Explanations behind the power of visualization techniques for athletes
and others

I recently heard a great argument for the use of visualization
techniques by business people.
 

I am looking for 5 things to help me better understand this tool and
how to use it the area of business and management.

 

1 - Is there a brief real-life example of how visualization being used
in Olympic athletes.  Maybe how one person used it and maybe how it
helped them.

 

2 – Is there any examples of this at work in creative workers
(copywriters, industrial designers, etc) or better yet, business
people.

 

3 - One explanation I heard is there is a area of the brain that can’t
tell a imagined image from a real one.  I believe this is the
hypothalamus.  Is this the correct area of the brain that that can’t
tell a imagined image from a real one?

 

4 – I heard that the ratio of performance to visualization in Olympic
athletes is 70% visualization, 30% performance. Is this 70/30 ratio
correct or close?

 

5 – Is there a theory or explanation that very briefly explains how
this techniques actually works?

Thanks in advance,

As an athlete, student of neuroscience, AND a GA researcher, I feel
pretty qualified (and compelled!) to answer this question.  In fact, I
began to do just that, and then realized I really need to sleep
because I have class in the morning.  I didn't really have time to
organize this well into a real answer, so you get it for free as a
comment  ;)

I found a number of things that might be useful, but by far the best
explanation of this phenomena can be found within the paper at
[ http://chat.carleton.ca/~dskopeli/respaper.html ].  
Yes, its long and somewhat technical, but very informative.  

It seems that there are many theories, but all are similar in that the
cognitive task of visualizing sucess becomes associates with the
neural nuclei that directly control muscle action.  In other words,
they stimulate "muscle memory". (muscle memory is how people do
complex tasks, such as juggling, without even thinking about them
much.  There is not too much complex mental processing going on,
muscles just move in a pattern that they are used to moving in)

As for the hypothalamus....umm...I don't know where that one came
from, but it doesn't really "know" anything, let alone if an image is
a "real one".  It is, however, the structure from which emotions (such
as anger, agression, or getting "pumped up" before an event)
originate.  The real brain structure of interest here would be the
hippocampus, which plays a large role in creating and recalling
memories.  In this way, simply recalling the memory of an event (in
this case the visualization of winning) can trigger the muscle control
nodes to get ready to act, the hypothalamus to get the endocrine
system to secrete more adrenaline, and things like that (of which
there are probably hundreds of changes that might happen).  So, that's
the basis for "visualization" of winning, as far as athletics go.

Now, for your inquiry about management and business...you might not be
so lucky, and this technique is almost definitely not as applicable. 
The reason is, getting ready for physical exertion is much more simple
in that your body knows what to do to prepare, some examples of which
I gave above.  To make management or business decisions, complex
thought processes mucst be carried out, for which no physical neural
preparation can be made, and that can't really be "learned"
beforehand.  The exception would be if the decsion tasks are somewhat
predictable...but If you're worried about those types of tasks then
perhaps management isn't for you?  :)

As for this "visualization/performance ratio" you speak of.....I don't
really understand that.  Performance is the result of whatever
preparation has been done, be it training or visualization or
whatever.  A ratio between those.....doesn't really make much sense. 
Visualization would merely serve to augment whatever performance has
alraedy been given due to training/other preparations.

Anyway, I hope all of this helps.  

Sincerely,
Andrewxmp

sherpaj...

Since this has essentially been answered, I'll throw in the following.

As for your ratio, while I can't correlate it to Olympic Athletes,
I do remember an excerpt from a Tony Robbins tape where he talked
about a professional tennis player who was laid up with a broken
leg(?) for a month. He practiced the same number of hours each day
as he would have on the court, but did it with visualization.
When he got back to the courts, he had his performance measured,
and it was at 90% of his former performance.

From another perspective, I studied T'ai Chi with the disciple of
a true master from China. He taught me that one of the subtler
dynamics of T'ai Chi is that one learns to empty the mind of
verbal dialog and concentrate it entirely on physical and energetic
awareness. The key, he said, was that, with the eyes half-opened,
and the awareness combining one's external awareness of the body
with an internal image of what you want the body/energy to be doing, 
the image moves the chi so that the body moves accordingly. The
half-open eyes provide feedback as to what the body is actually
doing. This results in the ability to move the body with intent
and energy, rather than with muscle. The result is seen in such
phenomena as the 'unbendable arm' - commonly shown in Aikido
demonstrations - in which the energy is seen streaming through
arm to a distant anchor point, with the result being like the
force of water moving through a firehose. It becomes extremely
difficult for someone to bend the arm. The end result of this
practice is that there is no separation between intent and
result, so that 'what you see is what you get', and there is
a union of what you are 'being' and what you are 'doing'.

But, as andrewxmp-ga notes, this sort of visualization is of
more value in physical endeavors than in the more abstract
realm of intellectual creativity and accomplishment.

Best regards...

sublime1-ga