What Makes Visualization the Cure for Negative Thoughts on Race Day

Unlock Your Athletic Potential Through Visualization

In this episode of 'Defeat is Optional,' learn the importance of visualization for athletes and discover practical tools to replace negative thoughts with positive ones for peak performance. Ronnie shares personal stories of success using visualization, including his NCAA championship win, and provides actionable tips like creating a vision board and focusing on small execution details to enhance mental training. Additionally, the episode explores how visualization can aid in faster injury recovery and emphasizes the significance of maintaining a winning mindset, as exemplified by sports icons like Michael Jordan and Usain Bolt. Join Ronnie in mastering visualization techniques to elevate your game and achieve your goals.

00:00 Introduction to Visualization for Athletes
02:17 The Power of Visualization: A Personal Story
03:15 Exciting Announcement: Upcoming Course
07:10 Creating a Vision Board: Step-by-Step Guide
10:49 Focusing on Details: Enhancing Visualization
16:12 Science Behind Visualization and Injury Recovery
19:23 Eliminating Negative Thoughts with Positive Questions
22:22 Conclusion and Recap

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Transcript

Ronnie Baker 0:00

In this episode, I'm going to outline why visualization is so important as an athlete and how you can shift your negative thoughts to positive ones with this simple yet powerful tool. My goal is to provide you with the practical tools to increase the likelihood that you'll see yourself winning in your competitions and actually execute those visions when it counts. If you're listening to this episode, you're probably someone who tries to do visualization But maybe you struggle to see yourself with the desired outcome, or you go to visualize, but you find yourself lost in thought 30 seconds in that's been me plenty of times. Perhaps you start to see yourself competing well, but then an unforeseen circumstance pops up and the visualization goes downhill and turns negative. You may have stopped this practice altogether, thinking it's a lost cause. I'm hoping in this episode, I'll be able to encourage you and give you the techniques you need to start visualization practices again, because it is one of the most powerful tools elite athletes use. And did I mention it's one of the ways you can bounce back from injuries faster too? So let's lock in as I give you the tips and tools to maximize your visualization techniques and take your game and performance to the next level. Defeat is optional is a phrase to live by guys. It's a lifestyle and it's all centered around the ability to tackle adversity and make the correct choices to put yourself in a winning position. In this case, that means a position to win in clutch situations. Stay committed to your goals and visualize yourself with the gold around your neck at the end of the season. Welcome to defeat is optional. The podcast where I'll give you the best mental tips to unlock your mind so you can improve your performance on race day. If you've ever felt stuck, doubted your abilities or struggled to bring your best on race day, you're in the right place. This isn't just about training harder. It's about thinking smarter. Here we'll break down the mental barriers that hold you back and build the mindset that propels you to victory because in your journey to greatness, Defeat is never the final answer. It's a choice. So let's get to work. Remember defeat is optional is not just a podcast. It's a way of life. So guys, if you're like me, you probably have doubts about your ability to visualize and visualize the right things and see yourself winning in the end. But let me tell you a story about the power of visualization. So my junior year, I won my first NCAA title indoors in the 60 meters. I was ecstatic because I had accomplished one of my goals as a student athlete that I had from really the first time I actually stepped on TCU's campus. You have to think about it, every kid at the collegiate level dreams of becoming an NCAA champion, but only one person gets to live that out each year. So how did I do it? How did I become an NCAA champion when there's thousands of athletes that want to do the exact same thing? That year, I was very determined to win, and I also envisioned myself crossing the line first, and I would work very hard and practice more than probably anyone in the country, not alone, not just my team, but anyone in the country, to make sure It would become a reality in this year, my junior year, at the beginning of the training year, I looked up what I thought was the NCAA record. I want to take a break here and tell you guys about something exciting I've got in the works. But first, I've got to ask these questions. Are you an athlete that works hard but continues to underperform in the game? Are you slowly losing passion for the sport that you once loved? Are you thinking about giving up because you don't feel like you were made for the sport? I can tell you I once was that athlete, but it doesn't have to be that way. If you're ready to take this even further, I've got something coming soon, guys. It's a seven week course designed to help you not only overcome limiting beliefs, but also build the mental confidence you need to dominate in your sport. We'll dive deep into how to identify, challenge, and rewrite the narrative that have been holding you back. So keep an eye out because it's coming soon and you don't want to miss it. Now back to your regularly scheduled podcast. I think I had seen a video of someone running a six 52 and I said to myself, I will break the collegiate record this year by running faster than six 52. I don't know why I thought the collegiate record was six 52, but for some reason, that's the time I saw that