The Effect of Mental Imagery on the Motor Performance Enhancement among the athletes in the Sport of Aerobic Dance

Purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of mental imagery on the motor performance Enhancement among the athletes in the Sport of Aerobic Dance. In this study which was an experimental research, 40 girl athletes in aerobic dance whose average age was 22.3 participated voluntarily and were put randomly into experimental and control group. Experimental design of the study included 13 sessions of mental imagery (3 days a week and for one month) and at the end of each session physical exercise was performed for the experimental group. Both groups were assessed four times; pre-test, middle test, post-test and follow-up (two months after the intervention) were used for the assessment. To assess the subjects, motor performance check-list was used which was made by the coach and an aerobic dance referee in a measuring scale of ten. To analyze the data and to neutralize the effect of pre-test, analysis of covariance was used. According to the results of the study, the changes of the motor performance scale in the middle test, post-test and follow-up were significant. Therefore, it can be concluded that mental imagery can have an effect on the motor performance enhancement.