Coupling Imagery with Physical Practice on a Basketball Free Throw Shooting Task

Imagery is the ability to use one’s senses to create or re-create an experience in one’s mind (Vealey & Greenleaf, 2001) and has been shown to improve performance (Smith, Wright, Allsopp, & Westhead, 2007; Wright & Smith, 2009). The purpose of the present study was to examine the effectiveness of different imagery conditions on a free throw performance task and imagery ability with male collegiate basketball players. Three teams from the California Community College Athletic Association completed a 6 week imagery intervention. One team served as the Traditional imagery combined with physical practice group (i.e., Traditional). A second team served as the PETTLEP imagery combined with physical practice group (i.e., PETTLEP). The third team served as the control. It was hypothesized that coupling imagery with physical practice would improve free throw performance compared to physical practice alone. A second hypothesis was that athletes who engage in PETTLEP imagery/physical practice will improve their MIQ-R scores more than athletes who engage in Traditional imagery/physical practice and practice alone. One-Way ANOVAs revealed no significant differences in free throw performance (p=.08) and imagery ability scores (p=.06). Qualitative data collected from athlete journals and researcher’s field notes revealed six key themes, suggesting that the athletes did receive some benefits from participating in the imagery interventions. Results will assist those who work with community college athletes by providing insight into intervention design and the practicality of researching in this dynamic environment.