The Imagery-Confidence Relationship
Picture Scottie Scheffler crouching down before his putt to win the 2024 Master’s. In the biggest moment, athletes rely on imagery to execute elite performance.
Imagery is one of the most popular mental performance enhancement tools used by Mental Performance Consultants (MPC). Imagery involves using one’s senses (visual, auditory, kinesthetic, etc…) to create or re-create an event in one’s mind (Sackett & Durand-Bush, 2022). Imagery has ties to improving motivation, self-confidence, focus, and arousal regulation (Sackett & Durand-Bush, 2022). However, one of the most consistent findings in sport psychology is the link between performance and self-confidence (Sackett & Durand-Bush, 2022). That said, it is necessary to understand the imagery-confidence relationship in order to augment athlete performance.
In their article, Ross-Stewart & Short (2007) explore the content of images athletes used to build, maintain, and regain their confidence. Participants were 142 student athletes from the US and Canada competing in NCAA D1, NCAA D2, and Canadian Intercollegiate Sport (Canada’s D1). The authors used the Sport Imagery Questionnaire to assess how often athletes use imagery.
Results of this article were that to build, maintain, and regain confidence, athletes used motivation general-mastery imagery significantly more. Examples of this style of imagery include imagery:
Giving 100% effort.
Giving 100% effort even when things are not going well.
Staying positive after a setback
In terms of the imagery effectiveness, the athletes in the study reported that imagery was perceived to be more effective for building confidence compared to maintaining or regaining it. Specifically, the motivation general-mastery imagery was perceived at being the most effective style of imagery and was used the most often.
Understanding the imagery-confidence relationship allows MPC to maximize their work with athletes. By determining what wording and content athletes perceive to be the most effective, imagery training programs can be individually tailored to enhance performance outcomes.
TLDR, what does this mean for you? Imagery is shown to be effective at improving confidence, one of the strongest correlates to performance. Motivation general-mastery imagery was found to be the most effective and widely used style of imagery for building, maintaining, and regaining confidence.
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Ross-Stewart, L., & Short, S. E. (2009). The Frequency and Perceived Effectiveness of Images Used to Build, Maintain, and Regain Confidence. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 21(sup1), S34–S47. https://doi.org/10.1080/10413200802582813
Sackett, S. C., & Durand-Bush, N. (Eds.). (2022). The Essential Guide for Mental Performance Consultants. Routledge.