When I was an athlete in high school and in college, I would instinctively “rehearse,” or see the play in my mind, before execution. Most athletes use imagination and mental imagery instinctively to help them prepare for and perform motor skills. I think there is a strong place in performance enhancement for mental imagery, but it should be a small part of your overall sport psychology program. For example, Chuck Hogan based his entire program on creativity and mental imagery. Many sports psychologist in the field of sports psychology place too much emphasis on the use of mental imagery or mental rehearsal in performance enhancement. The terms mental rehearsal and mental imagery are general terms that encompass imagery, visualization, and mental practice. When you imagine or rehearse performing an action with no overt movement, you are using mental rehearsal or mental practice. Mental rehearsal, also referred to as imagery, guided imagery, mental practice, or visualization, is defined in sports psychology literature as, “the cognitive rehearsal of a task in the absence of overt physical movement.” Sports psychologists and mental game coaches simply structure mental rehearsal for athletes to get the most out of it. Weather you know it or not, you use mental rehearsal in your sport–in one way or athlete. Mental imagery has a place in sport psychology, but it’s only about two percent of what we teach athletes at Peak Performance Sports. Many athletes and coaches think that sports psychologists only teach mental imagery and goals setting.