of a heavy striker. The two terms used to diagnose foot movement are pronation and supination. Pronation, usually a characteristic of a flat foot, is used to describe those runners who, after initial heel strike, roll over to the inside of the arch and end up toeing off at their big toe. Supination, usually a characteristic of a high arch, is just the opposite; the runner again strikes the outside heel but rides the outside of the foot and has a toe-off on the fourth and fifth toes.

The gait analysis can be done with a trained eye, but larger shops have a treadmill and video camera set up so that both you and the expert can view your biomechanics. The key to figuring out what type of stability you need, the basis to which most running shoes are designed, is the degree of pronation your foot possesses. There are three basic categories of running shoes: neutral for the normal or supinating foot, stability for the mild pronator, and motion control for the severe pronator.

Another misconception is that the most expensive shoes are the best. This is not always the case. A shoe is typically more expensive because it has more parts or control devices. These devices often inhibit the natural motion of your foot, which is counterproductive when diagnosing your gait. When I fit people, I always start out with a very basic shoe such as the Nike Free or the Pegasus. These two very basic models lack any stability devices, thereby allowing the foot to be analyzed in a normal stride. Some runners are perfect in the neutral category, and others should be offered more stability until a desired level of control is found.

THE MATTER OF RETURN POLICY

Before making your purchase, ask about the running shop’s return policy. The true experts realize that sometimes a run is the only true test. A no-return policy means the store is not very confident in its shoe-fitting abilities.

Finding the expert dealers may be your hardest task. My suggestions are to visit brand Web sites and look for stores that manufacturers consider their best dealers and to ask running buddies where they get their shoes and what type of fit process they receive. Use local and national industry magazines to find local dealers. It may be a simple case of trial and error until you find the store that performs to your expectations.

Finally, understand that offering this service with knowledgeable employees in a brick and mortar store does not allow the specialty store to discount product like a chain store or Internet mail-order company. A shoe fit to the wrong foot could cause discomfort, pain, and irreversible damage. A pronator left uncorrected or in the wrong shoe may suffer permanent ankle, knee, and hip damage. Reward your running store with repeat business and good word-of-mouth advertising. You are now armed with the knowledge to discover one of the many great running stores around the country. Good luck—and happy and healthy running. i

SPORTSMED SPECIAL SECTION

Success—or Failure—ls All in the Mind.

ost marathoners and ultrarunners pay particular attention to their equipment

(running shoes, gear, heart rate monitors, and so forth), training (mileage, intensity, route, weather), rest, diet, and hydration. Runners commit a great deal of time to their physical training, but it’s not just a matter of putting the hours in physical training that breeds success. We are not merely physical beings but rather an integration of body/mind processes. Thus, mental preparation is also an essential component for optimal performance.

Imagery is a technique often utilized by elite and professional athletes as part of a psychological skills training program. We make use of images most of the day as part of our thought processes. Most of us think in images as we think about what to wear in the morning, our commute to work, our plans for the day, our daydreams, and so forth. There is a difference between dreams and imagery. Dreaming is the product of our subconscious mind, while imagery utilizes focused, planned, conscious, and controlled images in an effort to affect some future event.

Sport psychologists Orlick and Partington conducted a survey at the 1984 Olympic Games to ascertain the number of Olympic athletes who adopted imagery as a daily training practice. The results indicated that 99 percent of the athletes used imagery at least four times per week (Baker and Sedgwick, 2005). Imagery is one of the most often-used tools in most sport psychological skills training programs.

My first experience with imagery was as a high school swim coach. I assumed the reins of a team that had finished in second place for eight consecutive years, and I was looking to give our swimmers an edge. I hadn’t fully bought into the effect of imagery but thought, Why not give it a try? We conducted imagery sessions daily, sometimes before and after practice or during interval rest. When imaging their races, the swimmers became quite proficient at this skill. I would

set up the race as if I were the starter and time their event. The swimmers would raise their hands when they imaged the completion of their race. Most were able to image their race within a second of their goal time. I often experimented with some imagery designed to create more vivid images. At our championship meet, I had all the swimmers sitting on the deck by the diving well with their feet in the water. We began imaging the color of the water changing and then the temperature. As we imaged the water burning hot, something amazing happened: all the swimmers jerked their feet out of the water! This profound experience sold me on the power of imagery. Our team went on to win its first championship in the school’s history.

