Effectiveness of mental imagery for the male high school competitive swimmer

The purpose of this study was to determine if cognitive and somatic anxiety levels decreased and self-confidence levels increased with the use of a mental imagery program. Participants (N=21) for this study were at the high school level, chosen from the Midwest region of the United States. A boy's scholastic swim team was used as the interventiongroup while a girl's scholastic swim team was used as the comparison group. All participants attended the same school and were members of their 2004-2005 swim team. Participants completed the Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2 (CSAI-2) (Martens et al., 1990). All participants completed the CSAI-2 once a week over the course of six weeks. The CSAI-2 was subdivided into three subscales to measure cognitive anxiety, somatic anxiety, and self-confidence. Imagery scripts were developed for the boys' swim team (intervention group) and were implemented twice a week during practice. Individualized scripts were created for the swimmers to practice on their own time at a minimum of once per week. No imagery training was provided to the girls' team. The results for multivariate analysis revealed no significant main effect for group, week, or week x group interaction (p >.05). Univariate results for the week x group interaction showed no significance for cognitive anxiety, somatic anxiety, or for self-confidence (p >.05). Univariate results for week revealed significance for cognitive and somatic anxiety (p >.05), but no significance for self-confidence (p >.05). The use of the mental imagery program showed to be of no statistical significance at lowering cognitive and somatic anxiety or increasing self-confidence levels in the high school swimmers.