A recent study has demonstrated that mental training, even when used briefly online, does, in fact, work. The study, involving more than 44,000 participants, found that both self-talk and imagery, whether focused on the process or the outcome, improved effort, intensity, the experience of pleasant emotions, and performance on a competitive online task.
From the study, “The greatest improvements were seen in self-talk-outcome (telling yourself, “I can beat my best score”), self-talk-process (telling yourself, “I can react quicker this time”), imagery-outcome (imagining yourself playing the game and beating your best score), and imagery-process (imagining yourself playing and reacting quicker than last time).
They also found a short motivational video could improve performance. Participants watched a short video before playing the online game. The coach for these videos was, none other than, four-time Olympic gold medalist Michael Johnson, an athlete known for advocating mental preparedness in addition to physical training.”
If significant results can come from such a brief intervention, imagine the benefits of an ongoing mental training program.
Another great reason to enroll in my upcoming Prime Sport 101: Train Your Mind like a Champion online mental training course!
Here’s the full reference for the study: Andrew M. Lane, Peter Totterdell, Ian MacDonald, Tracey J. Devonport, Andrew P. Friesen, Christopher J. Beedie, Damian Stanley, Alan Nevill. Brief Online Training Enhances Competitive Performance: Findings of the BBC Lab UK Psychological Skills Intervention Study. Frontiers in Psychology, 2016; 7 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00413
