Mental Imagery and Its Limitations
Sports coaches, just as the athletes they train are also viewed as performers. While the nature of their performance might differ from those of the athletes, their jobs do require meticulous planning in areas like training, competition as well as the execution of the training procedures. They must be flexible enough to adapt to different situations, as they present themselves, and be good at coping with stress arising from the nature of the competition and media intrusion and also the pressure on them to produce good results (Olosuga, Maynard, Butt & Hays, 2014).
It is apparent therefore that psychological factors have a part to play in getting results. A theoretical framework for athletes to self-regulate their emotional states made suggestions that psychological skills like relaxation, self-talk, imagery and goal setting are needed for the enhancement of psychological abilities like the ability to completely relax (Olosuga et al., 2014).The psychological abilities give performers the ability to reach peak states mentally for those tasks that they are engaged in, and growing evidence shows that systematic MST can improve the ability of an athlete to make use of psychological skills during stressful competitions (Olosuga et al., 2014). MST can positively influence an athlete's performance, knowledge and awareness and the usage of their psychological skills. In fact, several literatures are available on the topics of mental skills and how their use enhances performance of athletes and modifies their perceptions (Olosuga et al., 2014).
Models of Mental Imagery
Research points out the existence of mental imagery utility in the fields of sports, education, business and sports. It has been indicated to improve goal-orientation and also enhances coping and persistence (Burke, Shanahan & Herlambang, 2014). Research indicates that the practice of mental imagery might be effective in encouraging goal setting, enhancing positive effects and supporting college students achieve academic success. Intentional visual imagery is when one produces a perceptual or virtual experience which bears actual resemblance to what is perceived and maybe also have perceptual, motor as well as perceptual representations (Burk et al., 2014).
It is believed that imagery plays a host of roles in several cognitive functions like memory encoding, social interaction, navigation as well as spatial planning (Burk et al., 2014). Several neurocognitive models have been proposed in an attempt to explain these phenomena. Some of the models make the suggestion that visual mental imagery makes use of several of the actual neural processes that are used in visual perception, including temporal and parietal cortical regions. This is referred to as perception imagery equivalence hypothesis (Burk et al., 2014). Some other research findings indicate that visual perception and visual mental imagery may have the same neural substrates but that they make use of distinct neural dynamics (Burk et al., 2014). Proposals have also been put forward that different kinds of mental images make use of unique neural processes but share a number of cognitive and neural elements. For instance, a study discovered that imagery of those events that can be described as emotional had an effect on different brain regions depending on the time the event was experienced - whether in the past or recently.
Applications of Mental Imagery
Imagery has historically been used in both professional and amateur sports. A review of at least two-hundred studies involving athletic imagery discovered that most of the studies indicated presence of benefits (Burk et al., 2014). Indeed, several reviews and studies have shown the value of sport imagery in the management of arousal, improvement of certain skills useful for performance and enhancing self-efficacy, persistence as well as confidence states. Evidence indicating the use of imagery can be found at various education levels (Burk et al., 2014). Reviewing the studies reveals that guided imagery has been used in secondary as well as elementary education (Burk et al., 2014).
Despite consensus lacking on the concerns of neural mechanisms, evidence exists supporting mental imagery's value for well-being and health, goal attainment, acquisition of motor skills, etc. (Burk et al., 2014). It is, for instance, becoming a more important tool in therapy. As a therapy, it is mostly used by patients suffering from cancer and also used in the management of pain, anxiety and treatment side effects (Burk et al., 2014). Findings recently made in neuroimaging reveal that the motor actions imagined recruits brain regions that correspond to the exact areas involved in the actual/real physical movement. Mental imagery has been successfully used in the enhancement of motor skills among stroke patients (Burk et al., 2014).
Positive Contributions of Mental Imagery
Mental imagery has been...
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