I saw someone run six or two. I thought that was it. I thought that was the NCAA. the race. So all year guys, I would say the number six 52 all the time I would write it in my notebooks at school. I would type it on my computer. Guys, I would go as far as hearing the announcer in my head say, Ronnie Baker is your new NCAA record holder and national champion. I remember being in class and literally getting distracted because I was on YouTube watching videos of the fastest 60 meter runs in history. Guys, I was literally obsessed with actually winning at the collegiate level. And I thought about running six 52 so much that I actually had dreams about it. I kid you not. So here was the most cool thing in Arkansas. I won the NCAA title in six 52. I was on top of the world earlier that year. I flippantly like crazily did this project for class. I was in I think it was I can't even remember what class it was guys, but I was in one of those classes. It was like an easy course for me. And I remember we had this project, we had to create a vision board and I was rushing to get it done. It was last minute. It was something that was easy. So I felt like I could put it off till later. And so I was doing it last minute. I remember being in the library having to go there because I didn't have a printer in my actual dorm. And I remember going to the library, printing off a bunch of pictures, pasting them on this poster board and like calling it done. That was like my project. And on the poster ad actually printed out some NCAA trophies and I put those on there and I put a bunch of other stuff on there too. And honestly, I just got it done so I could get a good grade on it. And I remember after winning the NCAA title, I got back to my dorm. put my stuff down and my poster board that I created for this class, this vision board was above my bed and I remember looking at it really closely and like actually getting up right to it. Like putting my eyes basically on the piece of paper because I saw that I had printed out these NCAA trophies. The craziest thing happened. I was looking at this vision board, looking at the trophies and in the smallest print on the trophies, it actually read men's 60 meter indoor national champion. I have been visualizing my success in more ways than one. This was the first time I saw visualization come to life. And although I didn't break the collegiate record that year, my junior year, guess what I did it my senior year in the next season. So this is just one crazy story in my life of how I use visualization to my advantage. Now, how can you guys use it? What are the things I actually did to see myself winning and then actually make it come to fruition? So tip number one is of course to make a vision board. I know this sounds crazy and honestly it's just it's like an arts and craft project. So it probably feels really elementary, but the new year guys is around the corner and this is really a perfect way to get clear on what it is you want to see happen in your life. And again, just like I thought it was silly for a college student who's 20 something years old to be making a poster board, like putting pictures on a poster board. Trust me, when I got back and realized the small print on those trophies and I saw him in my dorm, I literally got goosebumps guys because this was something that I wasn't even really paying attention to, but I was seeing every day that actually came true in my life. So you know, what's really interesting is that every single thing on that poster came true for me, Including things like becoming a professional athlete, signing a contract and traveling the world. I literally had pictures of Paris, Brazil, and Europe, the UK, London. I had all of these pictures on this poster board. Little did I know, I would travel to all those places within the next year or two years. I had money on there. I had, Contracts on there and I was in negotiations after I finished my collegiate career. I was in negotiations with Nike and I ended up signing a deal with Nike. These were all things that were on this poster board that years later came to pass. The crazy thing is that I actually never got rid of that poster board. I actually had it for five to six, seven years until pretty much everything on there had been accomplished. And then I, it was, I was moving a lot and I kept seeing this poster board. I was like, all right, I just need to get a new one, make a new one. All right. So how do you make a vision board? All you do is you grab a nice size poster board. You can go buy one at CVS, Costco, Walmart, anywhere. And You take a magazine or you print pictures from Google, all the images that correlate to your dreams, your goals, what you want to see manifest, whatever it is you're working towards. And you just put those on the board. Okay. So what does this actually do for you? Because a lot of you guys are saying, okay, I'm going to make this board. That's great. What does it do? It actually gets your mind focused on your goals, but it allows you to see. See them each and every day. And that keeps your mind focused, right? It's a daily reminder of what you're grinding for. It's a daily reminder of why you're making the sacrifices. It's a daily reminder that when it gets hard and it will get hard, that's a part of the process. That you're going to push through and you're not going to quit. Okay. This is what the poster board does. The vision board does. It puts your vision in front of you so that you can see it every single day and continue to work hard in your pursuit of those things on the board. Habakkuk 2. 