There has been a dramatic increase in the growth and encouragement of sports competition. Imagery and mental training methods have also become a lot more critical. One of the most effective training methods included in this field is mental practice which is less effective than physical exercise but still has a considerable impact on performance, because "mental practice can enhance performance it should be considered an effective alternative training method” (Driskell, 1994). It is also known to improve emotional competence as well as to improve motivation. Mental practice is defined as “the symbolic rehearsal of a physical activity in the absence of any gross muscular movements” or as “the cognitive rehearsal of a task in the absence of overt physical movements” (Driskell, P. 489). Prior research has established that “the use of imagery facilitates performance improvements through skill and strategy learning, as well as the regulation of emotions, arousal levels, and thoughts” (Cumming, 1999).
Mental imagery changes in three dimensions: the situation of the sport in which imagery is used such as rehabilitation and competition, the type of imagery put into practice such as general vs. specific, and the anticipated outcomes which may include improvement of strategies and skills. The use of imagery has presented more positive results, and it is now applied in many training programs during regular physical practices (Simonsmeier, 2017).Models that explain how imagery works in the field of sports and exercise have been developed. A psychoneuromuscular theory provides insights into how imagery works. A distinct characteristic that exists on patients lacking the imagery ability includes damage of occipital, temporal brain areas as well as the parietal areas.
Therefore,if our review shows this to be true, then coaches will be able to use this to enhance an athlete's performance without physical practice. So instead of an athlete putting in extra work in the gym, they could work on the psychological aspects of the sport.
Most research practices have focused on the use of imagery on adult athletes. Simonsmeier, 2017) presented a study to examine how imagery has enhanced motivation levels of athletes, especially on young adults. 80 gymnasts from 18 teams were voluntarily recruited to participate in the research study. Data was collected in the gym during training hours. The assessment was done one week before the competition. The gymnasts' imagery use, imagery ability and their performance at the competition were then assessed by the use of Sport's Imagery Questionnaire-children. It was designed specifically for the children whose ages ranged from 7 to 14 years.Their weekly training hours ranged from 3.0 to 25.5 hours. The gymnasts also completed the Sports Imagery Ability Questionnaire to assess their abilities.Results showed that the use of imagery is a significant performance tool for improvement during competition both in the adult and young athletes who have presented positive results (Simonsmeier, 2017). The results revealed that the capacity of imagery does not develop fully until when the athlete is seven years of age. Significant progress is recorded when the athlete is of 17 years of age. Calculations were then made on the descriptive statistics from the two questionnaires.
Research shows that young athletes need to put into practice all the five imagery functions. For instance, a study carried out on athletes of ages between 16 to 18 years revealed that they decided to use motivational specific imagery, motivational general-mastery image, cognitive specific imagery, motivational general-effective imagery as well as the cognitive general imagery (Simonsmeier, 2017). These young athletes have made a report that they employed the use of imagery in specific situations such as in training and competition. There is a close relationship between imagery ability and imagery use.
Performance of the gymnasts’ competition was predicted by the use of the motivational general-mastery image, cognitive specific model as well as motivational specific imagery (Simonsmeier, 2017). Through the use of cognitive specific imagery, the gymnasts were able to facilitate a productive learning process. For instance, the use of cognitive specific imagery is considered to cause a high quality of performance during competition. Motivational general-mastery imagery is significant to the athletes since they can stay focused and this tends to have positive impacts on performance during the match. Motivational specific imagery has predisposed the performance of the gymnasts through goal generations as well as the outcomes related to their involvement in competitions. It can then be argued that to improve the positive effects of spontaneously used imagery, the coaches, athletes as well as the sports psychologists should foster the daily use of imagery in their training programs.
A research study was carried out to evaluate the effects of motor imagery practice in training (Napolitano, 2017). Motor imagery is anintellectual process where a psychological action is stimulated in the absence of movement. The methods used involve two steps: the first step includes a direct experimental type while the second step requires an indirect experimental kind. The questionnaires were offered to the gymnasts to assess the person's abilities called round-off flic, and then their discernments were compared with the evaluation of the Italian Federation of artistic gymnastics method. The indirect experimental type involved video recording. Data were then compared with those of the technicians. According to the data, the results presented showed that the internal assessment was more in effect and there was an improvement on 80% of the gymnasts who accomplished the round off-flic (Napolitano, 2017). These results were mainly based on neuro-scientific assumption. There is also progress for about 80% in learning. It could be argued that there will be an improvement in performances if the athletes, as well as their trainers, used motor imagery in their practice. It strengthens the performance of the athletes.
