Internal versus external mental imagery combined with physical practice on performance in recreational golfers - A randomised controlled trial

Science and technology tremendously influence physical activities. Physical activity can be performed by playing and participating in various sports. Sports are played for either competitive or recreational purposes. One of the most common sports used for recreational purpose includes Golf. Sport psychology is a science which has a very important role in improving sport performance. One area of sport psychology is mental imagery which resembles sporting experience but occurs without an actual activity being performed. It is a mental skill which is applicable to various situations.

The present randomized controlled trial was conducted on 45 participants who included male recreational golfers between the ages of 30 to 55 years who were randomly allocated into 3 groups namely A[Physical Practice alone],B[Internal Mental imagery combined with physical practice] and C[External Mental imagery combined with physical practice]. Pre-interventional and post-interventional outcome measurements were taken in the form of Sports Imagery Questionnaire and Categories of Performance of approach shot.

In the present study, intra - group analysis showed that improvement in the performance of the approach shot of recreational golfers was statistically significant in all the three groups (p=0.0001) whereas mean score showed a significant increase in all the groups. When values were compared between the three groups for post intervention and mean difference of pre and post intervention for categories of performance score and SIQ for Group B (internal mental imagery combined with physical practice) and Group C (external mental imagery combined with physical practice) have shown to be statistical significant difference as compared with Group A (physical practice alone). Further there was no significant difference between Group B and Group C.

The present study demonstrates that internal mental imagery combined with physical practice and external mental imagery combined with physical practice are effective than physical practice alone in improving performance of approach shot and Sports Imagery Questionnaire in recreational golfers. Further it was observed that internal mental imagery combined with physical practice and external mental imagery combined with physical practice is equally effective.