The Effects of Imagery Interventions on Track Start Performance in 14–16-Year-Old Swimmers: A Pilot Study

This study aimed to determine the effects of a four-week imagery intervention on track start performance and imagery levels in swimmers. A total of 20 licensed athletes, consisting of 10 girls (mean age 15.6 ± 0.7 years) and 10 boys’ swimmers (mean age 15.8 ± 0.5 years), who train for 120 minutes per day, five days per week, voluntarily participated in the research. Prior to the imagery intervention, the athletes' track start performances were recorded as a pre-test using a GoPro Hero5 camera (GoPro, Inc., San Mateo, CA). The athletes’ imagery levels were measured with the Sport Imagery Questionnaire for Children (SIQ-C) developed by Hall et al. (2009) and adapted to Turkish by Kafkas (2011). Subsequently, athletes were guided through 15-minute imagery sessions, focusing on both internal and external perspectives, with the support of expert trainers before their daily training sessions for four weeks. In these sessions, video footage of freestyle world record holder Caeleb Dressel’s track starts was utilised as an imagery tool. Based on these examples, the athletes were instructed to perform internal and external imagery exercises. Following the intervention, the pre-test protocol was repeated as a post-test. The data were analyzed using a paired-sample t-test and independent sample t-test in SPSS 26. The results revealed a statistically significant improvement in the distance measurements of the athletes' track start performances and imagery levels.