Padel World Press .- In this article we are going to talk about a powerful psychological tool that is very useful and necessary in many areas of sport. The imagined practice involves creating or recreating a mental image of a sports situation in order to obtain some benefit from it.
In the sport of padel, and as far as mental training is concerned, the imagined practice may have the following applications:
- Enhance the technique of the blows.
- Enhance game strategies.
- Control emotions
- Rehabilitation of injuries.
As for enhancing the technique of the blows, we refer to the possibility of mentally working some blow that we do not perform correctly or, simply, that we have lost confidence. It is about having a correct vision of that blow and rehearsing it repeatedly in our head and in different situations.
When we talk about enhancing game strategies, we refer to the possibility of imagining situations of play that lead us to game strategies that interest us according to the type of surface, height and conditions of the track that we can find in a competition.
The imagined practice is also very effective to control emotions, that is, when athletes are going to face emotionally difficult situations for them (a couple that we fear, a track where we have never won, an important final, play against an ex partner ... to visualize those situations can give us a plus of confidence for when they happen in the reality.
Finally, let's discuss the application focused on the rehabilitation of injuries, here I consider this fundamental and very practical technique. It is about working with players who have suffered an injury with a long recovery period (more than a month) and with the objective that when this player returns to training he has total confidence in the affected area and in his hits.
The work consists in the start-up of a mental training with training and competition exercises, which the athlete must visualize every day during the recovery period. Once the deadline has elapsed and the work is done, the sensations when returning to the tracks are very good.
I have used this technique with many injured athletes (tennis players, footballers, paddleball players ...) and in all cases the results have been very satisfactory, but I emphasize, because it is a professional player of paddle, the case of Carolina Navarro, the player most laureate of the world padel.
I have been collaborating with her since 2006 and, precisely, an unfortunate injury made us start working together. It all started in March of 2006, Carolina was preparing for the World Cup that year would be played in October Murcia, but one of his knees played a trick on him and he suffered a cruciate ligament tear, 6 months without being able to play. The Spanish Federation of Paddle put me in contact with her to try to work mentally and recover her as much as possible and we got down to work. I remember that the first session we had ended with the following words, I said "Carol you will not be able to take a shovel in 6 months, but you will play paddle every day ... In your head".
The work consisted of a mental training program that alternated training and competition situations, and that the player had to carry out every day. The predisposition was not lacking and his professionalism made him take this mental training very seriously… five and a half months later and after the first day he joined the training, I remember that he called me on the phone and said “Oscar, this has worked. I look very confident and confident on the track, my shots are as always and with a good physical set-up I am ready to fight for the World Cup… ”. There was very little time left, only a month and a half, but he succeeded. Together with his partner then Paula Eyheraiguibel they won the World Cup, they weren't the favorites at that time, but they got it.
Carol left behind her injury in a sea of tears after the victory, it was the victory of perseverance, of tenacity, she would never have dreamed of a better recovery.
Óscar Lorenzo García
Twitter: OLorenzoRome
Email: [email protected]
Image: World Paddle Tour
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