Imagery and Visualization (NEW 12/16/2007)   If you want to take your game to new heights, you should start to practice visualization. To do this, you need to find a quiet place where you won’t be disturbed. You can lie down or sit in your favorite chair. Picture yourself in the net at the beginning of your next game. Take slow deep breaths and relax your entire body. Look around at the crowd, then at the bench and see your coach and your teammates. See, in your minds eye, the team that you are playing coming on to the ice. Look down the other end of the ice at the opposing goalie.   You then want to start visualizing the first face off and watch the play move toward you. Notice how calm and relaxed you are. Notice how confident you feel. Visualize play after play coming at you. Imagine every situation you can face in a game. Picture yourself moving around your crease and making the save. Watch yourself controlling the rebound, recovering, and playing the puck up to your teammates.   Visualization takes a lot of practice. It may be difficult at first. You may just see black or gray with no images. You need to picture the scenes being played out in the back of your mind. Eventually, with a lot of practice, you can start to clearly visualize the images. You may have to start out doing this for a short period of time until you become more comfortable with the process. You want to work your way up to visualizing an entire game.   If you do this exercise consistently, you will be amazed at how much better play in your games. This is a great way to keep your timing and remain ready to play if you are out for a while due to an injury, or if you are sitting on the bench as the backup goalie. This is also something you want to do during the off-season when you aren’t playing in too many games.         RE-Posted with the written consent of John Haley, The Goalie’s Mind, © Copyright 2004, All Rights Reserved