| Imagery use in sport has been increasingly researched over the past few decades. Despite the recognition that athletes can benefit from employing imagery, there has been limited research investigating factors (e.g., sport type, competitive level) that influence athletes' use of imagery. One factor that has recently received some limited attention has been coaches' influence on athletes' imagery use (Munroe, Hall, Simms, & Weinberg, 1998). Research has suggested that coaches support the use of many psychological techniques (e.g., goal setting, imagery, team building), and they believe imagery is the most useful. Therefore, they employ it most frequently with their athletes (Hall & Rodgers, 1989). A recent study by Jedlic (2003) examined athletes' perceptions of coaches' encouragement of imagery use. The results suggested that coaches do have a significant influence on athletes' imagery use. The present study examined coaches' encouragement of athletes' use of mental imagery. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)... |
