Visualisation

[Mrs Redboots]

I didn't skate yesterday, and didn't sleep very well either (which two things were probably connected!). So in the middle of the night, rather than thrash about and disturb my husband, I decided to visualise myself doing a whole bunch of skating exercises, the kind of thing I always plan to do and very seldom do do when I go to the rink. I visualised myself doing:

1 lap forward stroking
1 lap forward outside swing rolls
1 lap forward inside swing rolls
1 lap forward outside chasses
1 lap forward inside chasses (yuck!)
Then the same backwards, except not inside swing rolls, but the back inside edges from our Field Moves. But yes, back inside chasses, even though I've never done them.

Anyway, at that point I got sleepy again and rolled over - to find I'd really been holding my tummy in, as though I were really skating! They do say visualisation is nearly as helpful as practising, if you can't get to practice through injury or some other reason, and maybe this is true!

[melanieuk]

Yes that's what they say!

I do visualise all the things I can do - regularly... in the car, in the bath, in bed etc ;)
I don't know if it helps.
I can visulaize me doing a 2axel but it certainly doesn't help me with the single axel! :roll:

[sk8er1964]

I visualize a lot too. It especially helps when putting together a new program.

[melanieuk]

Yes I visualise my programme the most often in my own little mind. ;)

Obviously one is supposed to visualise a perfect skate, to give one confidence and positive feelings about their ability.

Isn't it hard to visualise making no mistakes? It IS for me!
I always make a mistake - yes, even when I'm supposed to be in control of my mind - when I visualise my programme. :roll:

On reflection, this is maybe more realistic.
It may even help me to visualise all the things that could go wrong in the programme, and visualise fixing those things to a satisfactory outcome.
This probably defeats the original purpose of the visualisation though.

What do you think, Mrs Redboots?

[Mrs Redboots]

Originally posted by melanieuk
Isn't it hard to visualise making no mistakes? It IS for me!
I always make a mistake - yes, even when I'm supposed to be in control of my mind - when I visualise my programme. :roll: I certainly can't! I can't yet visualise myself, for instance, doing a length of very fast forward stroking and then doing a 3-turn in the middle of the back end..... which is something I seriously can't do in real life. On the other hand, I did visualise myself doing a perfect Foxtrot, solo, the other day, and that is serious progress. I can't do that on the ice yet!

Sometimes I find what happens is that I fall asleep mid-visualisation, and then come awake with one of those jerks - you know, what do they call them, clonic something - and invariably that coincides with a fall on the ice, in my half-dream.....

[melanieuk]

hypnagogic state- when you are just nodding off....
hypnopompic state - just as you're awakening...

But they relate more to dreams/hallucinations you have just as you are dozing off or awakening than the jerky-waking-in-fright syndrome! Although that could be part of the dream??

[skateflo]

Annabel - I chuckled when I read that you had your tummy tucked in! I was reading in one of my books about the toe loop and salchow and realized I had been tightening my leg muscles while reading and they ached!

Visualization is interesting in its concept but they say it takes constant practice. I have trouble staying in focus as I always 'view' myself from 5 feet or so away as if I am watching another skater and then I find my 'eye' zooming in and out on my shoulders or arms or head, etc.

Everyone is different....at least your hubby got his sleep! Sometimes I actually skated better when I was tired, muscles relaxed, than when I was not. Coach and I remenised about that this week, remembering when I used to skate the afternoon after working a 24 hour shift in the hospital. I think I was too tired to get 'up tight!'

[mikawendy]

Originally posted by Mrs Redboots
Sometimes I find what happens is that I fall asleep mid-visualisation, and then come awake with one of those jerks - you know, what do they call them, clonic something - and invariably that coincides with a fall on the ice, in my half-dream.....

I've heard those jerks are called myoclonic jerks. When they happen to me, I'm usually half-dreaming that I'm walking down the stairs or off the curb and then tripping. I've noticed that our pooch has a similar kind of jerk when he's falling asleep sometimes... :D

[Mrs Redboots]

Originally posted by mikawendy
I've heard those jerks are called myoclonic jerks. :D That's the word I was looking for, thanks.

[singerskates]

Oh, this I have to tell. I was lying in bed and my husband just came from the bathroom this morning. He came in thinking that I was in pain but what he didn't know until I told him was that I was busy going over my freeskate program visualising. Just when he came in the bedroom I was in the air rotating my toe loop jump. LOL You know how we all make faces as we rotate in the air. LOL

Never got to the scratch spin..... LOL