The Effect of Movement Imagery Training on Learning Forearm Pass in Volleyball.

Abstract

Introduction The execution of any new motor skill always depends on learning, specifically, it requires the accumulation of new knowledge to be retained in procedural memory as a result of practice. Thus, new motor skills are generated on the basis of previously learned actions (Ona, 1998). Currently, there are different forms of training by means of which learning of a motor skill can be improved. Modeling, or direct demonstration, for example, modeling is one of the most usual forms of giving instruction during the learning of a motor task (Gomez, 2003). By means of modeling, the novice quickly forms an idea or cognitive image of the movement to be executed. Modeling has been defined as a cognitive process in which the learner attempts to imitate an observed action or skill performed by another individual (McCullagh W Wakefield & Smith, 2009). The interest of the partaker within this realm of research has been the investigation of the psychological factors that influence sports and exercise participation, and the psychological effects of the involvement in those same activities (Murphy, 1995). These two interpretations have one thing in common, they both relate to practices (professional and academic) directed and exclusively reserved for very narrowly defined groups of individuals. (Hall & Fishburne, 2010). Many theories have been developed in an attempt to explain how imagery may enhance performance (Morris et al., 2005; Taylor & Wilson, 2005; Weinberg & Gould, 2007). There are cognitive and neurological-based theories, psychological state explanations, motor based-theories, and cardio-respiratory rationalizations to explain how imagery benefits performance. Decety and Grezes (1999) provided evidence to show that certain areas of the brain show a pattern of activity during imagery that is similar to the pattern observed during performance. It is suggested that during mental practice, the same neuromotor path ways that are involved in the physical execution of a specific motor task are activated (Kosslyn et al., 2001 &Martin et al., 1999). The motor programs in the motor cortex, which are responsible for movement, are then strengthened as a result of the activation of the neural pathways during mental imagery. Consequently, mental imagery may aid in skill learning by improving the appropriate coordination patterns and by priming the corresponding motor neurons of the muscles necessary to carry out the motor task. In short, mental practice activates peripheral activity, which provides afferent information to the motor cortex that serves to strengthen the motor program (Mackay, 1981). Cognitive research has demonstrated that physical practice and mental imagery share similar cognitive processes (Toussaint & Blandin, 2010), many researchers have shown that areas of the cortex that are activated in movement control also play a role in motor imagery (Klein et al. …