A study was conducted by Guillot-Desliens et al. (2013) to concludewhether the implementation of external forces during motor imagery improved the performance of the young tennis players.The current research study found that it was more effective when the attention of the athletes was directed to the effects of their movements. A total of twelve players which consisted of five girls and seven boys’ elite tennis players of age 11 years volunteered to participate in the study. A retest procedure on twelve high-level young tennis players was used to design this study and took 16 weeks. An evaluation was first done on the effects of training regularly.The players were focused mentally on the trajectory of the ball when subjected to the motor imagery and visualized the space above the net where the serve could be successfully hit.
The performance of the tennis players was then evaluated under two ecological field conditions, validated serve and real match tests.Under a serve test condition, evaluation on the serve performance was carried out andwas made up of 16 serves. The post-impact ball velocity was used to evaluate the speed of the serve.The main results presented a considerable increase in accuracy and velocity during the ecological serve test after motor imagery practice (Guillot, 2013).The present data presented made a confirmation of the effectiveness of motor imagery when combined with physical exercise. Hence the tennis serve performance was improved.Thetennis playersconcluded the French Version of the Revised Movement Imagery Questionnaire before the experiment was conducted. The motor imagery was applied to the specific training sessions during the last eight weeks. After every three meetings, differentupdates were scheduled to investigate whether the participants adhered to the motor imagery instructions.
AnalysisOf Variance (ANOVA) was used to compare the effects of training and test differences between regular training and the motor imagery practice (Guillot, 2013). It showed significant alterations in the serve velocity. The results disclosed that the adoption of an external focus during motor imagery led to an augmented accuracy during the ecological serve test and improved first serves during the real match. The 11 years old tennis players recorded a high serve performance than the old spare time tennis players (control group). According to the results, it can be explained that combining motor imagery practice with the physical method contributes. Conclusions made based on this study recommend that priming the use of motor imagery and employing the use of video-recordings can be useful to players or children with low imagery ability.
Dana (2017) presented a study to examine how the internal and external visual imagery viewpoints affected the performance accuracy on open and closed tennis skills among novices. This study used 36 young male participants who were volunteers and whose ages ranged from 15 to 18 years.These participants had no experience of playing tennis. A total of 54 made an affirmation that they were ready to participate in the study. The standardassessment of the imagery ability and imagery perspective preference was used to distribute participants to one of the three research groups: internal imagery, external imagery, and a control group. Each experimental intervention took 15 minutes for six weeks.Measurements were then done on the forehand and backhand strokes at a pre- and post-test using videotaping. During the presentation of mental imagery, the control group (midrange preference group) was barred from presenting any mental illustration through the replacement of mental imagery training with a mental calculation task (Dana, 2017). The results demonstrated a substantial increase in the performance accuracy of the tennis strokes in all the three groups since they presented a positive adherence to the scripts. The serve accuracy in the interior imagery group and forehand accuracy in the external imagery group revealed more significant advances. The backhand accuracy was improved in all the three groups. The results obtained showed that visual mental imagery affected the tennis skills positively in serve, forehand and backhand performances regardless of the perspective of the representation. A conclusion was made on the internal imagery which is regarded to improve open skills performance such as a significant improvement in forehand and backhand stroke as compared to the control group which did not use imagery.
In conclusion, the use of imagery and mental training has proved to be of great importance to athletes. For instance, it has improved emotional competence as well as enhanced motivation levels among athletes. According to the previous research, the use of imagery has positively facilitated performance improvements through skill and strategy learning, as well as the regulation of emotions, arousal levels, and thoughts. Research carried out to focus on the use of imagery on adult athletes reveals that using use motivational specific imagery, motivational general-mastery image, cognitive specific imagery, motivational general-effective imagery as well as the cognitive general imagery has improved performance during competitions.Using motor imagery and employing the use of video-recordings can be useful to players or children with low imagery ability. Therefore, imagery should be applied to our daily training activities (Cumming, 1999).A mental analysis is regarded as an alternative method of training, and it is deemed to improve motor performance.
References
Cumming, J., & Williams, S. E. (2012).The role of imagery in performance.In S. Murphy (Ed.), Handbook of sport and performance psychology (pp. 213–232). New York, NY: Oxford University Press
Driskell, J. E., Copper, C., & Moran, A. (1994). Does mental practice enhance performance? Journal of Applied Psychology, 79 (4), 481–492.
Dana, A. &Gozalzadeh, E. (2017). Internal and External Imagery Effects on Tennis Skills Among Novices. Vol. 124(5), 022-043.
Guillot, A., Desliens, S., Rouyer, C. &Rogowski, I. (2013), Motor Imagery and Tennis Serve Performance: The External Focus Efficacy, (332-338).
Napolitano, S. (2017). Performance improvement through motor imagery study of the case in artistic gymnastics. Journal of Human Sport and Exercise. (508-513).
Simonsmeier, B. A. &Buecker, S. (2017). Interrelations of Imagery Use, Imagery Ability, and Performance in Young Athletes, 29: 32-43.