Effet d’une routine centrée sur l’imagerie mentale et sur l’efficacité du service chez des joueurs de tennis experts

Abstract

Cette étude expérimentale porte sur les effets d’une routine de préparation au service composée principalement d’imagerie mentale (IM) selon une modalité visuelle externe centrée sur la trajectoire de la balle et la zone cible à atteindre. Quarante joueurs experts étaient aléatoirement séparés en deux groupes expérimentaux : contrôle et imagerie. Ils ont réalisé un pré-test (i.e., 25 premières balles de service en condition de match), 20 séances d’acquisition (i.e., pratique physique + IM ou pratique physique seule) et un post-test similaire au pré-test, en condition écologique. Le pourcentage des premières balles de service, la vitesse de ces dernières et un score d’efficacité de celles-ci, évalué par des experts observant les retours de services en condition de match, servaient d’indicateurs de performance et de variables dépendantes. Les résultats de cette expérience montrent notamment une amélioration du pourcentage de première balle chez les participants du groupe imagerie uniquement. Il semble donc bénéfique pour des joueurs de tennis experts d’avoir recours à des routines basées sur la respiration, le rebond de balle et l’imagerie mentale de la trajectoire de la balle et de la cible à atteindre avant de servir des premières balles en condition de match.

Beneficial Effects of Motor Imagery and Self-Talk on Service Performance in Skilled Tennis Players

“…Indeed, while beneficial effects have been observed in children (e.g., Atienza et al, 1998), teens (e.g., Dana and Gozalzadeh, 2017) or adults (Cherappurath and Elayaraja, 2017) playing at a recreational level, others studies showed a positive effect of MI in teen with a regional level (Guillot et al, 2012), in young adults at collegiate level (Daw and Burton, 1994), in youth (Dohme et al, 2020) or young adult (Robin et al, 2007) elite players and even at a professional level (Mathers, 2017). More specifically, our results confirm the beneficial effect of MI on service performance in teen (Guillot et al, 2013;Türk et al, 2019) and young adults (e.g., Fekih et al, 2020;Dominique et al, 2021) skilled (i.e., national and elite) and international (e.g., Mathers, 2017) tennis players. However, the results of the current study did not show any improvement in service speed.…”

“…Previous studies showed, in tennis, the beneficial effects of using MI (e.g., de Sousa Fortes et al, 2019;Dominique et al, 2021) or self-talk (e.g., Zourbanos et al, 2015) on service performance and successful game outcome; and other studies supported the combination of these two mental techniques, among others, in mental skills training program (e.g., Dohme et al, 2020). That's why, this original study aimed to evaluate, in skilled tennis players, the influence of a combination of MI (based on the trajectory and the target to be reached) and controlled motivational self-talk, performed before the actual strike, on the performance of the first service balls in match play situations, which could be especially beneficial as it is the only shot that is not preceded by another leaving the server enough time to perform it.…”

“…Week 1, participants performed a pre-test: 25 first service, in competitive situations (see Guillot et al, 2013 for a similar procedure). The speed (recorded using a radar Cordless MPH radar Gun Type R1000), the percentage of first services in and the efficiency (evaluated by two tennis qualified tennis coaches external to the research) of the first service served as dependent variables and indicators of performance (see Dominique et al, 2021 andRobin et al, 2021 for similar procedures). The second phase (i.e., acquisition), which consisted of 20 tennis sessions lasting 1.5 h (2 sessions per week), was carried out from week 2 to week 11.…”

“…Participants of the MI + self-talk group had to perform MI combined with motivational self-talk (e.g., "I/you can do it, " "come on, " "I feel good, " and "I will play well on the next point") before serving. At the end of each MI session, participants of the two latter group had to self-assess the perceived vividness of visual images using an MI quality index consisting of a Likert scale ranging from 1 ("Unclear and faint mental representation") to 6 ("Perfectly clear and vivid mental representation"; for a similar procedure, see Dominique et al, 2021). The third phase (i.e., post-test), performed in week 12, was identical to the pre-test.…”

“…Many researchers have shown that MI and physical practice promotes motor learning and performance in the forehand (Guillot et al, 2015;Dana and Gozalzadeh, 2017); backhand (Hegazy et al, 2015;Turan et al, 2019), volley (Cherappurath and Elayaraja, 2017;Türk et al, 2019), service return (Robin et al, 2007) and service (Desliens et al, 2011;Fekih et al, 2020). For example, Dominique et al (2021) recently showed that skilled tennis players who used MI intervention focused on the trajectory of the ball and the target, before serving, had higher percentage success and greater first service efficiency than the participants of the control group who only performed physical practice. Other researches also showed the beneficial effects of combining different strategies such as MI and self-talk, in mental training programs, in order to improve overall tennis performance (Mamassis and Doganis, 2004;Dohme et al, 2020).…”