Enhancing competitive performance of ice hockey goaltenders using centering and self-talk

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of two mental skills on ice hockey goaltender performance. The mental skills utilized were relaxation, in the form of centering, and self-talk. The participants were five male junior A hockey goaltenders from the Winnipeg area. A single-subject mu...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Rogerson, Lisa J.
Language:en_US
Published: 2007
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1993/1481
Description
Summary:The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of two mental skills on ice hockey goaltender performance. The mental skills utilized were relaxation, in the form of centering, and self-talk. The participants were five male junior A hockey goaltenders from the Winnipeg area. A single-subject multiple baseline across individuals design was employed to evaluate the use of the mental skills. The results demonstrated that the mental training skills were effective in improving the save percentage of the goaltenders receiving the intervention. The social validation results were favorable indicating that the participants enjoyed using the mental skills and were satisfied with the results obtained from using them. Furthermore, the coaches were very satisfied with the results and felt that the skills were an important ingredient for improving performance.