Contribution of mental training to the improvement of sports performance

Abstract

The aim of this study was to assess the influence of mental training on the increase in attention and manual response in certain athletes (skiers). The subjects within are samples are aged 12±5 and 16±1. The athletes who participated in this study are part of ski groups within School sports clubs. The experimental group comprises athletes from Gheorgheni, Baia-Sprie, while the control group includes of athletes from Topliţa, Sibiu, Predeal and Sinaia. We applied the ACRM (focused attention with manual response) test, because it provides information on the ability of remaining focused during activities with imposed pace and with dynamic field of observations. We conducted these tests after applying certain mental training techniques in the experimental group and after comparing the scores with those obtained by the control group. For the analysis, we used the SPSS 15.0 software. For the comparison of means between the groups of subjects, we applied ANOVA for the VP, EP and EX posttest measurements. The purpose was to determine whether the two groups have similar scores before the intervention. We applied mental imagery techniques on certain components of alpine skiing technique, based on hand-eye coordination. We also calculated a t test for dependent samples for VP, EP and EX, in posttest, to the end of establishing whether the intervention led to any alterations. The means and standard deviation for VP are as follows: for the control group 10.00±6.04 and for the experimental group 4.04±3.85; for EP test, the values for control group are 18.54±9.12 and for the experimental group 9.83±4.40; EX – the values obtained for the control group 0.86±0.07 and for the experimental group 0.92±0.05. The values for (t) Student Test were the following: for VP t=4.074, p<0.000; EP t=4.203, p<0.000; EX t=3.279, p<0.002. Considering both the comparative analysis of scores to the tests.Keywords: attention, skiing, mental training, manual response