DETERMINATION OF SPORT IMAGERY TYPES AND LEVELS WITH RESPECT TO SOCCER PLAYING EXPERIENCE

Abstract

The aim of this study was to determine the use of sport imagery types and levels with respect to experiences of soccer players of various categories. This study was performed on 199 voluntary 14-34 year old soccer players playing in different categories of the Turkish Football Federation Leagues. Mean player age was 21.4 ± 3.7 and mean playing experience was 6.5 ± 2.4 yrs. A modification of Hall’s Sport Imagery Questionnaire (SIQ) was used. Of the five subscales in the original scale, the cognitive imagery subscale was not suitable for the Turkish population. Other subscales were cognitive imagery, motivational specific imagery, motivational general-arousal and motivational general-mastery. Descriptive statistics, multivariate variance analysis, and Pearson’s momentum correlation were used to analyze the data. A significance level of 0.05 was used. In summary; the relationship between soccer players’ sports experience and sport imagery sub dimensions were investigated. As sport experience increased, a significant correlation between cognitive imagery and motivational specific imagery sub dimensions emerged. Furthermore, 6-10 years’ experienced soccer players used motivational specific imagery dimension higher than 1-5 years’ experienced players.