WHAT IS IMAGERY?

Imagery is a purposeful, planned, active, conscious effort to choose appropriate success images while deeply relaxed in order to influence how your body responds to a set of future circumstances (Lynch and Scott, 1999). Imagery not only affects muscle electrical impulses, but it can also influence blood pressure, heart rate, body temperature, body posture, and running technique as well as mental processes (thoughts, emotions, confidence, attitude, beliefs). Imagery assists in quieting the mind and eliminating negative thoughts that interfere with running performance so you can realize your true athletic potential. Imagery also creates expectations of positive results, which elevates mood, thereby increasing the likelihood of successful outcomes. Imagery is a way to program your mind for success by keeping you focused, relaxed, and in control.

Visualization Versus Imagery

Several terms refer to imagery: mental rehearsal, mental practice, and sensory reenactment. Early sport scientists referred to this skill as visualization because the athletes would see themselves performing in their mind’s eye. The term “visualization” is too limiting, however, placing too much emphasis on the visual component. Imagery is actually a stimulus where a person recalls, restructures, and creates vivid pieces of information from experience and reconstructs these pieces into meaningful, powerful images designed to elicit a particular response. Our minds can image an event that has not yet occurred by building an image from several different memories and experiences. (These types of images are as effective as recalling events from our past.) We have all used imagery (for example, mentally reviewing our steps upon losing our keys or recalling an emotionally laden experience). The key to unleashing the power of this skill lies in the multisensory experience of the event. To intensify the vividness and concreteness of your images, elicit total contribution from all the senses: visual (sight), olfactory (smell), auditory (hearing), kinesthetic (the sensation of bodily position or movement that arises from the stimulation of sensory nerve endings in muscles, joints, and tendons), tactile (feel), and gustatory (taste).

The Utilization of Senses for Imagery

First, marathoners can use visual senses to see the course, the scenery, and the field of runners. You can utilize the sense of smell to create the particular scents of the environment and the smell of sweat. You can use the auditory sense to experience the sounds of feet striking the running surface, miscellaneous sounds in the environment such as crowd noise, and the bustle and breathing of a crowd of runners. The kinesthetic sense allows you to experience your transfer of weight as your foot strikes and the coordination of your hand and foot movements and your stride. You can use the tactile sense to note how your clothes feel against your body and the fit and feel of your running shoes. The gustatory sense helps you experience the tastes of power gels, electrolyte drinks, and energy bars consumed before and during your races. Remember, the more you utilize all the senses, the more vivid, powerful, and beneficial the images will be.

Another important way to create a vivid image is to attach positive emotions to the imaged experience. Emotions are powerful, and when combined with a vivid image, they can enhance its beneficial effects. A positive, strong emotion should be attached to the image. For example, recall an event that was highly, positively charged, a time where you experienced a great accomplishment in overcoming an adverse situation, succeeding against difficult odds, completing a difficult course, or setting a personal best. Immerse yourself in these emotions for a minute. Upon completion of an imagery session, recall these powerful emotions. This will help associate the successful imaged event with the feelings of success.

How Imagery Works

Constructed images from our mind are essentially similar to actual experiences. Have you ever had a dream or nightmare, causing you to wake up in a cold sweat, short of breath, with your heart racing? Our conscious minds interpret imaged stimuli and real stimuli in a very similar fashion. Both have similar physiological responses with slight differences in intensity.

FIVE THEORIES OF IMAGERY

Psychoneuromuscular Theory: This theory proposes that a vividly imaged event causes slight neuromuscular impulses identical to those produced during actual performance, but reduced in magnitude. The imagery cues the body to fire millions of neural and muscular activities in a form of dress rehearsal for the big event. In essence, by imaging an event, you are programming the muscles to perform the action.

