Manuscript Information Authors

[1]	Emilia Florina Grosu, Department of Individual Sport, Faculty of Phisical Education and Sport, “Babeș – Bolyai University”, Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
[2]	Vlad Teodor Grosu, Department of Mechatronics and Machine Dynamics, Faculty of Mechatronics, Technical University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania.

Abstract

The aim of this study was to assess the influence of mental training on the increase in the attention and manual response in certain athletes (skiers). The samples of subjects tested are aged 12±5 and 16±1. Athletes are components of ski groups within School sports clubs. The experimental group comprises athletes from Gheorgheni, Baia-Sprie and the control group consists of athletes from Topliţa, Sibiu, Predeal, Sinaia. Through this study, we analyzed the influence of mental training on the increase in focused attention and manual response in skiers. It is known that in alpine skiing knocking the poles is very important. We applied the ACRM (focused attention with manual response) test, which provides information on the ability of focusing attention in activities with imposed pace and dynamic field of observations, specific to alpine skiing. We conducted these tests after applying the mental training techniques in the experimental group and comparing the scores with those of the control group. The analysis was performed using SPSS 15.0. For the comparison of means between the groups of subjects, we applied ANOVA for the VP, EP and EX pretest measurements in order to assess whether the (control and experimental) groups are similar before the intervention. The intervention consists in the application of mental imagery techniques on certain components of alpine skiing technique based on hand-eye coordination. In addition, we calculated a t test for dependent samples for VP, EP and EX, both pretest and posttest, to assess whether the intervention produced any modifications. Findings indicate a statistically different modification following the intervention, in the scores for VP, EP and EX: p=.000 < 0.05 and p=.001<0.05. Among the indicators recorded through this test, it is worth noting the following: VP – perception speed = number of omissions, EP – perception accuracy = number of errors, EX – focused attention = correct answers /150+ wrong answers. Conclusion: considering the comparative analysis of scores to the tests applied to the groups of our study and the statistical significance, it can be posited that mental training through mental imagery improved outcomes in focused attention and manual response in the experimental group. These findings determine, in their turn, increased athletic performance in the groups studied, as it is obvious from the analysis of competitions that took place in January 2015.

Keywords

Alpine Skiing, Mental Training, Manual Response, Coordination, Focused Attention

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