ABSTRACT
This chapter tries to explain what imagery is, and how athletes use it to try to enhance performance. It identifies the different imagery types and understands how these may be used in different situations with a view to improving sports performance. The chapter explains why imagery is such a potent tool for enhancing sports performance and provides guidelines based on research from sport psychology and neuroscience aimed at making imagery the most effective it can be. Imagery training is commonly used among elite and aspiring athletes to try to improve performance: at least, that is the reason provided by athletes. Many sport psychology publications promote imagery as an important psychological intervention and give advice on how it should be implemented to provide the most effective results. Although it is very commonly used by athletes, often they may not get the most out of it, as it is often performed in an unstructured and unrealistic way.