Symbolic Learning Theory: This theory postulates that imagery helps encode a behavior by creating a motor program in the central nervous system. Imagery enhances muscle memory, thereby generating a mental blueprint for the movement and increasing the likelihood of performing the action successfully.

Psychological Skills Hypothesis: This hypothesis theorizes that imagery is effective because it enhances psychological skills such as concentration, relaxation, and confidence. Imagery refines psychological skills by enhancing preparation and familiarity with the physical performance.

Bioinformational Theory: This theory (P. J. Lang, 1977, 1979) states that imagery acts as a mental stimulus. After imaging an event, the brain searches its long-term memory for successful responses to similar stimuli. Once a match is obtained, the image would initiate the desired response. The stimulus is a mental picture that helps shape the response or physiological activity.

Triple Code Model: In Akhter Ahsen’s (1984) model, imagery has three essential components. The first essential component is the image itself. The second essential component is the psychophysiological responses or changes within the body. The third essential component, mostly ignored by other theories, is the meaning of the image. Images have different degrees of significance according to the individual imager. Thus, the same set of imagery instructions will never produce the same imagery experience for any two people (Weinberg and Gould, 1998).

APPLICATIONS OF IMAGERY

Improve concentration: Imagery can increase the familiarity of an event and assisting in maintaining focus throughout long training runs and races.

Build confidence: Imaging yourself performing well under adverse conditions (bad weather, difficult course conditions) can increase your sense of confidence. An imagery routine aids an athlete’s preparation for an event, and preparation is the key to building confidence.

Control anxiety: A daily imagery routine will aid in minimizing anxiety as you narrow your focus on what you can control. Also, imaging staying relaxed with a fluid running motion will increase the effectiveness of your stride and gait.

Generate positive, enhancing emotions: By seeing and feeling yourself performing well, your mood is lifted, thereby placing you in a positive mental state.

Manage pain: Imagery can help the marathoner and ultrarunner work through the discomfort during long races.

Increase motivation: Imagery is a form of goal setting that helps prevent staleness and burnout.

Increase consistency: Consistency is regularity in performance. By imaging successful performance outcomes, you are programming your mind/body for such consistent behavior.

Manage injury: If an injury has caused a time-out in your training, you can image runs to counteract the frustration of being inactive. Healing imagery can also provide the runner with a sense of control over being injured.

Overcome slumps: Too often, slumps are mental. Our memories remind us of lackluster performances, and these negative images perpetuate subpar performances. Imagery counteracts the rehearsal of negative images and replaces them with positive, self-enhancing thoughts and images.

Improve technical and tactical racing skills: Imagery reinforces the feel of correct technique through the imaged repetition of proper execution. Imagery acts as a bridge between the thoughts in your mind and the actions of your body, ingraining the technical instruction at both levels (Taylor and Schneider, 2005). Imagery also familiarizes you with your race strategy, making the tactical part of your race more comfortable.

KEYS TO EFFECTIVE IMAGERY

Internal versus external images: An internal image refers to experiencing the performance from your own vantage point (that is, as if you were performing the action). An external image is experiencing the event from the perspective of an observer. Internal images have the advantage of emphasizing the feel of the movement and the emotional component of the experience, which may prove beneficial.

Practice: Imagery is a skill requiring practice. Training the mind is like training a muscle. In order for imagery to become an effective part of your training, daily imagery practice should be adopted as a part of your training regimen. You wouldn’t train for a marathon by running once a week and expect a personal best. As you become more proficient in your imaging skills, the benefits will increase exponentially.

Image vividness: The closer you can approximate the imaged event in your mind to the actual experience, the more likely the successful imaged event will transfer to your physical performance. Remember, utilize a// the senses to increase the vividness of your images.

Controllability: It is important to manipulate your images so the imaged event is what you want it to be. The ability to control your images for longer periods of time will enhance the chances of successful physical outcomes.

