“Watch the videotape. Watch it before you go to bed and before you get up in the morning”
There was no videotape.
Michael Phelps, the most successful and most decorated Olympian of all time with a total of 28 medals, came from a broken family with a difficult home life. Diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Phelps was prone to stress and emotion. He began swimming at a young age, in part due to his sisters’ influence and in part to find an outlet. As a young swimmer he had difficulty coping with his parent’s divorce, and struggled to calm down before a race.
Bob Bowman, his coach, saw his potential, and channeled the hyperactivity into a tool. He instructed the young swimmer to watch “the videotape”– a mental visualization of the perfect race. Phelps was instructed to imagine, before falling asleep and upon waking up, jumping off the block and visualize the strokes, the walls of the pools, his turns, and his victorious finish. He was to imagine every detail right up to pulling off his cap at the competition of the race.
“So for me, like when I when I would visualize, I visualize every single, I mean getting up to a meet, and I would visualize probably a month or so in advance just of what could happen, what I want to happen and what I don't want to happen because when it happened I was prepared for it." - Michael Phelps, in a 2017 interview with Dubai Eye 103.8
This ability to envision and imagine is based on the principle that all things are created twice. Just as the construction of a building follows a blueprint, the physical creation follows the mental creation.
Through his visualization and mental creation, Phelps would time and time again emerge victorious, putting into practice what he had first envisioned in his “videotapes.” He would go on to be regarded as one of the most accomplished athletes of all time.
Trouble struck during the 2008 Beijing Olympics when his goggles flooded. Water seeped in and he became virtually blinded. Phelp’s training kicked in, and he put in “the videotape,” counted his strokes. In his own words, he was “mentally prepared for it.”
It’s not just Phelps who benefits from imagination, envisioning, and visualization. Everyone of us can set forth on our goals, dreams, and projects with intention and purpose. By picturing the end in mind, we focus on what we want to be and do. It is our plan for success.
Additional Reading:
Leadership Lessons From Michael Phelps. Retrieved August 29, 2024. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/leadership-lessons-from-michael-phelps-extraordinary-pre-race-cowan/
Sportskeeda. “My goggles fill up with water… I counted my strokes” – Michael Phelps on how he swam ‘blind’ at the 2008 Olympics https://www.sportskeeda.com/us/olympics/michael-phelps-swam-blind-2008-olympics
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