The Effects Of Mental Imagery On Children

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How did Lionel Messi become a great soccer player? Messi grew up playing soccer with his older brothers at a very young age. At the age of eight, he was recruited to a youth soccer club which practiced a lot and only lost one game in four years. He was diagnosed with hormone deficiency, but this didn’t stop Messi from playing soccer because he was so dedicated to it. Messi was able to overcome this growth restriction and keep playing soccer. After years of practicing and playing soccer Messi was invited to FC Barcelona. He practiced hard every day and eventually was able to play with the pros. The problem for people who want to grow up to be a professional soccer player is that they don’t know where to start. They just make up excuses saying …show more content…
Also, mental thinking skills can also help a player improve their training through imagery which is picturing something someone want to do in their head right before they do it. Li-Wei, Qi-Wei, Orlick, and Zitzelsberger conducted a study in 1992 ” to assess the effects of mental imagery on children’s’ accuracy and technical quality of their forehand shots in ping pong. The results indicated that children who used mental imagery experienced significantly greater improvement in the accuracy and technical quality of their shots” (Patrick, 8). Using imagery in ping pong the children improved immensely when practicing their forehand shot. Just like this soccer players use imagery to practice certain skills they want to get better at by imaging how to do it in their head before doing it. People who want to learn skills and positioning should watch professionals players use them in games. This will help one learn these skills faster because they now have an image in their head on how to do that. Another mental skill all soccer players use is goal setting which involves using goals to influence an individual’s behavior to work towards some objective over a period of time. “Hall, Weinberg, & Jackson (1987) reported that subjects who identified specific goals performed a greater number of contractions on a hand dynamometer endurance task than a "do your best" group” (Patrick, 12). Goal setting is a very important mental skill for soccer players to have. Without goal setting players won’t be able to focus on a single objective and push themselves to do that objective in a certain time period. Soccer players set goals to master shooting, passing, positioning, running, and ball control in a short amount of time. Using these mental skills while practicing will help one improve to become a better soccer player in a shorter period of

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