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Adding movement to mental rehearsal can improve performance finds a study in BioMed Central's open access journal Behavioral and Brain Functions. For high jumpers the study shows that dynamic imagery improves the number of successful attempts and the technical performance of jumps.
The technique of mental rehearsal is used to consolidate performance in many disciplines including music and sport. Motor imagery and physical practice use overlapping neural networks in the brain and the two together can improve performance as well as promoting recovery from injury. Researchers from the Centre de Recherche et d'Innovation sur le Sport found that adding simple movements to mental rehearsal could further improve performance by a third.