2 says, okay. So understand visualization isn't a magic trick. You also have to put in the work. This isn't something that's going to cure all. You can't have a vision board and then be lazy. You can't have a vision board and then slack in practice. You can't have a vision board and then be unintentional. You can't have a vision board and then not be competitive. You have to do all the things that elite athletes do, but combined with the visualization, this is what amplifies your training. This is what amplifies your mental state, your mindset, And your competitiveness going into the meat. when you combine visualization with hard work, honestly, you can't really be stopped. That's tip number one. Tip number two, what if when you go to do your visualization, you find yourself trailing off and thought, which is one thing that most of us do because our brains are so conditioned now to have everything right away, it's very hard to stay focused for long periods of time. It's going to be something that you're going to have to practice daily because If you think about it, every single day you pick up your phone, you're on social media, you see a five second video here, your attention's there for five seconds. And then you go to a 10 second video, then a 15, then a 30, Most people's attention span is about four and a half minutes. I don't know if you guys ever watched David Dobrik, but all of David Dobrik's videos. We're four minutes and 20 seconds. Yes, it was a clever play on four 20. However, this was about how long the average adult attention span is four minutes and 20 seconds, which is why most of you guys have not even made it to this point in the podcast because your attention span has already gone somewhere else. All right, So what do you do when you're in visualization and you're trying to stay in Focus, but you can't. And you have to stay focused because you're trying to see yourself execute perfectly in the game so you can perform when it counts. I find that most times when we get lost in thought, it's because we rush the process of visualization. We start to see the plays or the competition quickly, and our brains tend to rush to a conclusion because, honestly, our brains want a result and they want it fast. Think about fast food. Think about microwaves, You put Something in you get something out very quickly, and this is what happens in visualization is that we go to try to visualize the processes of what we're going to do when we get to the playing field. We get to the competition when we get to the game in game time situations. But what happens is we rush the process. We get to the outcome really quickly, and it's hard to see The small things and the small details in between. So the best way to practice visualization and improve in game performance is to slow everything down and to focus on the specific execution of a smaller task. So instead of me just seeing myself cross the line first, right? My junior year, I did envision myself winning the NCAA championship over and over again, which is me crossing the line in first place, me throwing my hands up, me being excited. I saw all of those things, but outside of that, what I did to really focus in so that I can execute when that gun went off was this trick in this tactic for me. And that was making sure my second step was quick and aggressive from the blocks. So what this does guys, is that it takes the outcome out of your brain. It helps you focus in on the small details because in all reality, while you want to win, there's seven guys on the line, or seven females on the line that want to do the exact same thing. The person that executes the race the most efficiently is the one who's going to win. The person who executes the race the most efficiently is the one who's going to win. So if everybody else is thinking about the outcome and you're thinking about the execution, you have now an upper hand on the competition. Because you're now focused in on one specific thing that you're going to do well. So this is exactly what I did. I would say, okay, I'm going to focus on the second step being powerful and aggressive from the box. And what I did when I went to visualize this thing is I saw myself slowing that down, going through it over and over again. And I didn't rush to the conclusion of me winning the race. I also understand that when I hit that start correctly, it leads to better execution of my race and therefore it gives me a better chance of crossing the line first. Okay. So that is one of the biggest tips in visualization. It's focusing in on the small details that you're doing every single day in practice. One of the big reasons why people get anxious is because they start to focus on the outcome. They start to try to control the outcome. And the reality is that you cannot control the outcome. You can't control how fast your opponents run. The only thing you can do is you can control what you're doing. And so that's why visualization on small details is the best type of visualization, and it allows you to really stay focused without drifting off because you're going to be thinking about one thing and not 10. One of the big things that I like to do as well is when you pick this detail to focus on pick a strength of yours. So if your strength is closing speed from 60 to 100, great, focus on that. If your strength is getting over the first hurdle really fast, focus on that. if your strength is in the middle of the race, over hurdle 5, 6, focus on that, okay? If your strength is the run up before you throw the javelin. I don't know. Focus on that. Focus on the strengths that you have because those are the things that you do well. And if you execute those things well, you have an upper leg on the competition. Everyone has something they do very well. And there's something that you know that you do well in practice that translate into game time situations. So focus on those things when you visualize and perfecting those and making them crisp and clean in your mind. Cool. The science behind visualization is that when you visualize something happening, your brain can't decipher whether it's