Effects of mental practice alone or in combination with kinesthetic patterning on the subsequent motor performance of elementary age subjects

The present study addressed the extent to which mental practice alone or in combination with kinesthetic patterning influenced the performance of a motor skill executed by elementary age subjects.

Subjects were 54 sixth-grade students, 33 males and 21 females. Each subject participated in five 30 minute sessions of basketball instruction and activity as part of his/her physical education requirements and as a portion of the present study in order to gain experience and knowledge in basketball skills, specifically shooting technique. Following this period of instruction, all subjects who returned signed parental consent to participate in the study engaged in a pretest involving l0 nonconsecutive free throws from a distance less than 15 feet (l0 feet) and at a rim height less than 10 feet (approximately 9 feet) in order to determine free throw shooting ability among subjects. From the pretest results, subjects were randomly matched into three experimental groups according to gender and performance.

Once distributed into three equal groups, each containing 11 males and 7 females, all subjects were given 10 trials according to the protocol used in the pretest. Prior to each free throw attempt, Group I performed three kinesthetic patterning movements similar to that of the free throw shot (KP), Group II participated in mental practice (MP) for approximately eight seconds, and Group III recited a portion of the Stroop Color Word Test involving naming colors. The color naming was used to eliminate any cognitive activity (i.e. MP) relative to free throw performance. All subjects in all three groups performed under similar environmental conditions.

The measure obtained for each subject was the total number of free throws made in l0 attempts. Results were analyzed using a two-way analysis of variance with treatment (KP, MP, C) and gender (male, female) as the independent variables, and mean number of shots made out of a possible 10 attempts, the dependent variable. Results indicated no significant main effect of treatment nor a treatment x gender interaction. However, there was a significant main effect of gender (p < .01) with males displaying higher free throw accuracy than females.