The secret to track & field success: Visualisation and manifestation
For many of the world’s top athletes, the mental side of their training has been bolstered by the use of visualisation and manifestation techniques - and the results have at times been astonishing.
Athletics
A recent Instagram post by 200m World Champion Noah Lyles set tongues wagging in the world of track & field.
“I will run 9.65, 19.10” read the caption, emblazoned above an image of the American walking confidently with his eyes closed as if bringing to life the achievements inside his mind.
The 9.65 referred to his current aim for the 100m, one of two races he will compete in at the World Athletics Championships that take place in Budapest from 19-27 August. His current best over the distance is 9.86 seconds achieved all the way back in 2019.
The 19.10 he has promised to run refers to the 200m, a distance in which he has won two World Championship golds, the most recent of those coming last year in Oregon.
And while the 26-year-old is currently considered to be the fastest half-lap runner on the planet today, achieving that time would involve smashing the legendary world record of Usain Bolt that stands at 19.19.
At first glance, making predictions like this may seem bold or even fanciful. But the confident post is just one example of how the world’s best athletes are employing visualisation and manifestation techniques to achieve what others may deem impossible.
Zharnel Hughes and the predictions that wowed the world
Take, for instance, the example of British sprinter Zharnel Hughes.
The 28-year-old has enjoyed an exceptional year, breaking both the British 100m and 200m records within a month of each other.
More shocking perhaps is that he precisely predicted both of the record-breaking times he ran prior to the races - to a hundredth of a second
“Manifestation king,” one fan wrote in a comment on his Instagram page after Hughes seemed to will the records into reality, while the athlete himself described the prophetic predictions as “mind-boggling” in a recent interview with Olympics.com.
But what exactly are manifestation and visualisation and how have other athletes used them to gain an advantage on the athletics track?
Athletes making dreams come true through visualisation and manifesting success
While the example of Hughes may be extreme, he’s one of a growing list of athletes who have made manifestation and visualisation a part of their regular training regimes.
The Oxford Dictionary describes visualisation as “the act of forming a picture of somebody/something in your mind” while manifestation is said to be “the act of appearing as a sign that something exists or happens.”
For Grant Holloway, the two-time 110m hurdles world champion, visualisation has long been at the heart of his race preparation.
“If you’re able to visualise your race and see what you’re going to do before it even happens, when it starts to come into fruition, it’s second nature,” he explained in an interview with Olympics.com the day after winning gold at the 2022 World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon.
For Holloway, visualisation hinges upon the power of the mind, training as if every race is a championship final so that when the moment arrives in the real world he has won the race a thousand times in his head.
However, there are far more uses for visualisation techniques that athletes take into their everyday routines to overcome the challenges and pressure of a job where being able to rise to the occasion is crucial to their success.
One example taught by Tiffany Grimm, director of recovery at EXOS – specialists in human performance from athletes to office workers – and available to view on the Olympics.com website is called ‘Fan Club’, which is a technique that aims to assist athletes who are suffering with confidence issues.
“It’s imagining that all of your most incredible fans in your world are surrounding you,” she explains in the video. “You’re sitting in the middle of this circle with all of the people who believe in you, who uplift you, who adore you and praise you. And then they get to tell you how incredible you are, so you’re reminded of your own power.”
From reaching long-term goals to creating your ideal training environment
Hughes uses a mixture of training logs and vision boards to outline his goals in order to get a clear picture of exactly what he wants to achieve.
In a similar way, mogul skiing Olympic champion Mikael Kingsbury tells a story about when as a nine-year-old, he pinned a drawing onto his wall with the words “I will win the Olympics”. Every night he looked at the picture and visualised what the experience would be like until PyeongChang 2018 when he stood on top of the Olympic podium holding his gold medal for real.
For Japanese triathlete Ai Ueda, visualisation has been at the heart of finding her race rhythm.
“Visualise the joy you’ll feel when you make it happen. Then keep a smile on your face in the good times and bad. Use that smile to turn the people offering support into allies. It’s great when you can create this flow together and the people who were with you at each step can share in your victory,” she explained.
Can imagining success make you achieve it?
In the end, whether an athlete is attempting to rehearse a performance in their head or even trying to turn distant dreams into reality, this approach to the mental side of preparation has become an essential training tool in the arsenal of many.
Athletes can hone their visualisation skills to become a complete sensory experience, taking in every aspect of a competition in a method that has been defined as “Imagery”.
As sports psychologist Dr Jennifer Cumming explained in the ‘Can imagining success actually help you achieve it?’ episode of the Olympic Channel documentary ‘Olympic State of Mind’:
“Imagery takes it up a notch. It’s as if you’re watching regular television and then taking it to high definition because you add in so much more information because you’re using all your senses.
“So your hearing, your emotions, what you’re tasting and even, importantly for sport, what you’re feeling in terms of your muscles moving, your heart beating faster, your breathing going up. And so Imagery is a much richer multi-sensory experience.”
So next time you hear an athlete talk about the times they will run or the fact they performed exactly as they had imagined they would, don’t write it off as fanciful talk.