International Journal of Physical and Social Sciences

Imagery has been defined as “using all the senses to re-create or create an experience in the mind”. Imagery has both a cognitive and motivational function. The cognitive function of imagery is the use of mental imagery to experience specific sports skills and to plan strategies in advance for competitions. The motivational function of imagery is the use of imagery to experience goal attainment, effective coping and arousal management requirements. The mental practice literature provides evidence that imagery is an effective cognitive process for enhancing learning and performance of motor skills. The main aim of this study was to correlate the usage of imagery and sports performance among football players. Data was collected from 119 football players during a match among universities, using Imagery and Sports Performance questionnaire. One way ANOVA showed significant differences on the level of Imagery Usage among categories of football players, F (3,119) = 12.117, p<.01. Pearson correlation was used to determine the relationship between imagery and sports performance. The results indicated a positive correlation between internal imagery and sports performance, (r = 0.71; p<0.01), and external imagery and sports performance, (r = 0.67; p<0.01). Sports psychologists, sports counselors and coaches should use the present findings to recommend imagery to enhance athletes’ performance.