Mental rehearsal is the act of mentally practicing a skill, routine, task, drill, or technique instead of actually doing it. In many sports, you hear sayings such as “______ skill is 90% mental and 10% physical.” The “mental” aspect described in those sayings is a mix of three elements. Being confident, experienced, and in the zone (i.e. “focused and calm”). Consistently practicing mental rehearsals help you build all 3 elements of that mix. Research even shows that your brain can’t tell the difference between mental rehearsals and actual rehearsals. That is why doing mental rehearsals regularly, along with your actual practice, will take you further than the student who just does actual practice.
The one caveat is that to use mental rehearsals properly, you have to have some knowledge and experience in the skill you are rehearsing. For example, if you have never fired a pistol before and don’t know shooting fundamentals, trigger discipline, or magazine management, no matter how much mental rehearsal you do, you will not become a pistol expert in actual practice.
A Way to Practice Mental Rehearsals
There are many different ways to do mental rehearsals. Here’s one way to do mental rehearsals that you can start today:
- Set aside about 5-10 minutes and find a quiet place where you can concentrate. Feel free to play the music that can get you in the proper mental state as long as it doesn’t distract you.
- Sit or lay down and close your eyes.
- Take a few deep breaths and exhale slowly to relax you and help you focus. As you exhale, imagine that stress or negative energy is escaping your body. When you inhale, imagine that clean pure air is circulating through your body. Note: If distractions pop up, don’t dwell on them and simply bring your mind back to the breath.
- After about 2 minutes, you should feel relaxed and ready to visualize a specific challenging task. (If it helps to track time, use a timer as long as it doesn’t distract or disturb your concentration).
- Whisper or think to yourself a short mantra that makes you feel confident you can perform this task successfully. Repeat it to yourself as you keep breathing. Believe you will be successful.
- Before you start rehearsing, vividly set the scenario. It can be your dojo, a ring, a back alley, or anywhere else you can imagine. Make it as real as possible. Hear the sounds, smell the air, feel the environment. Now visualize yourself actively performing. It can be a kata by yourself, a drill with a training partner, or a fight sequence with an opponent.
- Stay calm and focused, as you perform successfully. If something doesn’t go right, it’s ok. Simply freeze and rewind or just restart. Don’t dwell on the failure. Just go through the process again and perform.
- Repeat step 7 several times.
- Once you have done the task several times and you feel smooth and in control, you can end your session. Open your eyes and smile. Personally, I like to take a few seconds to meditate on my mantra right after I’m done rehearsing mentally.
When you’re done, you will have successfully practiced in your mind, which is great preparation for actual practice. Do this consistently, trust in yourself, and be confident that you will perform successfully in actual practice or a real-life situation.
Conclusion
Practicing mental rehearsals will help you perform better, calm your stress, fears, and anxieties, and boost your confidence. It will also be a skill that you can use in other aspects of your life. It is a powerful tool that you should start using today. I’d love to hear about your experiences using mental rehearsals, reach out to me in the comments below. If you have any questions, you can also email me at danny@masteryourmoves.com
And I'm still learning all the time... 😉
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