Author(s): Dr. Ashok Kumar Singh

Abstract:
Psychology of sports means applying psychological theories and concepts to aspects of sport. The study was aimed at assessing the effect of mental practice in the learning of selective defensive skills in Cricket. By applying simple random sampling to all the cricket academies of South west Delhi area a total of 5 cricket academies were taken as the centre of administrating the test and collection of the data, then again by applying simple random sampling to the selected academies a total of 100 male subjects were selected, and further were divided into two sub categories, i.e. (50 Control Group and 50 Experimental Group). The pre data of the groups were taken on Back Foot defence and Front Foot Defence in Cricket. The tests were selected from the skill tests designed by Frank Tyson. Further the Experimental Group was induced to first Skill practice followed by Self Confidence, Anxiety and Imagery training and, whereas the control group only did the skill practice of their own. For the assessment of Self Confidence, Anxiety, imagery training and collection of the data the selected experimental groups were given training for 12 weeks for three days of a week (Thursday, Friday and Saturday) after the cricket practice session for 30 minutes for the selected Self Confidence, Imagery and Anxiety exercises. The statistical techniques employed were descriptive statistics followed by Independent ‘t’ test and Paired ‘t’ test. The variable for the study will be mental imagery, self Confidence and Anxiety. The results revealed that a significant difference was found between the experimental and the control group for selected psychological techniques for both front foot and back foot defence. Hence was concluded that Mental Practice assessed in the investigation produced significant effect in learning of Front Foot and Back Foot defence in cricket, as a significant difference was found in the performances of the experimental and control group on executing a Front and Back defensive stroke. Another observation was made that psychological training will increase energy and avoids injuries as well, not only will visualization improves the athletic performance will also enhances the level of motivation and overall enjoyment of the sport with increasing focus, confidence and self composure.

Pages: 171-174  |  549 Views  75 Downloads

Download Full Article: Click Here