Thursday 13 October 2011

Olympic Countdown - Canoe Slalom

Canoe slalom provides an excellent opportunity to study the use of imagery in sport because competitors are not allowed to practise on the actual course before a competition. Research (MacIntyre & Moran 1986; White & Hardy 1998) has shown that imagery is regularly used in both training and competition by canoe slalom participants. MacIntyre, Moran and Jennings (2002) have even suggested that elite performance in canoe slalom could be related to the ability to use imagery, even though it didn’t distinguish elite from intermediate groups. MacIntyre & Moran (2207) studied 12 canoeists, all of whom had finished in the top 10 at either the World Championships or Olympics, with more than half being medallists. What was surprising was the range of things they used imagery for. As well as being used to learn the course, imagery was employed as part of their pre-race routine, to review their performance after the race, to imagine how they might overcome particular difficulties during the race, to imagine how they might adapt another competitor’s actions to their own performance, to learn new techniques, to remember previous successful performances as a way of overcoming a slump in performance, to get them in the most appropriate frame of mind, and to help when returning to the sport after injury. Sometimes, they were able to imagine what the performance felt like in their muscles, as well as having a visual image, and many felt this was an important element of their imagery. These athletes were able to analyse their imagery to quite an advanced level. They recognised hat imagery could be negative as well as positive, for instance if they imagined themselves making a mistake. But they also devised strategies to overcome these negative images, such as “re-winding” the imagery and “replaying” it without the mistake. Some athletes found that discussing with the coach their imagery of completing the course helped them to overcome negative imagery. In some sports, coaches themselves have used imagery, for instance to imagine what an opposition coach might do in a match. It may be that canoeing coaches are able to compare their image of the performance with the athlete’s. It’s generally recommended that athletes should imagine a perfect performance, but these elite canoeists were more likely to visualise an average performance as a base from which they might try to improve, or maintain performance in more difficult conditions. I think coaches in many sports could learn from this more subtle approach to imagery and visualisation. It would help obtain a more effective review of performance, as well as prepare the athlete for a variety of situations, such as poor weather, or a better than expected performance by a competitor. David Donner

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