The Effect of Mental and Physical Practice on the Acquisition and Retention of a New Skill

Background: The purpose of this research was to survey the effect of mental practice on the Acquisition and Retention of a New Skill. Materials and Methods: The subjects were 240 students of Technical and Vocational University of Mashhad from which 64 of them were selected. These subjects were taking thegeneral course of physical education in the second semester of 2011. They were divided into four groups: 1) control 2) Physical practice 3) Mental practice 4) Mental – physical practice. After being taught the skill of performing the test (Side Volley shooting in football), theywere evaluated in different times Anova, post hoc (LSD) test and repeated measure test were also carried to get the inferential statistics. Results: The results of ANOVAs showed a significant effect in all groups in both spent times (F (3, 63) = 3/835, p = 0/014) and gained scores (F (3, 63) = 3/298, p = 0/026). LSDpost hoc test showed during acquisition phase that MP group had a significant difference only with PP group (only in spent times) (p <0/05). M-PP group had a significant differences with CON group (only in spent times) and with MP group (both spent times and gained score) (p <0/05). Conclusion: Based on the results of this research, physical practice, mental practice and mental – physical practice have affected the acquisition and retention of skill stages. In addition, mental practice in the retention of the skill stage is affected more than physical practice. So, mental practice is a way for reaching a high performance

Keywords:

mental practice , acquisition phase , retention phase , Side Volley shooting in football