Coaching practices for Process Imagery Pre Performance

Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For Process Imagery Pre Performance, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.

Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?

• Right before I perform I keep picturing the win or the trophy, and it gets me amped but my body still feels unrehearsed for the actual moves
• When I picture the big moment I only ever see the win
• My mental rehearsal is a silent little movie
• Right before something big my nerve drains out and I forget I’ve ever done this well
• When I rehearse it in my head I’m watching myself from the outside like game footage, and it looks fine but it doesn’t carry over to the real thing

Practices that may help

1. Include a brief process imagery step in your routine
   Mentally rehearse the execution process — not the outcome — as part of your preparation sequence.
   Pre-Performance Routines, Made Practical
2. Image the process, not the outcome
   Visualize the feel and flow of execution — not winning, not the scoreboard, not the crowd reaction.
   Mental Rehearsal and Imagery, Made Practical
3. Add sensory channels beyond vision
   Build auditory, tactile, and proprioceptive detail into your imagery — not just what you see.
   Mental Rehearsal and Imagery, Made Practical
4. Use mastery imagery to build confidence before high-stakes performances
   Replay previous best performances in imagery before high-pressure situations.
   Mental Rehearsal and Imagery, Made Practical
5. Use a first-person kinesthetic perspective
   Feel the movement from inside your body — do not watch yourself performing from outside.
   Mental Rehearsal and Imagery, Made Practical
6. Train imagery vividness and controllability as skills
   Develop the ability to generate clear, stable, manipulable images — these are learnable, not fixed traits.
   Mental Rehearsal and Imagery, Made Practical
7. Mental Rehearsal and Imagery, Made Practical
   Mental rehearsal — systematically imagining yourself performing a skill — produces measurable performance improvements across athletic and other domains. Meta-analyses find moderate effect sizes, strongest when imagery is vivid, process-focused (rather than outcome-focused), and combined with physical practice. Alan Richardson’s early basketball research helped establish the empirical basis; the effect is well replicated.
8. Practice imagery at real-time speed
   Image performance at the actual speed of execution — not in slow motion.
   Mental Rehearsal and Imagery, Made Practical
9. Rehearse the full scenario in vivid mental imagery
   Walk through the difficult situation in your mind — including the hard moments — and watch yourself cope.
   Cope Ahead: DBT’s Method for Preparing for Difficult Situations
10. Pre-Performance Routines, Made Practical
    Pre-performance routines are standardized behavioral and mental sequences performed before a performance that direct attention, manage arousal, and activate well-rehearsed movement patterns. Sport psychology research (particularly Stuart Cotterill’s work) and multiple meta-analyses find they reliably improve consistency and reduce performance variability across athletic and skill-based tasks.

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