The Super Mental Training Book by Robert K. Stevenson Read Free Book Online Page B

authors do not name any players who have benefitted from the type of imagery procedure they prescribe, but their approach appears promising because it incorporates both external and internal imagery (on top of relaxation).
    A noteworthy example of how practicing imagery can help one's game is provided by the experience of tennis great Martina Navratilova. In her book, Tennis My Way (1983), she describes her selective use of imagery:
    Especially if I've got a grudge match, or I want to prove something, win something big, I will go to sleep imagining what I am going to do. I try to envision the kind of points I want to be playing, the feeling of euphoria after the win, everything. Sometimes I have woken up the next day feeling like it's already happened. That's how real I can imagine the tennis to be.
    Navratilova, the first woman professional athlete to win over $10,000,000 in earnings, apparently does not practice imagery before every match, and with her talent probably does not need to. Only for special occasions—a "grudge match," for instance—does she employ the technique. In the 1986 Virginia Slims of Dallas Tournament, Navratilova met Chris Evert in the finals, and beat her in 57 minutes, 6-2, 6-1; this was the third worst defeat Navratilova had handed Evert over their 13-year rivalry. The Associated Press reported how the victor used imagery to prepare for the match. Stated Navratilova:
    I played the match over in my head last night and I didn't get to sleep until 1 a.m. I felt Chris was nervous at the beginning and I didn't feel threatened. I didn't think she could hurt me. [4]
    The ladies' champion practices her imagery the night before an important match, which is when Bunker and Rotella recommend you listen to a self-made visualization audio tape (though they urge you to listen to it every night). Late at night, particularly when falling asleep, is an excellent time for one to perform a mental training strategy, as we discuss at length elsewhere in this book. One thing Navratilova does not say is how she learned imagery, but clearly the discipline has helped her maximize her enormous athletic potential.
    Other women tennis pros, fully appreciating the difficulty of excelling in their sport, have turned to mental training for assistance. Hana Mandlikova, who defeated Navratilova in the finals
    of the 1985 U.S. Open, also engaged in imagery exercises to improve her on-court concentration. Focusing in on the matter at hand, whether it was playing tennis or participating in some other activity, had presented problems to Mandlikova over the years. She explained in the May, 1986 issue of Tennis, "If I was talking to somebody, I'd be listening to maybe five other people around me at the same time."[5] Her coach, Betty Stove, recognized the problem, and culled sports psychology books to find the logical remedy. Related Mandlikova:
    Betty has really helped me mentally by giving me special exercises all the time. I would get bored if I had to read all the books, but she picks things out and writes them down for me to look at. She believes that tennis and working on the court is O.K., but that you also have to work your brain off the court. I remember one of the exercises taught how to concentrate on one specific thing. I've always had trouble with that. . . In this exercise, you look at a watch and concentrate on the hands for one minute. Then you rest a couple of minutes and imagine the watch hands moving in your head for one minute. I came pretty close to hitting the time consistently with practice. Things like that help on court when there are so many distractions around.
    The watch-hand exercise is, of course, an imagery drill; some people might simply call it a "concentration exercise." But, it matters little what it is called. The drill, once mastered, leads you on to the next step, which is to imagine yourself hitting perfect shots, and so on. By regularly practicing this stage of imagery (the practical applications