Author(s): REDLICHOVA, V., NOVOTNA, J., HARBICHOVA, I., KOMARC, M., Institution: CHARLES UNIVERSITY, FACULTY OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION AND SPORT , Country: CZECH REPUBLIC, Abstract-ID: 2618

Objectives: Mental imagery is a key psychological skill that supports performance and skill acquisition in sport. Previous research suggests that gender differences in imagery may be more related to vividness and controllability than to overall ability [1] and that age-related changes in young athletes may reflect development in how imagery is applied rather than the level of imagery ability itself [2]. Nevertheless, there is limited empirical evidence examining differences in imagery ability across gender, age and playing position in youth football. The present study aimed to examine these potential differences.
Methods: A total of 192 youth football players completed the recently validated Czech version of the Movement Imagery Questionnaire–Revised for Sport (MIQ-RS) [3], which assesses visual and kinaesthetic imagery ability. Descriptive statistics were calculated for all variables. MANOVA was conducted to examine differences in imagery ability according to playing position and gender. Follow-up univariate analyses were conducted for each imagery modality. Pearson correlation analyses were used to explore the relationship between imagery ability and age.
Results: MANOVA revealed no significant effect of playing position on imagery ability (Pillai’s trace = 0.032, F (6, 376) = 1.01, p = 0.419). Similarly, no significant multivariate effect of gender was found (Pillai's trace = 0.011, F (2, 173) = 0.99, p = 0.375). Age was not significantly associated with kinaesthetic (r = 0.078, p = 0.307) or visual (r = −0.047, p = 0.540) imagery. However, a strong positive correlation was observed between visual and kinaesthetic imagery (r = .640, p <.001).
Conclusions: Imagery ability in youth football players appears to be relatively consistent across gender, age and playing position. The strong association between visual and kinaesthetic imagery suggests a coherent imagery profile rather than position-specific patterns. These findings may have implications for the design of psychological skills training programmes in youth football.
This study was supported by GAUK no. 80424 and COOP at FTVS UK.
References: 1. Corrado et al., (2019), 2. McCarthy et al., (2010), 3. Gregg, Hall & Butler (2010)