Combining Effect of Observational Practice, Mental Imagery and Physical Practice on learning a Soccer Dribbling Task in Amateur Boys

This study aimed to investigate the facilitative effect of observational practice combined with mental imagery on learning of soccer dribbling. 140 young boys with the average age of 14,52 (±2,96) and mental imagery score of 48,69 (±5,1), who were unfamiliar with the research task, voluntarily participated in this study. The participants were assigned to homogenous groups according to their pre-tests results as follow: 1- physical practice; 2- observational practice; 3-mental imagery practice; 4-physical-observational practice; 5-physical-mental imagery practice; 6- observational-mental imagery practice and 7- physical-observational-mental imagery practice. Then the participants completed three sessions including ninety trials. At the end of the final training session, an immediate retention test was conducted that followed by a delayed retention test after 48 hours. The results of One-Way ANOVA test indicated that in both immediate and delayed retention tests, the physical-observational-mental imagery group and the physical group had a better performance compared with other groups (p<.05). Furthermore, the combined physical-mental imagery group obtained higher scores in soccer dribbling task in comparison with the combined physical-observational group. The findings support the beneficial effects of cognitive interventions as well as physical practice.