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Differences in Relaxation and Imagery among NCAA Division I Sport Types

Athletes use psychological skills such as imagery and relaxation to decrease stress, cope with competitive anxiety, and achieve an optimal state of arousal. There is conflicting literature on how team and individual sport athletes use these skills, with some saying that individual sport athletes hav...

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Autores principales: Warfield, Elizabeth, Esposito, Philip, Braun-Trocchio, Robyn
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10674814/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37999441
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/sports11110224
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author Warfield, Elizabeth
Esposito, Philip
Braun-Trocchio, Robyn
author_facet Warfield, Elizabeth
Esposito, Philip
Braun-Trocchio, Robyn
author_sort Warfield, Elizabeth
collection PubMed
description Athletes use psychological skills such as imagery and relaxation to decrease stress, cope with competitive anxiety, and achieve an optimal state of arousal. There is conflicting literature on how team and individual sport athletes use these skills, with some saying that individual sport athletes have better capabilities and others saying team sport athletes use imagery more frequently. The current study analyzed sport type differences in the use of relaxation and performance imagery among NCAA Division I (DI) athletes. This study included 117 NCAA DI athletes, including team sport (n = 72) and individual sport (n = 45). Participants completed a modified version of The Deliberate Relaxation for Sport Survey through Qualtrics. Results indicated there is a statistically significant difference in the type of relaxation technique used based on the individual’s sport type. Team sport athletes used muscle relaxation (p = 0.034), eastern relaxation (p = 0.014), and stretching (p = 0.020) more frequently than individual sport athletes. Additionally, individual sport athletes used performance imagery more often for mental focus than team sport athletes (p = 0.012). There were no differences between sport types in the level of deliberate practice of relaxation and performance imagery. Athletes used a variety of methods to learn both imagery and relaxation skills and have been using these for an average of four years. The majority of participants (n = 67) did not work with a sport psychology professional, but their school has one. This study supports the use of individualized intervention programs to help athletes use relaxation and imagery in the most effective ways for their performances.
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spelling pubmed-106748142023-11-13 Differences in Relaxation and Imagery among NCAA Division I Sport Types Warfield, Elizabeth Esposito, Philip Braun-Trocchio, Robyn Sports (Basel) Article Athletes use psychological skills such as imagery and relaxation to decrease stress, cope with competitive anxiety, and achieve an optimal state of arousal. There is conflicting literature on how team and individual sport athletes use these skills, with some saying that individual sport athletes have better capabilities and others saying team sport athletes use imagery more frequently. The current study analyzed sport type differences in the use of relaxation and performance imagery among NCAA Division I (DI) athletes. This study included 117 NCAA DI athletes, including team sport (n = 72) and individual sport (n = 45). Participants completed a modified version of The Deliberate Relaxation for Sport Survey through Qualtrics. Results indicated there is a statistically significant difference in the type of relaxation technique used based on the individual’s sport type. Team sport athletes used muscle relaxation (p = 0.034), eastern relaxation (p = 0.014), and stretching (p = 0.020) more frequently than individual sport athletes. Additionally, individual sport athletes used performance imagery more often for mental focus than team sport athletes (p = 0.012). There were no differences between sport types in the level of deliberate practice of relaxation and performance imagery. Athletes used a variety of methods to learn both imagery and relaxation skills and have been using these for an average of four years. The majority of participants (n = 67) did not work with a sport psychology professional, but their school has one. This study supports the use of individualized intervention programs to help athletes use relaxation and imagery in the most effective ways for their performances. MDPI 2023-11-13 /pmc/articles/PMC10674814/ /pubmed/37999441 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/sports11110224 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Warfield, Elizabeth
Esposito, Philip
Braun-Trocchio, Robyn
Differences in Relaxation and Imagery among NCAA Division I Sport Types
title Differences in Relaxation and Imagery among NCAA Division I Sport Types
title_full Differences in Relaxation and Imagery among NCAA Division I Sport Types
title_fullStr Differences in Relaxation and Imagery among NCAA Division I Sport Types
title_full_unstemmed Differences in Relaxation and Imagery among NCAA Division I Sport Types
title_short Differences in Relaxation and Imagery among NCAA Division I Sport Types
title_sort differences in relaxation and imagery among ncaa division i sport types
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10674814/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37999441
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/sports11110224
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