Visualization and mental activation: what we can learn from Weghorst and Martín

Two viral gestures that became a target of jokes are actually a good starting point for talking about two real sport-psychology tools: imagery and pre-competition neurocognitive activation.

Edited by Fabio Zarra

Two episodes, worlds apart in sport and continent, ended up in the same social-media pot in the past week. Wout Weghorst, Twente striker, is filmed moving his fingers scissor-style and clapping his hands before the second half of an Eredivisie match: the internet mocks him, then he scores. Jorge Martín, MotoGP world champion, is instead shown in some pre-race videos seemingly mentally rehearsing the track: some try to explain it, others misread it.

Neither Weghorst nor Martín has publicly explained these gestures. We therefore don't know whether they are actually practising the techniques described in this article, in what form, or with what degree of awareness. But the two episodes are an excellent opportunity to explain what these tools are, how they work, and why so many elite athletes — these ones genuinely documented — actually use them: mental visualization (imagery) and pre-competition activation and regulation techniques.

Two episodes, one working hypothesis

In Enschede, Weghorst is the first to come back out of the dressing room and, before his teammates return to the pitch, moves his fingers from two to three and claps his hands several times. The clip, filmed by ESPN Netherlands, goes viral: sarcasm dominates the comments. Then Weghorst equalises in the 79th minute and Twente complete the comeback.

In a different setting, some videos show Jorge Martín, before a race, with his eyes closed and small hand movements: an official 2024 MotoGP piece described them with the term “visualising”. Here too, there's no interview in which the rider goes into detail about what he's doing or why.

We take these two episodes as a narrative starting point, not as clinical cases to be certified: we are not attributing to Weghorst or Martín a precise technique, protocol or outcome. We use them to explain what research says about what they might be: mental training through imagination and regulation of psychophysiological activation before performance.

Imagery: training the mind to make the move before the body does

Imagery (or mental visualization) is the ability to mentally recreate an experience — a technical action, a race, a bodily sensation — without the real stimulus being present. It isn't generic imagination: in sports practice it's a structured exercise, involving multiple sensory channels (visual, kinesthetic, auditory) and trained with the same seriousness as a physical fundamental.

It's neither new nor a fad. Michael Jordan, before every free throw, always repeated the same physical and mental sequence; Tiger Woods, before a shot, positions himself behind the ball and visualizes the trajectory he wants to give it, even before approaching it (Rupprecht, Tran & Gröpel, 2024). These are well-known examples, not isolated anecdotes: visualization is one of the psychological skills most taught in elite athletes' mental preparation programmes.

What the data say

A meta-analysis that reviewed the available studies on imagery in sport reports a medium effect, d = 0.43, on motor performance and on motivational and emotional outcomes (Simonsmeier et al., 2021). An interesting finding for coaches: imagery combined with physical practice proves more effective than physical practice alone. In other words, visualizing doesn't replace training on the field, it enhances it.

How it's trained (it isn't memorized, it's practised)

• Multisensory: not just images, but muscular sensations, sounds, even the smell of the competition environment.
• First person: seeing the scene through your own eyes, not as an outside spectator, increases the motor activation involved.
• Task-specific: a turn, a jump, the first touch of the ball — not a generic visualization of "winning".
• Repeated and brief: short, frequent sessions beat a single long, sporadic one.
• Realistic: it also includes expected difficulties (a pressing opponent, a hostile crowd), not just the ideal scenario.

Neurocognitive activation: what's actually true behind the word “neuro”

Online, Weghorst's gestures were paired with the label “neuroactivation”, with a nod to Brain Gym-style techniques: the idea that crossing the body's midline “connects the two hemispheres” and improves coordination. It has to be said clearly: the available scientific reviews on this specific theory find no solid basis (Hyatt, 2007; Spaulding, Mostert & Beam, 2010), and the “neuromyths” that pair scientific-sounding language with intuitive explanations are widespread even among practitioners (Dekker et al., 2012). This doesn't mean, however, that the label is always empty: behind the same underlying need — preparing mentally for action — sport psychology has developed activation techniques with solid foundations, which are worth knowing about.

