SPORT PSYCHOLOGY – Visualisation-O

Visualisation-O:

Improve your Orienteering without leaving your lounge room

Jason McCrae – Psychologist

One of the challenges that I believe many orienteers face in Australia is having enough opportunities to practice their orienteering. Most of the orienteering population live in cities far from mapped areas. Even those who live close to areas soon grow familiar with their local maps and are no longer challenged by those areas. I would guess that leading into this year’s Easter 3-Day in Burra your average Australian orienteer will only have orienteered on a bush map 4 or 5 times in the past three months. Compare this to individuals trying to compete successfully in other sports – I’m sure even a low level club golfer would play more than once or twice a month before a big annual competition.

Of course there are good reasons why the average orienteer can’t train and compete as often as would be ideal. There are ways around this problem without having to spend your whole life travelling to and from distant maps. A mental-skills technique that has been shown to be as effective as actual practice in preparing for competition is imagery or visualisation.

What is it?

Visualisation in its simplest description involves a person imagining themselves orienteering well. I emphasise that the image a person has in their mind is themselves orienteering at their best, not imagining accepting your badge at the prize giving ceremony! Ideally visualisation isn’t just “visual”. When orienteering we experience it with all our senses – hear the crunch of the forest floor under our feet, the smell of the dry Burra air, the feel of the tight fitting o-shoes or the taste of the salty sweat as the air rushes past.

How does it work?

Visualisation has been shown to be as effective as actual practice of an activity, in this case orienteering. It’s thought to work because if you can realistically see and feel yourself performing at your best while visualising; you are training your brain and body to re-create that perfect performance next time you compete. A person’s mind in particular is rehearsing the things it needs to do to perform well at orienteering and is thus more likely to follow that ‘template’ when actually competing.

How can I use visualisation?

Here are the basic tips I usually provide athletes on visualising themselves performing their sport well: • Sit or lie comfortably in a quiet place where you won’t be disturbed • Relax and control your breathing • Clear your mind of all other thoughts. This can be easier said than done! A good way to do this is to focus on your own

breathing. Close your eyes and imagine your chest or diaphragm going in and out as your breath flows in and out. • Begin imagining yourself orienteering at your best.

Again, maybe easier said than done. A good way to start is to recall a time when you have orienteered really well.

Imagine yourself checking your map, seeing the features on the map and then looking up to see them in the forest as you pass by. Picture yourself checking the compass, running strongly up hills, passing competitors while keeping focussed on the map and terrain and finding the controls accurately and quickly. • Use all of your senses – what do you see? The forest, the control flags, the contours, the map, compass. Hear? Your own breathing, the crunch of the forest floor. Feel? Sweat, muscles driving like engine pistons. Even taste? Perhaps sweat again! • Visualise only positive and successful performances with perfect orienteering technique – you hit controls perfectly, run well and navigate as best you can. • Practice for a limited time. Initially this might only be 5 or 10 minutes but you should build it up to between 20 and 30 minutes a session. You should aim to have three visualisation sessions a week for the most effective ‘mind training’. Initially visualisation may feel a little awkward and you may have difficulty keeping your concentration. It is important, however, that you persist as any initial self-doubts and difficulties will be overcome with practice. After several sessions of imagining yourself orienteering at your peak it may be worthwhile developing a regular visualisation script. You can do this by reading your key steps when orienteering well onto a recording and placing the recording on tape, CD, iPod or mp3 player. The recording can then be listened to over and over again in your visualisation training.

Visualisation – get to it

Having an understanding of how visualisation works is not enough for it to work for you on race-day. Visualisation allows your mind to rehearse orienteering well without actually physically orienteering and has been shown to be highly effective in improving performance. What’s more, you can do it from your lounge room! So get into some visualisation now to improve your performance at Burra. The old adage “be careful what you wish for, lest it come true” may be more accurate than we first thought!

Something on your mind?

This column has been appearing in the AO for approximately 2 years now covering a range of sport psychology topics such as goal setting, overcoming distraction, focussing on processes and recovering from mistakes. One of the things I’ve tried to do is provide action plans and tips that can be implemented by orienteers in their training, competing or technique generally. Is there anything “on your mind” when you compete that you find challenging? If so I invite you to drop me an e-mail and see if we can address it in the next or subsequent columns. I’m happy to keep your details anonymous if you wish. Please e-mail me at the address below at least a fortnight before AO submissions are required (see submission date in the first few pages of this edition).

Jason McCrae is a Psychologist currently working for Lifeline Canberra. He has previously worked as a Sport Psychologist at the ACT Academy of Sport which is also Orienteering Australia’s National Training Centre. He can be e-mailed on jason.mccrae@tpg.com.au