The influence of intention implementation on throw effectiveness of young basketball players

Abstract

Background: The purpose of the following research was to find out the influence of imaginary training based on intention implementation on throw effectiveness of young basketball players, both male and female in stressogenic situations. Individual differences (action vs state orientation) between players were also measured in this research.Material/Methods: 76 players (32 females and 44 males) in the cadet category (15-16 years old) from basketball clubs of Gdansk, Gdynia and Sopot took part in this research. In the first stage all players did a throw efficiency test ERPE 05 under two conditions, and their heart rate was measured. Then players were randomly assigned to one of two groups. The first one did imaginary training based on the influence of intention implementation for 10 days, while the other did not. After 10 days ERPE 05 test under two conditions was run again.Results: Test results showed that intention implementation does not influence effectiveness improvement in stressogenic conditions as far as state-oriented players are concerned, but it does lower the physiological cost of physical effort in form of a decreased heart rate.Conclusions: This research proves that visualization training based on implementation instructions does influence young players’ physiology and significantly lowers their heart rate under stressogenic conditions. However useful, visualization techniques used in this research still need other tests and should be applied for a longer period of time to acutely show how they affect young players’ mental preparation