@article{Lotfi_Tahmasbi_Forghani_Szwarc_2020, title={Effect of positive and negative dimensions of mental imagery and self-talk on learning of soccer kicking skill}, volume={24}, url={https://sportedu.org.ua/index.php/PES/article/view/1276}, DOI={10.15561/20755279.2020.0603}, abstractNote={<p><em>Background and Study Aim</em>. Mental imagery and self-talk are two important mental skills that are used for improvement of performance and learning of motor and sport skills. This study aimed to investigate the effect of positive/negative mental imagery and positive/negative self-talk on learning of soccer kicking skill.</p> <p><em>Material and Methods</em>. Participants included 48 young soccer player students. Participants were soccer player students with mean age 18.44 and SD=.88 years. After selecting the sample and filling out the personal detail form, the imagery and self-talk instructions, the method of completing mental imagery questionnaire, Moore-Christine kick-skill test instructions, and principles of free kick at soccer were explained to participants. Then, the mental imagery test and kick-skill test were run in 4 blocks of 4 attempts and the results were recorded. Based on their pre-test scores, the participants were divided into 4 groups. The acquisition sessions were held for 3 weeks and 2 sessions per week, with 8 blocks of 4 trials (32 trials) per session. The data was analyzed using one-way ANOVA, mixed ANOVA, and two-way ANOVA tests at different learning stages (significance level= 0.05).</p> <p><em>Results.</em> The results of data analysis showed that positive imagery and positive self-talk groups performed significantly better than negative imagery and negative self-talk groups. Also, due to the significance of interactive effect of imagery × training sessions, it was found that the positive imagery groups performed significantly better than negative imagery groups from the third session onwards.</p> <p><em>Conclusion.</em> According to the results, it was recommended that trainers use this aspect of self-talk at early stages of training. Also, the positive imagery can be emphasized by increasing the training sessions in more skilled individual.</p>}, number={6}, journal={Physical Education of Students}, author={Lotfi, Gholamreza and Tahmasbi, Farshid and Forghani, Mohammad Hossein and Szwarc, Andrzej}, year={2020}, month={Dec.}, pages={319–324} }