(Left alignment, not center)Running head:  MENTAL IMAGING AND POSITIVE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mental Imaging and Positive Attitude

In Free Throw Skill

Marques Green

St. Bonaventure University

                                                           

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                          

Abstract

Mental imagery has been found to facilitate athletic performance specifically free throw shooting (Jordan, 2001)  It has also been found that having a positive attitude also assists in athletic performance. (Ming, & Martin 1996).  The following study was designed to observe how mental imagery interacts with positive attitude in free throw shooting. A 2 (imagery) x2 (attitude) was designed predicting a main effect for imagery and an interaction. Positive imagery should enhance free throw shooting greater than no imagery. In addition, an interaction was predicted such that mental imagery and positive attitude should  maximize free throw shooting; however,  positive attitude should not differ from no attitude.   The findings show a main effect of positive imagery but no interaction was found. (in apa format, all sentences have one space after the period instead of 2, just so u know.)

 

 

 

 

(I inserted a page break….abstract should be on a page by itself)

Mental Imaging and Positive Attitude in Free throw Skill Training

              In a article published by the magazine ESPN, they used a very important and famous athlete named Michael Jordan who talked about how Tiger Woods is great because of his pride and ability to hit big shots when it is needed (Jordan & Telander 2001).  Mental imagery plays a big part in Tiger’s greatness because it allows for him to go back in his mind to what he practiced and perfected, and actually perform that on his playing field (Jordan, & Telander 2001).  The article also talks about how Tiger uses positive attitude or self-talk to keep his focus and concentration on the task at hand.  This process is described as what an athlete positively says to him/herself (should be himself or herself) either out loud or as a small voice inside their head (Ming, & Martin 1996).  Positive attitude helps a player stay focused and direct actions in response to the reflections of the event happening in the game (Ming, & Martin 1996).  Past studies that test positive attitude show the increase in performance by athletes.  One study that tests positive thinking with athletes showed how positive thinking improves motor performance in athletes (Theodorakis, Weinberg, Natsis, Douma, & Kazakas date?).  The study done by Theodorakis, Weinberg[JM1] , Natsis, Dauma, and Kazakas (change to Theodorakis et al) was based on four groups, and the results showed how if a task requires fine motor movements, then an instructional self-talk strategy is more effective (Theordorakis… not needed because already referenced in text).  In this experiment, the sports that were involved were a soccer accuracy test, a badminton service test, a sit-up test, and a knee extension task on an isokinetic dynamometer.  The first and second groups showed that only the participants of the instructional group improved their performance showing that positive attitude in these skills had a positive effect on the results.  The results also show how if the task is more predominantly strength and endurance, than both positive attitude and self-talk and mental imaging will be effective.

  In performing my experiment, I too will show how practicing mental imagery will enhance free throw shooting.  As shown in previous studies concerning mental imagery, I will demonstrate how breaking a free throw down step by step in your mind will have a positive effect on free throw shooting percentage.  Along with mental imagery comes positive thinking or self talk.  I will show how having that same positive attitude in performing free throw shooting can help one’s performance. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(delete large space here…..do not need extra space between Intro and methods sections)

 

 

 

Method

Participants

            There were 40 participants broke up into four groups.  One group received both mental imagery and was given positive attitude treatment.  The second group received positive attitude treatment, but no mental imagery treatment.  The third group received mental imagery treatment, but no positive attitude treatment. The final group received no treatment at all, and was not told to think negatively nor imagine they missing the free throw.  The participants were randomly selected basketball players at either a Division one school or a Division two school.  (not necessary to explain all 4 conditions.  Just mention each variable and its levels in the procedure section)

Materials

            The materials used were a basketball and a gym, a motivational tape that allowed the participants to think positively.  Also, a videotape to show the proper way to shoot a free throw, along with someone playing the part of verbally walking through a step-by-step process of correctively shooting a free throw. 

Procedure

            The process of this experiment will be to take the group that receives both metal imagery and positive attitude thinking, and have them receive the treatment once a day for a total time of 30 minutes.  This will include the motivational tape, the videotape showing the proper technique of shooting a free throw, and a person verbally showing the participants the step-by-step process to shoot a free throw.  After each group receives treatments of mental imagery, positive attitude treatment, or both or neither.  Shooting 20 free throws after the seventh day of treatment or no treatment will test them.  They will shoot on a Wednesday afternoon at 3 p.m. Eastern. (this sentence is not necessary unless time is a variable)

Results

            The results showed that the group that receives both mental imagery treatment and positive attitude treatment shot at 87.6%.  The no mental imagery group that did receive positive attitude treatment shot at 75.3%.  The third group that received mental imagery treatment, but no positive attitude treatment shot at 55%.  And the last group that receives no treatment shot at 58.8%.  Because the results, we found no interaction between mental imagery and positive attitude.  Mental imagery along with positive attitude does give a person a better percentage of free throw shooting, but positive attitude alone does not have a great effect on the free throw shooting percentage.  The ANOVA shows that the F-ratio for mental imagery was F, (1,3161) =21.788, p>.05, the F-ratio for positive thinking was F, (1,1217),= 8.388, p>.05, and the F-ratio for interaction was F, (1,4.3) =0.030, p<.05.  There is a main effect of mental imagery in the experiment, meaning that mental imagery does cause ones free throw percentage to go up when it is presented by itself. (check highlighted numbers….they represent the df, which in the diagram below is 33.  Also, instead of putting the table directly in the paper, place it on a separate page at the end of your paper, directly following your references and label it “table 1”.  In the text above just put something along the lines of “see table 1” )

 

Source

Sum-of-Squares

df

Mean-Square

F-ratio

P

MENTAL

      3160.904

1

      3160.904

      21.788

      0.000

POSITIVE

      1216.878

1

      1216.878

      8.388

      0.007

MENTAL*POSITIVE

      4.336

1

      4.336

      0.030

      0.864

Error

      4787.529

33

      145.077

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Discussion

This study shows that with the ability to mentally imagine what one is supposed to do in order to make a free throw, they are in a better position to make a free throw at a higher percentage than someone who does not use mental imagery or someone who just uses positive attitude treatment.  Also, we can make the prediction that using positive attitude treatment alone does not make one shoot a better percentage than someone using mental imagery. Some things that could have had a different affect on the percentages would have , the ability to shoot the free throws at night, or early in the morning.  In the study there was no interaction between the variables of Mental Imaging and Positive attitude.  However there was a main effect of Mental Imaging in the experiment.  We came to realize that the hypothesis was true in that with Mental Imaging, you will shoot a better free throw percentage rather than not using Mental imaging or only using positive attitude.  The hypothesis of using positive attitude alone in order to increase your percentage on the free throw line was not proven to be fully correct.  If one only uses positive attitude, then he or she will not benefit in a great increase of free throw percentage because mental imagery is absent from the experiment. (by saying “you will shoot” and “proven” it sounds like a causal effect…..try to reword so that it sounds more less like a causal relationship, possibly change “proven” to “shown”)

References

Figures

 

 [JM1]