A preliminary study of mental and physical practice on the kayak wet exit skill

Outdoor activities and high-risk water sports often create anxiety in parti cipants who feel concern about danger. Relaxation and imagery, often used t o enhance training, can improve performance of skills in a variety of sport s. The aim of this study was to establish whether Mental Practice, Physical Practice, Combined Mental and Physical Practice, or No Practice would affe ct the acquisition of skill for a kayak wet exit. 60 postprimary girls aged 11-16 yr., competent swimmers but without previous experience in kayaking, gave their informed consent to be in the study. Each participant was rando mly assigned to one of the four experimental groups. Following their practi ce periods, each group performed three kayak wet exit attempts (unseen by o thers); these were videotaped for later analysis by an observer. The partic ipant and an independent observer, who was blind to the allocation of pract ice group, then used a 6-point rating scale to assess each performance. Par ticipants' and the observer's ratings were analysed by separate Kruskal-Wal lis one-way analysis of variance which indicated a significant practice eff ect. Subsequent chi-squared tests indicated significantly different distrib utions of groups, showing Physical Practice superior to No Practice and Men tal Practice. While physical practice remained effective in improving techn ique, combinations of mental and physical practice were better than no prac tice.