Article Details

A Study of Mental Practice on the Learning of Selected Defensive Skills In Cricket |

Mr. Gurpreet Makker, Tarun Gaur, Dr. Ashok Singh, in International Journal of Physical Education & Sports Sciences | Physical Education, Health, Fitness & Sports

ABSTRACT:

Psychology of sports means applyingpsychological theories and concepts to aspects of sport. The study was aimed atassessing the effect of mental practice in the learning of selective defensiveskills in Cricket. By applying simple random sampling to all the cricketacademies of west Delhi area a total of 5 cricket academies were taken as thecentre of administrating the test and collection of the data, then again byapplying simple random sampling to the selected academies a total of 100 malesubjects were selected, and further were divided into two sub categories, i. e.(50 Control Group and 50 Experimental Group). The pre data of the groups weretaken on Back Foot defence and Front Foot Defence in Cricket. The tests wereselected from the skill tests designed by Frank Tyson. Further the ExperimentalGroup was induced to first Skill practice followed by Self Confidence, Anxietyand Imagery training and, whereas the control group only did the skill practiceof their own. For the assessment of Self Confidence, Anxiety, imagery trainingand collection of the data the selected experimental groups were given trainingfor 12 weeks for three days of a week (Thursday, Friday and Saturday) after thecricket practice session for 30 minutes for the selected Self Confidence,Imagery and Anxiety exercises. The statistical techniques employed weredescriptive statistics followed by Independent‘t’ test and Paired‘t’ test. Thevariable for the study will be mental imagery, self Confidence and Anxiety. Theresults revealed that a significant difference was found between theexperimental and the control group for selected psychological techniques forboth front foot and back foot defence. Hence was concluded that Mental Practiceassessed in the investigation produced significant effect in learning of FrontFoot and Back Foot defence in cricket, as a significant difference was found inthe performances of the experimental and control group on executing a Front andBack defensive stroke. Another observation was made that psychological trainingwill increase energy and avoids injuries as well, not only will visualizationimproves the athletic performance will also enhances the level of motivationand overall enjoyment of the sport with increasing focus, confidence andself-composure.