The Short-term and Long-term Effect of Motor Imagery Training of Athletes on Their Visual Imagery and Kinesthetic Imagery / 中国运动医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the short-term and long-term effect of motor imagery training on visual imagery and kinesthetic imagery of athletes.Methods Twenty athletes majoring in the sports training of Capital University of Physical Education were selected into the experimental group,while 20 counterparts majoring in the human kinetic science were selected into the control group.All subjects received motor imagery training,and were assessed their visual imagery and kinesthetic imagery at three before the training,as well as ten minutes and 48 hours after the training.Results The repetitive measurement and analysis of variance showed that the visual imagery and kinesthetic imagery scores had the main effect of time factor [FvI (2,37)=7.57,P＜0.01;FK1 (2,37)=ll.75,P＜0.01)],as the scores were the highest at ten minutes after training,the second highest at 48 hours after training and the lowest before training.The visual imaginary scores increased significantly after the training,but had no significant difference 48 hours after the training compared to that before the training.After the training the kinesthetic imagery scores increased significantly and then declined slowly,and there were significant differences in the score before and 48 hours after the training (P=0.009).The experimental group and the control group had the same change trend in the visual and kinesthetic imagery scores.The average scores of the former group were higher than the latter at the same time points but without significant differences.The visual and kinesthetic imagery scores had no main effect of group factor,and there was no interaction effect of time factor and group factor.Conclusion Motor imagery training could increase the ability of visual and kinesthetic imagery of people never participating in motor imagery training and the short-term effect was more obvious.The long term effect of motor imagery training was more significant on kinesthetic imagery than visual imagery.