Visualization in Football – Cleveland Browns Defensive Line Coach Ben Bloom Discusses Importance

Photo by Al Kornspan

By now, Northeast Ohio Sports fans most likely have seen the Bally’s Sports Ohio channel segment with Guardians star Steven Kwan discussing the mental game of baseball. One technique that Kwan mentions is the use of visualization to prepare to hit a baseball.  

Just like in baseball, visualization is a mental preparation technique that NFL coaches will encourage their players to utilize.  

Cleveland Browns Defensive Line Coach Ben Bloom discussed at Wednesday’s practice how he encourages athletes that are injured to stay mentally engaged in the game of football by using the mental skill of visualization.

Bloom said at the pre-practice press conference on Wednesday that when players are recovering physically from injury he wants his players to stay mentally in the game.

Coach Bloom suggested that players utilize visualization to stay mentally focused on their technique.

“I think what’s important for them is staying in it mentally–the best way possible,” said Bloom. “I’ve seen young players in the course of my career at this position, particular D-end, miss a lot of time at the beginning of the season. I coached DeMarcus Lawrence his rookie year in Dallas when I was the assistant D line (coach), whatever my title was at the moment. But he got hurt and missed the first eight weeks of the season, goes on short term IR and came back and played pretty well as a rookie. He was a tough dude, and he had a good spring, and he had a good training camp before he got hurt.”

And both Alex and IT have (had a good 2023 Browns training camp). 

“So staying in it mentally and I think visualizing their techniques (while recovering from injury), that they have enough experience that they should be able to draw back on that experience. And when they come back, I expect them to be ready to go because I know they can.”

Visualization Discussed by Top NFL Players

 

The use of visualization has been discussed by extremely successful football players throughout the NFL.

Top NFL quarterbacks such as two-time Super Bowl champion Patrick Mahomes have recently discussed their use of visualization.

Patrick Mahomes on utilizing visualization and mental reps in his pregame routine.#MVPMind pic.twitter.com/Y7d47MEK3O

— Zach Brandon (@MVP_Mindset) January 26, 2023

 

Super Bowl champion quarterback Russell Wilson has discussed how he uses visualization as well.

 

Visualization: A key component to Russell Wilson's game. #SEAvsJAX pic.twitter.com/aPNHJXp0mX

— Seattle Seahawks (@Seahawks) December 8, 2017

So Browns fans, what are your thoughts on the use of visualization in football?  Let us know in the comment section below.