actually happening or not. What does this mean? It means when you see yourself executing a specific drill perfectly, or you see yourself crossing the line first in the race or hitting those game winning free throws, your brain thinks that your body has actually done it. This is a way to actually get reps in without getting reps in. If you guys know what I mean. So when I won the NCAA title in 2015 and 2016, and I broke the collegiate record, I saw myself doing that probably over a thousand plus times. I'm not kidding you. I would think about this all the time. I would say to myself that I was an NCAA champion. I would see myself doing it over and over again. And my brain did not know the difference between that actually happening. Me actually doing it, being at the race, being in the atmosphere and not, and that's the most powerful thing, right? your body is literally learning as you put your mind through this visualization. Your body is picking up on that. And when you go to do it, at practice it's better. It's better because you've seen yourself. Have you ever watched? This is the same thing when you watch film, right? You watch film and then you can see it. And when you see it, you can make corrections. That's because in your brain, right when you see the mistake, you already start to correct it in your brain. So then when you go to the next rep and practice, guess what? It's better. It's different. You get a little, you get a little coaching, Your coach gives you a little cue and boom, the next rep it's better. And this is exactly What's happening. It's just happening at a micro level. Now you can practice that and get mental reps and training and outside of practice, right? This is going to literally put you in a space where you're going to be literally doing more practice than anybody else. Okay? So why is visualization such a powerful tool for actually recovering from injury faster? So what you do in order to help your body recover faster by using visualization You imagine yourself doing the exact rep you got injured doing, but instead of injuring yourself, you imagine yourself executing it perfectly. Again, your brain is allowing your body to get mental reps. Even when you're not on the playing field, there's literally been scientific studies that have studied athletes who visualize red blood cells, rushing to their muscles to repair them. And it actually causes chemicals in your brain to be released to make that function happen. This is why I tell you that your mind and your brain is the most powerful tool you have as an athlete. And you have to be able to know how to use it and use it correctly. And when you do, you can take your game to the next level. So increased red blood cell activity at the site of an injury decreases injury time and helps athletes return to play even faster. It's going to help you return to play faster. So when I got to the start line, my body, guys, It's Had already made that NCAA championship run and because of that when I got to the line I was calm. I was ready and honestly, it felt like deja vu. So guys, here's tip number three this is one of the most powerful tips when it comes to visualization and This is how you're actually going to eliminate the negative thoughts that come up in your head while you're trying to see yourself winning Because honestly, if you sit down in a quiet room and you're trying to visualize, most of the time, either you're going to trail off like we just covered, or you're going to see something bad happening. And it's hard to get the bad thought out of your head once it starts because it's like a domino effect, You see the first bad thing happening, then the next bad thing happens in it. And it's like a snowball gets bigger and bigger. So it's really hard to get the negative thoughts out. So how do you do that? Let's go over some negative. Thought ideas, So a negative thought would be false starting. Maybe you're stumbling from the blocks or being late to the gun. These are all common things that I would see myself doing whenever I went to go visualize. And it's like these negative thoughts were fighting for real estate in my brain. So how did I get rid of them? How could I refocus and get my mind back on positive outcomes? The most powerful tool is asking yourself the right questions. I want to say that again, the most powerful tool to get negative thoughts out of your head when you're visualizing, especially trying to visualize yourself when is to ask yourself the right questions. So what do I mean by this? You have to understand this first, that your brain is the most powerful tool you have as an athlete. And I heard this said before, that it's a problem solving machine. That means that if you present your body with a question that needs an answer, it's going to find one. When negative thoughts come up, let's take for instance, my negative thought of stumbling out of the blocks, I would ask myself this question, alright? Are you guys ready? The trick is to make a statement with a question word, For example, How effective am I going to be in this race when I blast out of the blocks with aggression? Another one. How fast will my time be when my feet land perfectly underneath me on my way to victory? Another one. When I transition aggressively and smooth like butter, how big will the gap be on my opponents? as I've just asked these questions, I bet your mind is already flying with positive thoughts about your execution right now on those few things. Now you can see yourself putting a gap between you and your opponents because your thoughts are pure, clear and on winning because you've set your brain on a positive path with the right questions. Okay, so use this tool. And make sure that when you're asking questions that they lead to positive outcomes because your brain will always give you positive outcomes if you ask it the right