Dr. Michael Gervais

So I would rewind.

I'd rewind my movie and put myself in a situation that I would regather myself and work through that bottom turn and have great command over that moment.

And I would go at 25% speed and then I'd run it back 50% speed and then I'd run it back 75% speed and then I'd run it back 100% speed.

So that takes a discipline.

That takes effort.

And part of the early research here is that they would wire folks up in the laboratory and observe a couple things.

How the nervous system would fire between people that were doing the activity, in this case it was basketball, and people that were imagining the activity.

And what we found is just imagining the activity would fire across the nervous system, the same bundle, the same regions as if you were actually doing it, but it's as if it was below detectable movement.

So you're getting neurological wiring across the most sophisticated part of that movement.

The second thing that they observed is that just observing in your own mind movement, like a basketball free throw shot, created what's called myelinization across the nerve bundle.

So myelin sheath is like the rubber coating in our nervous system that wiring has.

You know, when you hold a wire and it's got rubber around it and then it's got the metal through the middle.

So the wiring is actually really important for efficiency of how fast the electricity moves through that wire.

So the myelin in our nervous system is made up of fat cells.

It's made up of partly of omega, fish oils.

So the more myelinization you have on your nervous system, kind of the healthier the nervous system is, the faster it moves as well, the more familiar that track would be.

And so you got to make sure that you've got the right kind of omega balance in your body.

And when you just imagine doing an action, it lays more myelin across that nervous system.

And if you see yourself doing something, quote unquote, perfectly, it's not a word I use ever, but I'm putting it in quotes for a shorthand.

If you see yourself doing it expertly is the right word.