The influence of type of sport and time of season on athletes' use of imagery

Previous research (e.g., Barr & Hall, 1992) suggests that imagery is used d ifferentially throughout an athlete's competitive season. The influence of time of season (early vs. late) and type of sport (team vs. individual) on athletes' use of imagery was examined. Male and female varsity athletes rep resenting 10 sports completed the Sport Imagery Questionnaire (Hall, Mack, Paivio, & Hausenblas, in press) early and late in a competitive season. Res ults indicated that cognitive specific (CS) imagery significantly increased for fencing, field hockey. rugby, soccer, and wrestling. Motivational Spec ific (MS), Motivational General-Mastery (MG-M), and Motivational General-Ar ousal (MG-A) imagery showed a significant increase from Times 1 to 2 for ru gby, soccer, and wrestling. Most sports demonstrated a significant increase in MS imagery. For all sports, except badminton, cognitive general (CG) im agery increased. Results indicate that imagery use changes during the compe titive season, but this depends on the sport.