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The oldest study I found on this was with basketball, I believe in the 1950s. The theory was that since the imagination group was able to make perfect shots every time, this accelerated the process.

https://sci-hub.ru/10.1080/10671188.1960.10613109

Clark, L. V. (1960). Effect of Mental Practice on the Development of a Certain Motor Skill. Research Quarterly, 31(4), 560–569.

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I was gonna do a top level comment if nobody else mentioned it.

One thing that a LOT of pro basketball players do is visualize their movements before the game or whatnot. I'm sure athletes in all sports do this but I played bball for 30 years so that's my reference.

It works.

My guess is that it works on our ability to visualize/map where we are in space. It primes the hippocampus.

sounds like policy training in a simulated environment.

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