Discussion Question 1: Imagery
Describe how you have used imagery as an athlete and/or for what purposes you have taught imagery as a coach to athletes. How are the ways you have used imagery similar or different to the ways athletes typically use imagery as presented in this module?
Based on your experiences, what do you believe is the most effective way to use imagery to enhance sport performance?
Discussion Question 2: Mental Rehearsal of Sports Skills
The research on imagery has shown that the mental rehearsal of sport skills has a small but significant effect on the actual performance of the skills. In other words, when research participants imagine performing a sport skill, they typically perform the skill better than those research participants that do not.
However, Moran (2004) pointed out that relatively few of these studies have used athletes as participants.
Most of the studies have been laboratory vs. field experiments or have used simple skills (such as dart throwing) vs. complex skills (such as golf swing), and the psychological mechanisms underlying the positive effects of imagery have not been adequately explained.
What conclusions do you draw about the effectiveness of imagery in improving the learning and performance of sport skills from comparing the literature findings with your experience?
What would you recommend to create a valid study about mental rehearsal?