How to Coach Yourself and Others Techniques For Coaching | Page 466

situation, focus on that you as a friend, someone you would like
to help and encourage. Allow that you to begin to appreciate all
of the amazing qualities of you. For example, if you would like
more dating confidence, imagine seeing yourself through the
eyes of someone who loves you and admires you. Focus on all of
your strengths and imagine what your future partner may
appreciate and love about you.

3.49.2 Developing Imagery skills
The aim of this page is to help you develop your imagery
(visualisation) skills. We will look at the elements of imagery
development and the creation of scripts to help in developing
your imagery skills.
Imagery Categories
The five main categories of imagery have been identified as
follows:
1.

Motivational-specific (MS) - This involves seeing yourself
winning an event, receiving a trophy or medal and being
congratulated by other athletes. MS imagery may boost
motivation and effort during training and facilitate goalsetting, but is unlikely on its own to lead directly to
performance benefits

2.

Motivational general-mastery (MG-M) - This is based on
seeing yourself coping in difficult circumstances and
mastering challenging situations. It might include
maintaining a positive focus while behind, and then coming
back to win. MG-M imagery appears to be important in
developing expectations of success and self-confidence

3.

Motivational general-arousal (MG-A) - This is imagery that
reflects feelings of relaxation, stress, anxiety or arousal in
relation to sports competitions. There is good evidence to
suggest that MG-A imagery can influence heart rate - one

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