Mental rehearsal and visualization

These notes combine advice from 10 reviewed passages across 8 workouts.

Overview

Mental rehearsal is running a movement through your mind before you perform it. It is used before skills such as the handstand and before freestyle sequences, so the full movement is decided in advance. It can also stand in for a physical obstacle when you want to practice a pattern without setting one up. The main demand is that the imagining happens deliberately and completely before the start, so you do not enter the movement without a plan. [2] [3] [7] [8] [9] [10]

Rehearse before you start

Repeat the movement in your mind before you perform it. For a handstand, picture the entry in front of your eyes and only then go up. Commit to the hold you intend: breathe, enter with the certainty that you will stop where planned, imagine the hold in your mind, then move. [7] [8] [10]

For a freestyle, build the sequence in your head from the moves you have already done. Plan the order and say what you will do before you start. Finish the whole sequence in your head before you begin, and once you are performing, stop thinking about it and execute. For counting rhythm, a two-and-two pattern works better than one-one-one. [3] [9]

Visualize the stages of a skill

Before a skill, visualize the stages in order: where the arms go, rising up, holding the position, and coming down. Try to see the whole movement for a moment before attempting it, whether it is a backflip, handstand, or planche-up. [6]

Work through a listen-feel-react order before entering. Take in the instruction and sense what the movement requires before responding. Enter only when you are fully ready, and start and finish the movement deliberately. [6]

Use imagined obstacles

When a movement is normally practiced with obstacles, you can create the obstacle in your mind instead of placing one. Imagine an obstacle section and try not to collide with it. You can also imagine heights where there are none and practice without them. At first you may need the obstacle, but after a while you will not need to place one. [2] [4]

Coach’s experience

In his own training, he imagines the leg action of rope work like shadow boxing even when he does not have the rope, because the rhythm starts to fade if he does not. Staying with it keeps him warm. [1]

In his own training, he uses the image of something heavy passing over Godzilla’s back as a cue during planks, and tries to feel that pressure while he holds. [5]

Sources

1. 2024-01-29, 3638.7-3652.3s

Workout: workout:2024-01-29

Passage: passage:2024-01-29:001255-001259

2. 2024-04-08, 3035.1-3052.3s

Workout: workout:2024-04-08

Passage: passage:2024-04-08:000965-000975

3. 2024-04-12, 1389.4-1412.9s

Workout: workout:2024-04-12

Passage: passage:2024-04-12:000351-000360

4. 2024-04-12, 4634.9-4643.2s

Workout: workout:2024-04-12

Passage: passage:2024-04-12:001452-001457

5. 2024-06-27, 3869.3-3887.4s

Workout: workout:2024-06-27

Passage: passage:2024-06-27:001419-001425

6. 2025-02-22, 2962.6-3000.5s

Workout: workout:2025-02-22

Passage: passage:2025-02-22:001080-001107

7. 2025-06-13, 2555.0-2557.1s

Workout: workout:2025-06-13

Passage: passage:2025-06-13:000933-000934

8. 2025-06-13, 2767.8-2778.5s

Workout: workout:2025-06-13

Passage: passage:2025-06-13:001002-001006

9. 2026-05-31, 4467.9-4495.4s

Workout: workout:2026-05-31

Passage: passage:2026-05-31:001334-001334

10. 2026-07-17, 4927.1-4952.4s

Workout: workout:2026-07-17

Passage: passage:2026-07-17:001479-001480