All athletes need more confidence and consistency. Some of you have probably been using videos in one form or another for years and have found them helpful. These include but are not limited to analyzing mechanical skills and various forms of video instruction used by coaches and teaching professionals.The focus of my system is not video instruction, but video training. The training is designed to help you access and execute more consistently your highest skill level and at the same time build a higher level of confidence. The length of the video training is 6 minutes. The video consists of 2 phases. The first and most critical phase is the 1 minute preparation phase designed to prepare your mind to maximize the effectiveness of the training. The second phase is the core training phase designed by you and your coaches. This second phase consists of you watching yourself execute picture perfect skills over and over again at different speeds and different angles with audio suggestions to enhance and build confidence.Research shows that the core training stimulates, sharpens, and strengthens the mechanical skill in some of the same ways this happens with repetitive practice. The same neural pathways stimulated by perfect practice would be similarly activated and reinforced with the training video. In other words the nervous system would react as if it were physically performing the skill. In another study involving "mirror neurons" the research team came to the same conclusion that by watching yourself perform the skill, you reinforce and stimulate the neural blueprint of that skill. Another researcher stated that by watching the skill, it is imprinted more clearly into the brain and is therefore an effective way to enhance motor skill performance.
About the Author: Banks Hudson is a graduate of the US Military Academy at West Point. He completed Airborne and Ranger training, served in Viet Nam and holds two masters degrees in theology. He completed a year of clinical training at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and served twenty years in the Army attaining the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. He is a licensed psychotherapist and specializes in the generalized anxiety disorders and has forty years of experience in the use of biofeedback, hypnosis, attention training, skilled relaxation and anchoring. He is the founder of SportsMind Training dedicated to helping athletes maximize their potential in sports performance. This first manual in a series outlines a video training system for athletes with exceptional skills.