Understanding the prevalence of mental imagery, music, and their combined use among athletes and coaches

TL;DR

This study explores how often athletes and coaches use mental imagery, music, and their combination in sports training, finding that these strategies are common, especially at higher performance levels.

Contribution

The study provides new insights into the prevalence and motivations for using mental imagery, music, and their combination across different sports and performance levels.

Findings

Mental imagery, music, and their combination are commonly used by athletes and coaches.

Music is more frequently used by athletes, while coaches recommend mental imagery more often.

Combined use of mental imagery and music increases at the international performance level.

Abstract

Both mental imagery and music have significant impacts on motor skill acquisition and improvement, as well as on the regulation of psychological factors crucial for athletic success. However, research on the prevalence of these mental practice strategies across sporting domains, as well as their combined application (hereafter reported as MIMUS), is limited. It therefore remains unclear which strategies athletes and coaches adopt in an athlete's mental preparation routine. Accordingly, the present study investigated the prevalence of music, mental imagery, and their combined use among coaches and athletes across different performance levels and sports settings. The content and motivations underlying the use of these strategies were also explored.

One hundred and thirty-six individuals (89 men, 42 women, 5 non-binary, Mage = 35.22, SDage = 15.82, Range = 18–83 years) completed a 23-item online questionnaire regarding athletes' mental preparation regimes in sports. After providing demographic information, participants responded to closed-ended and multiple-choice questions concerning their use of mental imagery, music, and MIMUS, as well as the reasons, contexts, and circumstances (why, how, where, when) in which these strategies were employed.

Bayesian Mixed Effects models showed that mental imagery (MI, 62%), music (MUS, 66%), and their combination (MIMUS, 27%) were all commonly used by the respondents, though athletes and coaches employed them with distinct motivations. While athletes favoured the use of music, coaches more commonly recommended the use of mental imagery to their athletes. At the international level, the use of all strategies increases, especially MIMUS.

The findings highlight that music and mental imagery form a core part of the mental training routine in athletes, and that their use is more prevalent at the top end of the expertise spectrum.

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