The Role of Motor Imagery in Predicting Motor Skills in Young Male Soccer Players

Dariusz Zapała, Emilia Zabielska-Mendyk, Andrzej Cudo, Marta Jaśkiewicz, Marcin Kwiatkowski and Agnieszka Kwiatkowska
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Dariusz Zapała: Department of Experimental Psychology, The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, 20-950 Lublin, Poland
Emilia Zabielska-Mendyk: Department of Experimental Psychology, The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, 20-950 Lublin, Poland
Andrzej Cudo: Department of Experimental Psychology, The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, 20-950 Lublin, Poland
Marta Jaśkiewicz: Department of Experimental Psychology, The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, 20-950 Lublin, Poland
Marcin Kwiatkowski: Sport and Minds, 21-030 Motycz, Poland
Agnieszka Kwiatkowska: Sport and Minds, 21-030 Motycz, Poland

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 12, 1-9

Abstract: The study aimed to find out whether the imagery ability within the two subcomponents of motor imagery (visual and kinesthetic) allows predicting the results in simple response time task and eye–hand coordination task in a group of young male soccer players (9–15 years old). Non-specific simple response time and eye–hand coordination play a key role in predicting specific sports performance level. Participants performed Reaction Time Task, Eye–Hand Coordination Task, and completed Motor Imagery Questionnaire–Revised. Data were submitted to the structural equations analysis based on the maximum likelihood method in order to estimate a structural model of relationship between variables. Results indicate visual rather than kinesthetic motor imagery is associated with non-specific motor skills. Higher scores on the visual motor imagery scale were observed to correlate with faster reaction times and better coordination in the study group. This supports the idea that during learning a new perceptual-motor-task the visual control is required. Results provide the evidence for the specific role of the third-person perspective imagery in young athletes playing soccer.

Keywords: motor imagery; young athletes; soccer; reaction time; coordination (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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