things. So ask yourself the right questions. It's going to eliminate the negative from your mind and actually focus you on to positive things, which is amazing. That's how you get rid of a lot of anxiety sometimes, but also you get rid of these negative thoughts that are coming up and you feel like you might mess up or be embarrassed. So ask yourself the right questions. So we've covered a lot here, but I want you to remember if you're just starting to implement this. It's going to take a lot of practice to shift your thoughts from negative to positive. but I will encourage you to keep practicing because wanting to quit is a part of the process. Not quitting is where you get better, not just in visualization, but when it counts in the game, in the heat of competition, when you're lined up against your opponents, quitting is not an option. And if you can stay steadfast in practicing visualization and really hone the skill and get better at it, then it's going to pay dividends when it comes time to compete and to compete at a high level. All of the greats, guys, people like Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Usain Bolt. The biggest difference between them and everyone else was their unbreakable mindset. It took Michael Jordan seven years before he won a championship. LeBron James nine years, and Usain Bolt got beat in the 200 in 2007 by Tyson Gay, which ignited a fire in him, and we all know how that ended. The point is That greatness takes time, but these great athletes kept at it and they saw themselves as winners before it ever happened. They never lost hope as they pursued their dreams. They pursued their dreams relentlessly. Even when after seven years, Michael Jordan, the best basketball player in the NBA had not Won a title. He kept working. He never saw himself as a loser. He always saw himself as a winner. He kept seeing himself winning, and eventually, guess what? He went on to win. And he went on to win six championships. One, after leaving basketball and playing baseball for 18 months. So what I want to tell you is that the greats always visualize themselves as champions. They never stop. They always practice and they see themselves doing the small things that no one else is doing. And because They did the small stuff because Michael Jordan put in the extra reps. He put up the extra shots. He put in the extra time because LeBron James spends a million plus dollars on his body every year, taking care of it, making sure he's healthy. That's why he's played so many seasons in the league. Usain Bolt being able to re repeat over and over in the Olympic games, which is unheard of. These are the characteristics, not just of hard workers. But people that train their minds at a high level, you cannot be great if you do not have the mindset of a champion. And that's what those three guys had. So just to wrap it up, guys, to recap, we're going to go ahead and implement visualization tools to help us perform better in game time situations. Let's recap. Tip number one, was to create a vision board so you can see your goals in front of you each and every day. What this is going to do, it's going to allow your brain to stay focused on the outcomes you originally set out to achieve and not get sidetracked with side missions. Okay? Stay focused on the goal, lock in on what you're supposed to be doing, see it every day and watch it come to fruition. Next, we want to slow the game down in our heads and focus in on the specific details we're executing in practice each week that are going to allow us to piece our performance together to get the best result. So all those tactics, all those drills, all the things that you've been doing in practice that you're really good at focus on one of those things when it comes to competition time, that's going to put your brain in a positive strength position. It's going to put your brain in a It's going to put your brain in a winning position because you're going to be focusing on something that you do. This could be. Focusing on our second step from the blocks, our focal point in the drive phase, our body positioning during acceleration, whatever it is for you, find something that you do well, and focus in on that one thing because execution is what leads to victory. By practicing visualization, we're going to trick our brains, literally trick our brains into getting hundreds and thousands of reps without actually being in the gym. So when we step onto the playing field, our bodies go into autopilot and we're already ready to dominate the routine we've been practicing in the physical world and in the mental space. And then lastly, we've got to ask ourselves the right questions that lead to positive answers for us. This leads us to getting rid of all negative thoughts and focusing on positive outcomes. Don't forget to ask the right questions. Make sure you have those questions loaded up. I would encourage you to sit down and write down some positive questions that are going to lead you to positive answers. And when you do that, the negative thoughts that come into your head when you try to visualize, they're going to go away. Because you're going to be focusing on the positive things and the positive outcomes that come when you actually execute at a high level. Okay? That's all for me guys. I'm signing off. I love you and I want to see you break through in your sport. I know you're capable. Just remember to keep working hard and believe that defeat is optional. If you benefited from today's episode, do me a favor and share it with a friend. That way I can continue to deliver top quality content to you guys each and every week. All right, turn notifications on for new episodes. And if you want to check out my YouTube live streams, I do them every Monday through Wednesday night at 6 p. m. Eastern time. I will catch you guys in the next episode.