The Influence of an Imagery Workshop on Athletes' Use of Imagery

The purpose of the study was to examine the influence of a mental imagery workshop on athletes’ subsequent use of imagery. The participants were 36 female basketball players from three different levels of a high school basketball league: bantam, midget, and juvenile. Two different types of self-report measures were used to assess patterns of imagery use over a six week period following the workshop. The Sport Imagery Questionnaire (SIQ; Hall, Mack, Paivio, & Hausenblas, 1998) was given to the players prior to the start of the workshop, and three and six weeks following the workshop. The players also recorded the frequency, duration, content, and effectiveness of their imagery use in a training diary. Results revealed that the basketball players significantly increased their imagery use for the 6-week period following the workshop, and that the basketball players believed the imagery training to be both valuable and effective.

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