I never felt that quiet pre-game visualization worked particularly well for myself (as a player) or my athletes (as a coach). It always felt a little too much like meditation for me, and instead of helping to get me ready to hit the ice, I felt more like having a nap.
Instead, I like to use one particular mental performance strategy with my players that is a little more active. I have found it to be extremely effective for getting players focused on what they bring to the table and keeping them focused when they are having a tough game or are in the dreaded “slump”.
“Calling Card” Exercise
To create a personal “calling card”, you write down 3 strengths that you can commit to bringing to the team each and every time you hit the ice. This “calling cards” will help you focus on your personal strengths and re-focus when you are struggling. It allows you to clearly identify your role on the team and will give you a sense of accountability and responsibility to both yourself and your teammates.
It is so important that every player has a physical calling card. The simple act of writing these points down makes them more concrete and real and it also gives you something that you can refer back to at any time. Once you have created the card, you must hold themselves accountable to those key qualities you have identified. You must do everything you possible can to make sure that you never fail at ‘delivering’ on those promises to both yourself and your teammates. Bottom line: these are the qualities that you must embrace in order for you to succeed as an individual and for your team to succeed as a whole.
Now just because you have identified your role today, it doesn’t mean that you are forever bound to the exact points you have written down on the card forever. For example, you may start out the season as a fourth liner who sees no time on specialty teams and end up as a second liner who plays the penalty kill a few months later. Obviously, your role would change as the season progressed, and you would alter your “calling card” to reflect those changes.
What’s on your calling card? What are 3 strengths of your game that you can commit to delivering each and every time you step out on the ice? There is no right or wrong answer - you just have to make sure that you ACT on the strengths that you identified and COMMIT to getting it done every day.
~ Coach Kim
I myself got great benefits from using visualization as an athlete and have had good success passing it on to my athletes as well, but I love the calling card idea! To me at least the way I have gone about visualizing it brings together all the things I want to accomplish piece by piece (I like more details) however the calling card idea I think provides an option great for those athletes that may stress themselves out by over thinking things and allows them to focus on the most important things they want to accomplish. I am still an advocate of visualization but I am sure going to try out your calling card idea. Good stuff Kim!
I think that visualization has the potential to work extremely well for all athletes, but for some players, it takes a while to get the hang of it and find a method that works best for them as individuals. I definitely used it during college and into the “pros” and it was very helpful. I found visualization hard as a young player because I didn’t have a clear definition of my roles and goals yet, so my mind was all over the place when trying to visualize. Once I had a better idea of what I needed to focus on so that I could perform my best (and to help my teammates perform their best) via my calling card, visualization became a much more powerful and effective tool for me.
~ Coach Kim
What our team finds helpfull is after the coaches leave once they’ve given their pre game talk is we just sit there for five minutes or so in silence and just reflect on what we want to do this game, what our role is this game, if there’s a certain player who we have play differently-what we’re going to do with her. We don’t quite visualize, I myself do and some others may as well, but we more are getting focused for our game, making our minds think about hockey and forget about our project that’s due the next day or the fight you had with your boyfriend at school that day, everyone has something different that they have to do in a game. These 5 minutes of quiet gives everyone the chance to focus on what they need to focus on, or just to relax before the game and refresh in there mind the role they have to play in todays game.