Free throw performance in non-expert basketball players: The effect of dynamic motor imagery combined with action observation

Nicolas Robin (1) , Lucette Toussaint (2) , Cédric Charles-Charlery (1) , Guillaume R. Coudevylle (1)

1 ACTES - Adaptation, Climat Tropical, Exercice et Santé [URp5_4]
2 CeRCA [Poitiers] - Centre de recherches sur la cognition et l'apprentissage [UMR 7295]

We investigated the effect of dynamic motor imagery (dMI) combined with physical practice on free throw performances of advanced basketball players in two conditions: With and without a video of a model. They performed a pre-test, participated in 5-weeks of intervention sessions, and performed a post-test. During pre-test and post-test, they performed 10-free throws followed by the “Evan Fournier test”: Maximum number of sequences of two consecutive free throws and round trips to the midfield and shot zone in 45-seconds. During intervention sessions, they were assigned to Control, Imagery or Model + imagery groups and performed five blocks of two free throws. Before each block, they watched a video and performed countdown or dMI. The results revealed that the Imagery and Model + imagery groups had higher free throw performances in the post-test than in the pre-test. At the post-test, the Model + Imagery group made more consecutive shots in the onfield-test Evan Fournier than the two other groups.

Mots clés: Mental imagery; motor improvement; Performance; Model observation

Domaines: Psychologie; Education

Nicolas Robin, Lucette Toussaint, Cédric Charles-Charlery, Guillaume R. Coudevylle. Free throw performance in non-expert basketball players: The effect of dynamic motor imagery combined with action observation. Learning and Motivation, 2019, 68, pp.101595. ⟨10.1016/j.lmot.2019.101595⟩. ⟨hal-02306220⟩