Development of Motor Coordination and Manual Response in Alpine Skiing Through Mental Training

The goal of this study was to see how mental training affected the increase in attention and motor response in certain athletes (skiers).The samples of subjects tested are aged 12±5 and 16±1. Athletes are components of ski groups within School sports clubs. Athletes from Gheorgheni and Baia-Sprie compete in the experimental group, while athletes from Toplita, Sibiu, Predeal, and Sinaia compete in the control group.We investigated the effect of mental training on the increase in focused attention and manual reaction in skiers in this study.Knocking the poles is known to be very significant in alpine skiing. The ACRM (focused attention with manual response) test, which is specialized to alpine skiing, gives information on the capacity to focus attention in activities with an imposed pace and dynamic field of observations. These tests were carried out after the experimental group had received mental training and the results were compared to those of the control group. The analysis was performed using SPSS 15.0. For the comparison of means between the groups of subjects, we applied ANOVA for the VP, EP and EX pretest measurements in order to assess whether the (control and experimental) groups are similar before the intervention. The intervention consists using mental imagery techniques to improve specific aspects of alpine skiing technique that rely on hand-eye synchronization. In addition, we calculated a t test for dependent samples, both pretest and posttest, for VP, EP, and EX to see if the intervention had any effect. Findings indicate a statistically different modification following the intervention, in the scores for VP, EP and EX: p=.000 < 0.05 and p=.001<0.05. Among the indicators recorded through this test, it is worth noting the following: VP – perception speed = number of omissions, EP – perception accuracy = number of errors, EX – focused attention = correct answers /150+ wrong answers. Conclusion: Based on the statistical significance of the results of the tests administered to the groups in our study, it can be concluded that mental training through mental imagery improved outcomes in focused attention and manual reaction in the experimental group. These findings determine, in their turn, increased athletic performance in the groups studied, as it is clear through an analysis of tournaments held in January 2015.