What does one of the world’s best rugby league players do when he’s too sore to physically practice a key skill ahead of a playoff game?
He turns to visualization.
Australia NRL star Nathan Cleary is nursing a damaged foot bone, meaning he is on light duties for practice ahead of his team’s do or die playoff game.
Instead of getting in physical reps, he’s focused on the mental.
“One thing he has learned over the years is I know he prioritizes actual kicking time. He spends more time now doing mental reps as well,” his father and coach Ivan Cleary told Australian Radio.
“He is really going to have to lean on that mental side over the coming weeks, because he is going to have to pull back.
“So, it’s good that he has been preparing that way.
“He knows he has kicked enough balls. He’ll just spend enough time going through mental rehearsal, and that will do the trick.”
Cleary has used visualization before preparing for matches when hurt, using it ahead of a representative game in 2025.
But what is visualization? What does it do and does it really work?
Visualization, also called mental rehearsal or imagery, is the practice of running a skill through your mind in vivid detail without moving a muscle.
Done well, it isn’t just looking at a picture. It’s feeling the physical elements of executing a skill, like the positioning of feet, the feel of the ball in hand or striking a foot.
And the brain barely knows the difference, when you imagine the movement, it activates the same parts of your brain (the frontal motor areas) that fire when physically doing it, which is why researchers describe imagery and action as functionally equivalent.
In 1994 a landmark meta-analysis by Swedish researchers found mental practice had a statistically significant effect on performance.
Cleary is also in good company. At the Paris Olympics, Team USA’s pommel horse specialist Stephen Nedoroscik went viral for sitting motionless with his eyes closed and head tilted back while he waited to compete.
While people on social media thought he was sleeping, he was mentally rehearsing his routine, before delivering a clutch performance that ended a 16-year medal drought for US men’s gymnastics.
Ivan Cleary said it himself; his son has kicked enough balls.
The reps are already banked.
Mental rehearsal keeps the pattern sharp while the body gets the recovery it needs.