The pre-performance routine

The most studied form is the pre-performance routine (PPR): a sequence of task-relevant thoughts and actions, carried out the same way every time before performance. A systematic review of 47 studies ranks it among the most consistently effective interventions against choking, the drop in performance under pressure (Gröpel & Mesagno, 2019). A more recent meta-analysis, covering 112 effect sizes, reports a small but significant effect in pre-post designs (SMC = 0.31) and a moderate-to-large effect in experimental designs, both under low pressure (g = 0.64) and under pressure (g = 0.70) — confirming that the effect doesn't disappear, if anything it holds, precisely when the stakes rise (Rupprecht, Tran & Gröpel, 2024).

Targeted activation of one hemisphere

A more narrowly focused, and still young, line of research concerns asymmetric activation of the body. Beckmann, Gröpel and Ehrlenspiel (2013) observed that athletes who squeezed a ball with their left hand right before execution showed a smaller drop in performance under pressure than those who squeezed it with their right, hypothesising a role for the right hemisphere in motor automaticity. The British Psychological Society's commentary on these studies pointed to the lack of experimental blinding as the main limitation: participants knew which hand they were using. These remain promising findings rather than an established technique, but they point to a concrete direction: small, targeted motor gestures, performed with intention right before performance, can have a real effect on activation.

It's precisely in this space — between a personal ritual and a documented technique — that gestures like Weghorst's can be placed, with due caution: we don't know whether he's using exactly these techniques, but the resemblance to pre-performance activation protocols is a reasonable hypothesis, not a magic label.

Why they work: three mechanisms

1. Attentional anchoring and transition

A simple, repeated gesture helps to disengage from what came before (the interval, a refereeing incident, the wait in the pit lane) and to re-enter the task. In the theoretical framework of Hobson and colleagues (2018), rituals regulate emotions and states functional to performance, both through the physical features of the gesture and through the meaning the athlete attaches to it.

2. Regulation of cognitive load

Coordinating an unusual gesture requires attention: in Gröpel and Mesagno's (2019) review, tasks that engage attention in a controlled way can help precisely under pressure, diverting the athlete from step-by-step monitoring of their own technical action — a phenomenon known as paralysis by analysis.

3. Psychophysiological activation

An intense movement or a sequence of breaths regulates the level of activation (arousal) toward the “zone” that's optimal for that athlete at that moment: neither too low, nor excessive. It's the same principle behind decades of studies on pre-competition routines, and it's consistent with the asymmetric-activation hypothesis just described.

And the body? Half-time warm-up

There's also a physical component, often forgotten. Mohr and colleagues (2004) documented that, in football, muscle temperature drops during the half-time break and performance over 30 metres worsens at the start of the second half; a brief half-time warm-up limited the drop. Good preparation for returning to the pitch always has both a physical and an attentional-mental component, and they're complementary: one doesn't replace the other.

How to build a mental activation routine

1. Choose the function, not the gesture. Do you want to focus, activate, or calm down? Decide this before choosing how to do it.
2. Build an imagery sequence specific to your technical action: first person, multisensory, including realistic difficulties (Simonsmeier et al., 2021).
3. Add a brief, repeatable physical anchor: a breath, a keyword, a personal movement. The fewer elements you have, the better the routine withstands pressure.
4. Train it before using it in competition. A routine introduced without prior practice risks adding a task rather than lightening it: try it out in training and in low-stakes competitions.
5. Attach it to a task goal for the first minutes after the routine (the first touch, the first braking point, the first read of the defensive line): you bring it back into the game, you don't leave it hanging on its own.
6. Evaluate it honestly: ask yourself whether it helps you be more present and clear-headed in the first minutes, not whether it “brings luck”.

In conclusion

We don't know exactly what Weghorst and Martín were doing, and it isn't up to us to decide on their behalf (we await their statements!). What we can say, with the support of research, is that imagery and pre-competition activation techniques are real, trainable tools within reach of any athlete or team, from the youth sector to the professional level. The useful lesson from these two viral episodes isn't "copy the gesture", but build your own version: a mental and physical sequence that works for you, trained with the same consistency as a technical fundamental, ideally with the support of a professional, a Sport Psychologist.

