Volume 18, Issue 1

Returning to sport and exercise following injury requires the athlete to become more confident in the ability to gradually explore the use of the injured area in increasingly complex and challenging ways. Emotional responses, such as fear of re-injury, are a key mental health barrier to a performer’s return to sport and exercise. To navigate such psychological responses, performers need well-developed psychological strategies, like mental imagery (MI), to facilitate a successful return to pre-injury levels of sport and exercise. MI is a well-established strategy for dealing with negative symptoms associated with injury, providing a safe and less intimidating environment to practice movements that may be perceived as risky and otherwise performed within physical training due to the fear of causing further injury. This paper aims to provide sport psychologists with recommendations on how to utilize MI to reduce fear of re-injury during the rehabilitation process to successfully facilitate return to sport and exercise. Specific examples are also outlined and discussed.

In this review I describe how imagery can be used to help increase the likelihood of entering into a flow state. Flow, the experience of being fully absorbed in a task, leads to greater task enjoyment and has been tied to improved performance.

Imagery is one of the most researched and widely implemented psychological skills in sport and extensive research has shown imagery to be an effective technique in enhancing motor performance in that domain. Equally, research has also found imagery to have positive effects on a wide array of performance outcomes, however, the literature concerning imagery and youth athletes is lacking even though imagery has been shown to positively contribute to early experiences in sport. A total of 13 studies (n=504) showed some consistency in study authorship with diversity across participant age groups, sport, location (country), design and analysis, sample size, performance measures and intervention time and technique. Additionally, similarities were also found in imagery assessment and reported outcome success, which has shown imagery as being an effective intervention across certain conditions in sport. As this review was the first in sport psychology to utilise the Synthesis without Meta-Analysis (SWiM; 2020) reporting guideline, limitations existed in presenting a thorough investigation into heterogeneity, as well as an assessment of certainty of findings due to the incomparability of study methods. Results have therefore evidenced the usefulness of imagery in contributing to successful performance outcomes in youth sport, but a greater understanding of how to implement imagery interventions at this level is still needed. With respect to participant age, athletic development and developmental psychology models can play a critical role in further informing interventions with young performers.

Objectives This examined the effect of PETTLEP imagery on the spatial anticipation of novice soccer goalkeepers during penalty kicks. Methods Twenty-four adolescent male goalkeepers (Mean age : 14.14 ± 1.10) were selected and divided randomly into two groups. In the pretest, the goalkeepers responded to 12 video stimuli to evaluate spatial anticipation. The goalkeepers in the experimental group listened to the audio file of the PETTLEP imagery for 6 sessions where the control group was engaged in goalkeeper training only. Results Results showed the group under PETTLEP imagery intervention had a significant difference from the control group in post-test (p=0.004). Conclusions 6 sessions PETTLEP Imagery intervention has improved anticipation of novice goalkeepers during penalty kicks.

Objectives Imagery training is an effective technique in sport psychology for skill development and enhancement at various levels of skill performance. Despite its application, there is limited evidence to inform decisions around the appropriate doses of imagery duration for performance enhancement of movement in sport and physical activity. The aim of the present study was to experimentally determine whether different imagery durations (8, 13, and 18 min durations in a session) have differential effects on the performance of free-throw shooting (FTS) in the sport of basketball. We applied a dose-response imagery protocol, in which one imagery variable was varied systematically, while other key dose variables were held constant. Methods We recruited 36 male basketball players ( M age =25.17 years SD=4.26) and allocated them to one of three imagery training conditions or a control condition. Participants in the control condition had no imagery training sessions. Imagery repetitions were held constant at 20 repetitions per imagery session with a frequency of 3 imagery sessions per week over four weeks. Results The results showed that the 13- and 18-min imagery durations were more effective than the 8-min duration condition for the basketball free-throw shooting. The 13-min condition was significantly higher at post- and retention-test than at pre-test, indicating it was most effective in this study. Conclusions The findings of the present study highlight the importance of imagery duration in imagery training design and may inform coaches, sport psychologists, and athletes in designing effective programs for individual athletes.

Objectives The aim of this research was to expand knowledge on the use of PETTLEP based guided imagery scripts, as a mental practice, for increasing performance and reduction of self-criticism in athletes. Imagery can serve not only as an accessory, but also as a replacement for part of the training process, as it has the potential to increase the athlete’s performance. Methods The research group consisted of 78 recreational CrossFit athletes who regularly work out and participate in group trainings. The participants were divided into three groups. The physical practice group trained two series of pushups, the imagery group, in accordance with the prescribed script based on the PETTLEP model, visualized these pushups and the role of the control group was to stretch before training. The intervention lasted 4 weeks, with a frequency of three times per week. Results The results showed that imagery is an effective tool for increasing the performance of athletes and in combination of with regular exercise can result in additional performance gains. There have been significant shifts in our study, in some subscales, specifically within groups. In the imagery group, it was namely the subscale of inadequate and reassuring self. In the physical practice group, the shift also occurred in the inadequate self-subscale and the hated self-subscale. However, after comparing these results with the other two groups, there were no significant differences. Conclusions The results confirm the potential of using imagery for increasing performance and reducing self-criticism.