EFFECTS OF POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE MUSIC ON PERFORMANCE OF A KARATE DRILL

Although athletes frequently report using music while training or befo re an event, laboratory studies have not detected a beneficial effect, so the influence of positive and negative music on performance of a s elected karate drill was investigated in this double-blind study using 14 volunteers from two Shotokan karate schools. Each subject performe d a preselected drill three times following positive and negative musi c and white noise in a random order. Performance of the drill was rate d on a 7-item, 5-point scale by 2 raters. Differences among conditions were assessed via a within-subjects t test for paired scores. The sub jects' self-evaluation of their performance was also examined. Enhance ment of performance for both types of music over white noise was signi ficant.