“In the sixth grade, a coach taught us about the importance of visualization. When I’m in a meeting, watching film or in bed before I go to sleep, I always visualize making those plays. I visualized the majority before I made them.”

- Aaron Rodgers, Green Bay quarterback, in USA Today interview

“We do imagery work and talk about having that innovative mindset of being special. … We do stuff different here.”

- Russell Wilson, Seattle Seahawks quarterback, in ESPN interview

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Did you know that the entire Seattle Seahawks Super Bowl team regularly does visualization practice in training camp? If I had to name the one thing that separates elite athletes from lower level athletes, this is it.

What is visualization? Put simply, it’s taking time to imagine yourself performing the thing you want to do in the game.

There’s so much misinformation about how to visualize. The first thing to know is that you don’t have to be visual in order to visualize. In fact, coaches do a disservice to their athletes by telling them to “visualize” in the first place, because there are some people who don’t know what you mean when you tell them that. It creates confusion in those players.

If you are visual, then you can close your eyes and you can imagine in pictures in your mind what happens on the field. If you are a safety, for instance, you “see” yourself stepping in front of that pass and making the interception.

Let me say right here that when you close your eyes, if pictures are not very clear to you, then that’s OK. There’s nothing wrong with you. Just imagine your success however you want to, and you’ll be doing it right for you.

Instead of visualization, let’s call it what it really is: mental practice.

• Step 1: Have an idea for something specific that you want to imagine doing well in the game – such as running perfect routes or tackling with good mechanics like you were taught in practice.
• Step 2: Get your body comfortable. You want to focus on what you’re doing without your body reminding you of its problems.
• Step 3: Take one minute or so to breathe a little bit deeper and a little bit slower than you normally do. Breathe into your belly as this triggers a relaxation response and opens your mind to this power. It’s optional whether you want to close your eyes or not.
• Step 4: Direct your thinking and focus to the act of performing your best for what you came up with in Step 1. In other words, what you will be doing is mentally practicing performing your skills beautifully and effectively … and do it over and over and over.

Go as long as you like and can keep your focus on what you’re doing. The longer, the better.

It’s useful to imagine yourself winning and coming through in clutch situations, but you will gain more by mentally practicing small movements and sound fundamentals. Here’s some specific ideas for football players:

• Quarterback mentally practices his footwork in the pocket for every type of situation.
• Offensive lineman imagines recognizing the defensive line running stunts and being in the proper position for each one.
• Running backs imagine their arms locked around the ball like a safe to eliminate fumbles.
• Defensive backs mentally practice reacting to receiver movements.

Are you getting the picture here? There are hundreds of things each position on the field has to do to be successful. They key to visualization or mental practice work for you is to pick specific things to work on in your mind and stick with it until it’s automatic.

When you learn a new skill or technique in practice, you should practice it that night, in bed, as you go to sleep like Aaron Rodgers does. And keep mentally practicing in spare thinking moments throughout the day.

This is what separates great players from average players.

Craig Sigl’s work with youth athletes has been featured on NBC TV and ESPN. Get his free ebook: “The 10 Commandments For a Great Sports Parent” and also a free training and .mp3 guided visualization to help young athletes perform under pressure by visiting: http://MentalToughnessTrainer.com