By Emma Wagner, MPC · Mental Performance Consultant
I was sitting in the back of my family’s red Toyota minivan, about to jump out, strap on my gloves, and start my goalkeeper warm ups when my mother turned on Shakira’s “Waka Waka” and instructed me to visualize saving the ball. She thought having me picture situations in which I was making great saves, jumping, diving, and generally being the next Tim Howard would help me actually do those things in real life. She was teaching me about sport psychology, and more specifically, visualization, before I had any clue about its merits.
But I always felt odd about doing this. I would mostly listen to the song, trying my hardest to squeeze my eyes shut and picture the things she was telling me. What was going on in my mind? Complete and utter darkness. No image. No denial of a certain goal. Not even Shakira shaking her hips. I played along with this mental imagery anyway, telling myself the attempt to create images would help as much as actually seeing them would.
Fast forward to my second semester of graduate school, when a professor was teaching about visualization and how the ability to create pictures in your mind is more of a spectrum than a characteristic everyone possesses. I was shocked. People can actually see that apple? But it did bring a sense of comfort knowing that the lack of visualization I had wasn’t for a lack of trying, it was simply how my brain worked. This was visual aphantasia.
What Is Aphantasia?
Visual aphantasia is the inability, or reduced ability, to voluntarily create mental images. A person with visual aphantasia isn’t uncreative or deficient, their brain simply doesn’t generate visual imagery the way someone else’s does. Visual aphantasia can also be a spectrum. On one end are people with hyperphantasia, who can produce incredibly vivid mental images. Think juicy red apple with the most detailed of stems and leaves, literally the veins on the leaf are visible. On the other end are people with visual aphantasia, who may experience little to no visual imagery at all. Think black void. Most people fall somewhere in between. I fall firmly in the complete-absence category. If you’re like me, you probably didn’t even realize you had visual aphantasia until adulthood (or just now!), often after discovering that phrases like “picture this” aren’t just a metaphor for everyone else.
Why Visualization Still Works if You Can’t “See” Anything
Visualization earned its place in sport psychology because mental rehearsal builds confidence and prepares athletes for competition by earning those mental reps. But don’t fret about missing out if you’re like me, the visual sense isn’t the only sense involved in imagery. The two main components of visualization are vividness and controllability, and both can be built through a variety of other senses. You can mentally hear the crowd as you sprint through the streets, feel your feet striking the trail, notice your breathing settling into rhythm, or sense the weight of your trekking poles. Not one of those examples relies on sight. And it turns out that the best visualization practice involves evoking all your senses, the same idea behind why outcome-focused visualization backfires under pressure: the goal was never really about the picture. It’s about the rehearsal.
I understand firsthand the struggle and frustration that accompany typical visual-imagery teaching. I’d feel lost and singled out in class when my cohort was led through a visualization practice built entirely around sight, unable to participate. Most of the time, I’d think about what I wanted to cook that week. Spoiler: it usually involved chickpeas. It’s understandable to feel left behind when you’re repeatedly told that success depends on “picturing yourself succeeding” and your brain simply won’t produce images. It’s easy to wonder if there’s something wrong with you. But I promise, there’s not.
A 2024 study out of the University of Plymouth (Rhodes, Nedza, May & Clements, Journal of Applied Sport Psychology) tested 329 athletes across nine sports, identified 27 with very low imagery scores, and ran them through a structured imagery-training intervention. Imagery ability improved significantly in that group, and the gains held six months later. In follow-up interviews, most of those athletes said they were using imagery daily for their training and performance goals. Visual aphantasia doesn’t lock you out of this skill. It changes how you have to build it.
How Can I Use Visualization, Then?
One of my favorite things about sport psychology is that there’s rarely a single right way to train the mind. There’s a range of skills, needs, and environments, and different approaches work for different people. If visual imagery isn’t your strength, there are countless other sense-based strategies that may fit your brain much better.
Feel (Kinesthetic): Imagine the rhythm of your stride, the push-off from the ground, the swing of your arms, or the sensation of cresting a hill with strong, efficient form.
Hear (Auditory): Replay the steady cadence of your footsteps, a specific running playlist, the encouragement from spectators, the sound of a cowbell at an aid station, or your own self-talk repeating in your mind.
Touch (Tactile): Focus on the feel of your shoes gripping loose dirt, the texture of your handheld bottle, the cool air on your face at sunrise, or the warmth of the sun as the day progresses.
Smell (Olfactory): Recall the scent of pine trees, campfire smoke near an aid station, or the familiar smell of sunscreen before the starting gun.
Taste (Gustatory): Think of your favorite fuel or nutrition. Is it salty? Sweet? What’s the texture? Sit with the sensory experience of your food or drink.
You can still use the skill of visualization, even if visual imagery isn’t part of your repertoire. Relying on a combination of senses, the sound of a cowbell and the taste of an aid station’s grilled cheese, will make the mental rep of getting through that aid station that much stronger, the same kind of layered detail that shows up throughout the mental skills that actually get ultra runners to the finish line. The goal isn’t to force yourself to “see” something that isn’t there. The goal is to mentally prepare in a way that’s applied only to you and your experience.
A mental performance consultant, such as myself, has the training to help you recognize and refine these senses. Interested? Book with me for a free 15-minute consult → https://calendly.com/emmawagner-mpc/new-meeting
How Can I Apply This to Me?
Mental performance training should be personalized to your needs, goals, and abilities. I won’t sit here and tell you that every mental performance skill is going to work for you perfectly. But the key is finding what does, and shaping it to effectively improve your athletic performance. That’s the benefit of having a mental performance consultant in your corner. Sure, you can type “mental performance skills for runners” into ChatGPT and it’ll give you some helpful information. But AI can’t fine-tune a skill like visualization the way someone working directly with you, and actually understanding you, can.
With a mental performance consultant (like me), we can build up a toolkit that seeks to improve your performance. Have visual aphantasia like me? Cool – let’s focus on those other senses. The key is to work with a human individual who can be with you in real time, understand your abilities and limitations, and help you reach the upper range of what you are capable of.
Curious to learn more? Book a free 15-minute consult with me, and let’s apply skills like visualization to you and only you → https://calendly.com/emmawagner-mpc/new-meeting