Augmenting Physical Skills Practice With Psychological Skills Training For Performance Enhancement In Sports Among International School Students, Lagos

ABSTRACT

The study examined the effect of augmenting physical skills practice (PSP) with psychological skills training (PST) for performance enhancement in sports among International School Students, Lagos. Forty (40) participants consisting of early adolescent boys and girls were randomly selected from a population of three hundred and fifty (350) students and were randomly put into two groups – one experimental and one control group. The Johnson and Leillich Basketball test in Mathews (1978) was adapted for the study. A pilot study was carried out with twenty (20) participants in two groups, one experimental and one control before the main study and this was used to validate the research instrument through the assistance of two supervisors in 2007/2008 session. The research design used for the study was the pretest, post test control group experimental design. The participants in the experimental group (EG) were trained in physical skills practice (PSP) of basketball shooting methods augmented with psychological skills training (PST) constructs of mental imagery and mental practice while those in the control group (CG) were trained in physical skills practice (PSP) of basketball shooting skill methods alone. The participants were trained and tested in different basketball shooting skill methods – set shot (SS), jump shot (JS), overhead shot (OS) and lay up shot (LU). For the training, two standard basketball courts, twenty standard basketballs, score sheets, a stop watch and two research assistants trained by the researcher assisted. During the tests (pretests and post tests), ten (10) standard basketballs and score sheets were used for each test. Two research assistants trained by the researcher assisted the researcher to collect data for analysis. The data generated from the study were analysed using the descriptive statistical tools of measures of central tendency – the mean and measure of dispersion – standard deviation. The t-test inferential statistics were used to find out if there were significant differences between the pre-tests and post tests of the performances of the participants in the same group and also if there were significant differences in the experimental and control group at the post tests.