The Impact Of Mental Training On Enhancing Cognitive And Skill-related Aspects In Volleyball
Auteurs : Muhammad Mahdi Amir .
Résumé
Mental training is increasingly recognised as an effective complement to physical practice in motor learning, particularly in sports involving complex skills such as volleyball. Through the researcher’s experience as a player, coach and instructor, it was observed that volleyball students are easily distracted during performance. It was also observed that mental training strategies are rarely incorporated into university volleyball curricula. This study therefore examined the effect of mental training strategies, added to the prescribed curriculum, on cognitive achievement and selected fundamental volleyball skills among second-year students at the College of Physical Education and Sports Sciences, University of Kufa. A quasi-experimental design with experimental and control groups and pre- and post-tests was adopted. After excluding absent students and members of the college volleyball team, 24 students were assigned to two equal groups (n = 12 each). The experimental group followed the prescribed curriculum combined with mental training strategies: relaxation, mental rehearsal (internal imagery) and attention control. The control group followed the prescribed curriculum only. Both programmes comprised 24 instructional units of 90 minutes each, delivered twice weekly over 12 weeks. Cognitive achievement was measured with a 60-item true/false volleyball knowledge test. The overhead (tennis) serve, front overhead pass and block were rated by expert evaluators on a 10-point scale. Both groups improved significantly from pre-test to post-test (p < 0.05). At post-test, however, the experimental group significantly outperformed the control group in cognitive achievement (56.12 vs. 49.63). It also outperformed the control group in the overhead serve (8.38 vs. 6.50), the front overhead pass (7.25 vs. 5.75) and the block (7.88 vs. 5.50). These findings indicate that integrating mental training strategies into volleyball instruction enhances both knowledge acquisition and skill performance. Their inclusion in physical education curricula is recommended.
Mots clés
mental training; mental imagery; cognitive achievement; volleyball; fundamental skills; physical education students
