Cool Hockey Tips: How to Gain Confidence Using Visualization

This year, the hockey world was stunned when the Montreal Canadians ousted the Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins from the playoffs.

One of the biggest reasons has been the mental toughness of Mike Cammalleri of the Canadians.

Cammalleri has 12 goals in 14 playoff games for the Canadians. The last player to do that for the Canadiens was in 1993, and that was after 4 rounds of hockey playoffs.

And Cammalleri did it in the 2nd round.

Sweet.

One of the reasons is Cammalleri’s mental toughness. He has been incredibly balanced in the playoffs. He never gets too high or too low emotionally, no matter what’s going on. After each goal he scores, Cammalleri greets his teammates with a brief hug and then goes back to normal.

There is a cliché in sports: “It always returns to ground zero.”

Sport tempts you to go up and down emotionally. …but you have to go back to zero to be consistent. After the game you can celebrate. During the game everything is about your Right Approach.

More Cammalleri is using the sports psychology skill of VISUALIZING – in a big way. He goes to the track, sits on the bench, and uses his mind’s eye to program himself to score.

Check out this link of it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zylg-cmxHJY

Do you want to be like Mike?

One of these secrets is how to harness the extraordinary power of visualization or mental imagery. Many players know about visualization, but don’t do it properly to perform great hockey skills under pressure. So they never reap the benefits.

To boost your self-confidence, start using mental imagery at night before you go to sleep. Review the drills you did in practice or the moves you made in your most recent game. Ask yourself to remember your BEST moves on the screen of your mind.

At first, the image may be weak. However, you may not be able to get an image at all. stay with it. Soon you will be able to FEEL what it was like to choose a pass or shoot the puck.

You are now in business. You are in a position to program yourself for success by thinking about your next game.

What do you want to happen?

Suggest it to your mind. Try to see it.

Remember, when it comes to hockey, what you see IS what you get.