A note of caution, useful to anyone spreading this story further: attributing a precise psychological technique to an athlete who hasn't confirmed it remains an inference, however plausible. The same applies, even more so, to any health-related information: some online voices have linked Martín's videos to diagnostic hypotheses never confirmed by him or his team. We do not repeat them, because they are not verifiable and because a diagnosis cannot be made by watching a video.

Scientific references

Beckmann, J., Gröpel, P., & Ehrlenspiel, F. (2013). Preventing motor skill failure through hemisphere-specific priming: Cases from choking under pressure. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 142(3), 679–691. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0029852

Cotterill, S. (2010). Pre-performance routines in sport: Current understanding and future directions. International Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 3(2), 132–153. https://doi.org/10.1080/1750984X.2010.488269

Dekker, S., Lee, N. C., Howard-Jones, P., & Jolles, J. (2012). Neuromyths in education: Prevalence and predictors of misconceptions among teachers. Frontiers in Psychology, 3, 429. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00429

Gröpel, P., & Mesagno, C. (2019). Choking interventions in sports: A systematic review. International Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 12(1), 176–201. https://doi.org/10.1080/1750984X.2017.1408134

Hobson, N. M., Schroeder, J., Risen, J. L., Xygalatas, D., & Inzlicht, M. (2018). The psychology of rituals: An integrative review and process-based framework. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 22(3), 260–284. https://doi.org/10.1177/1088868317734944

Hyatt, K. J. (2007). Brain Gym®: Building stronger brains or wishful thinking? Remedial and Special Education, 28(2), 117–124. https://doi.org/10.1177/07419325070280020201

Mohr, M., Krustrup, P., Nybo, L., Nielsen, J. J., & Bangsbo, J. (2004). Muscle temperature and sprint performance during soccer matches: beneficial effect of re-warm-up at half-time. Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports, 14(3), 156–162. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0838.2004.00349.x

Rupprecht, A. G. O., Tran, U. S., & Gröpel, P. (2024). The effectiveness of pre-performance routines in sports: A meta-analysis. International Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 17(1), 39–64 (online 2021). https://doi.org/10.1080/1750984X.2021.1944271

Simonsmeier, B. A., Andronie, M., Buecker, S., & Frank, C. (2021). The effects of imagery interventions in sports: A meta-analysis. International Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 14(1), 186–207. https://doi.org/10.1080/1750984X.2020.1780627

Spaulding, L. S., Mostert, M. P., & Beam, A. P. (2010). Is Brain Gym® an effective educational intervention? Exceptionality, 18(1), 18–30. https://doi.org/10.1080/09362830903462508

Statements and journalistic sources

ESPN Netherlands, X video from 20/09/2026, as reported by FCUpdate: https://www.fcupdate.nl/voetbalnieuws/2026/09/wout-weghorst-gaat-viraal-op-sociale-media-dit-is-er-aan-de-hand

Voetbalzone, “Weghorst zorgt voor stortvloed aan reacties van kijkers met bizar rustritueel”: https://www.voetbalzone.nl/nieuws/kijkers-gaan-volledig-los-op-bizar-rustritueel-van-wout-weghorst/bltc426f0c9f7ceb14b

Goal.com, “Weghorst prompts a flood of reactions from viewers with bizarre half-time ritual”: https://www.goal.com/en/news/weghorst-sparks-a-flood-of-reactions-from-viewers-with-bizarre-half-time-ritual/bltc426f0c9f7ceb14b

VoetbalPrimeur.be, “Hoon voor Weghorst na opvallende vingerbewegingen”: https://www.voetbalprimeur.be/nieuws/2138061/weghorst-bespot-na-viraal-moment-dit-zat-achter-zijn-bewegingen.html

MotoGP (Facebook), “Martinator visualising | 2024 #SolidarityGP”: https://www.facebook.com/MotoGP/videos/martinator-visualising-2024-solidaritygp/1072661464603263/

MotoGP.com, rider profile Jorge Martín (Aprilia): https://www.motogp.com/en/riders/jorge-martin/5b9af34e-da94-4ca2-9c4c-6be0fc8b1bbc

Note: unverified rumours circulated online about an alleged health condition of Jorge Martín are not reported in this article, consistent with what is explained in the text.