mental rehearsal
Practicing in thought
Mental rehearsal is the practice of vividly imagining yourself performing an action before actually doing it.
Athletes use mental rehearsal to prepare for competition, visualizing each movement in sequence: She spent twenty minutes in mental rehearsal before stepping onto the balance beam.
The technique assumes that mentally practicing a skill activates similar neural pathways as physical practice, strengthening performance without physical fatigue.
- visualizationForming mental or graphical images
- mind's eyeInternal visualization capacity
- imageryVivid descriptive language
- practiceRepeated work toward mastery
- imaginationFaculty for forming ideas
preparation · sports psychology · focus · athletes · performance · peak performance · meditation · concentration · mindset · positive self-talk · scenario · anticipation · walkthrough · pregame · confidence · routine · training · muscle memory
- cognitionthinking, reasoning, thought, cognition, remembering
- brain trainingbrain training, memory, focus, cognitive training, memory palace
- memory trainingmemory games, memory match, memory palace, memorization, mnemonics
- Practicedrills, warm-up, warmup, exercises, reps
- pregamewarmup, warm-up, stretching routine, stretching, pep talk
- self-controlself-control, restraint, willpower, composure, moderation
mental rehearsallive performance
Unrecorded staged entertainment
the real thing · game day · showtime · opening night · competition
mental rehearsalimprovisation
Spontaneous, unplanned creation
winging it · ad-libbing · extemporization · playing it by ear
mental, rehearsal, mentally, mentality, mentalism, mentalist, rehearse, rehearsed, rehearsing