The Power of Mental Rehearsal

"I just visualize who's on the mound and more or less have at bats over and over and over in my head and just sort of make it happen before it happens." Wade Boggs, New York Yankees

"The purpose of practicing your mental skills is to remove the obstacles you put in your way-obstacles that keep you from being confident. Taking responsibility for your thinking means choosing what to think and how to act rather than blindly reacting to events around you." Ken Ravizza and Tom Hanson in Heads-Up Baseball

If you can't trade consistently in real life, you can do it in your imagination. It's easy to do things right when no money is on the line. Without the surprises and the tension of real life trading, you can learn to follow your rules in your mind. In this way you create an experience that you can rely on in actual trading. Mental rehearsal becomes as valid a reference experience as actual trading.

Let me tell you about a documented experiment conducted by psychologist Alan Richardson. A group of student basketball players was divided into three groups and tested as to their ability to throw a basketball into a basket. One group was instructed to practice every day for a month. Another group was told to imagine throwing balls into the basket for thirty minutes every day for the same month. The third group was told to do nothing, not even think about it.

After a month the first group, the group that actually physically practiced had improved an average of 32%. The group that did the mental rehearsal had improved an average of 31%. The third group was unchanged in skill level.

I experienced a similar improvement in my tennis game by doing mental rehearsal. It's not easy to get a lot of practice time in New York City, so I did it in my mind. Then, when I would go out to actually play, I was as ready and as rehearsed as any opponent who had been playing regularly. Sometimes I was even better rehearsed. After all, in my mind there were no bad bounces, no surprises. I could practice all my strokes with consistency. I developed no bad habits. And when I went to play, I was fully prepared and could handle anything that came up.

My clients do the same kind of mental rehearsal with their trading. They trade consistently, following their rules, accepting losses and profits, taking the long view, as they mentally rehearse.

Mental rehearsal is different from paper trading. Paper trading is done in response to real market action. It is a useful tool to understand a method and to verify that method's profitability, but it does not teach the trader the ability to actually trade. It does, in fact, do quite the opposite. The trader learns simply to observe comfortably and be immune from risk. Too much paper trading teaches a person not to pull the trigger. It becomes a spectator sport.

In contrast, mental rehearsal allows you to imagine putting the trades on and accepting whatever the market gives you. You imagine your ultimate, long term success even as you accept temporary losses and set backs. You hold the faith as you build your faith. You build your confidence as you build your skills. You build the experience of consistently doing the right things. Then, when you actually trade, you have the support and the background experience of having traded effectively.

My clients mentally rehearsal trading as they listen to deep focus tapes that I have made especially for them, guiding them through the process. Through mental rehearsal they overcome their weaknesses even as they build upon their strengths.

Try mental rehearsal of trading by imagining yourself going through the trading day applying your methodology to the market. Better yet, you can purchase my Power Trading for Power Profits audio course which includes a mental rehearsal tape. I strongly recommend it. You'll be amazed at how your trading improves.

The mind is a powerhouse of possibility. We can literally change our lives and our trading through thought. We can change the meanings we give to events and we can change our results. In short, we can alter our factual reality through using mental rehearsal. We can do this to create what we want-as opposed to what we fear or don't want, which is what most people do unwittingly. What if you could take control of your trading through effective mental rehearsal?