Relaxation: Relaxation prior to an imagery session enhances image vividness and controllability. Relaxation allows you to focus on the task at hand, immerse yourself in the images, and reduce competing thoughts by quieting the mind, resulting in more powerful images.

Positive outcomes/emotionality: Focus the majority of your images on successful outcomes. Imaging successful outcomes enhances the emotional component and helps program the body for successful outcomes.

Image in real time: The time spent imaging a skill should be equal to the time the skill takes to occur. Of course, you cannot image an entire marathon, so break down your race into four- to five-minute sections. (Start . . . battling the crowd; middle . . . as you push through the fatigue; finish . . . developing that strong kick into the finish.)

IMAGERY PROGRAM

Goal setting: Start with an imagery goal. Do you want to focus on technical skills (stride), tactical (race strategy), mental (managing anxiety), or improving overall performance (personal best)?

Plan: Design a plan and schedule 10 to 12 minutes into your day where you can perform your imagery at approximately the same time every day.

Create an imagery scenario: Write down your athletic imagery scene in specific detail: location of event, race conditions, specific event, seeding, thoughts, feelings, and expectations.

Relax: Precede your imagery session with some form of active relaxation (such as deep breathing or progressive relaxation).

EXAMPLE OF IMAGERY SCENARIO

¢ Sit or recline in a relaxed position. ° Close your eyes.

° Take three deep, calming abdominal breaths. Inhale…1…2…3… 4…5.Exhale…1…2…3…4…5.

Now, take a few moments to immerse yourself in your race environment. See the course, the runners, your surroundings, your running shoes and running gear . . . hear the crowd noise, the sounds of nature . . . taste your prerace energy bar and drink . . . smell the freshness of the air . . . feel your running shoes on your feet and your running clothes against your body . . . feel how your body is moving and the feel of your foot striking the ground . . . experience the positive anticipation and feeling of supreme confidence as you are about to embark on a personal best run.

Imagine yourself relaxed and loose with a strong, effortless pace. Your body feels like a fine-tuned machine running smooth, fast, and powerful. Your technique is perfect and efficient. You feel light on your feet, energetic and confident. Tell yourself, J feel great and fast, as you glide through the course. See yourself passing course landmarks as you run with ease, relaxed and strong. Feel your body cutting through the wind like a wedge. You are running with the grace and power of a gazelle. You feel positive as you finish strong. Upon completion of your race, you experience elation as you are immersed in positive emotions and a sense of ultimate accomplishment.

CONCLUSION

Training, equipment, and diet are important aspects in athletic performance. The contribution of physical factors is not as great as the potential contribution from mental training. Mental training is the key to unlocking human potential. Peak performance occurs when the body and mind function in unison in a positive, goal-oriented direction. If seeing is believing, then experiencing is knowing. It’s that knowing that alters your beliefs and opens the door to potential. Image yourself to new heights of performance!

SUGGESTED BOOKS

Dahlkoetter, J. 2004. Your performing edge. San Carlos, CA: Pulgas Ridge Press. Orlick, T. 1998. Embracing your potential. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics. Ungerleider, S. 2005. Mental training for peak performance. Emmaus, PA: Rodale.

REFERENCES

Ahsen, A. 1984. The triple code model for imagery and psycho-physiology. Journal of Mental Imagery 8, 15-42.

Baker, J., and W. Sedgwick. 2005. The sport psychology library: Triathlon. Morgantown, WV: Fitness Information Technology.

Lang, P.J. 1977. Imagery in therapy: An informational-processing analysis of fear. Behavior Therapy 8, 862-886.

Lang, P. J. 1979. A bio-informational theory of emotional imagery. Psychophysiology 17: 495-512.

Lynch, J., and W. Scott. 1999. Running within. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.

Orlick, T., and J. Partington. 1988. Mental links to excellence. The Sport Psychologist 2: 105-130.

Taylor, J., and T. Schneider. 2005. The triathlete’s guide to mental training. Boulder, CO: VeloPress.

Weinberg, R.S., and D. Gould. 1998. Foundations of sport and exercise psy- tt chology. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics. s