Mental Training: A Study Concerning the Effects of Mental Training on NCAA Division III Swimmers at Goucher College

Author/Creator

Author/Creator ORCID

Date

2014-12

Department

Program

Masters of Education

Citation of Original Publication

Rights

Collection may be protected under Title 17 of the U.S. Copyright Law. To obtain information or permission to publish or reproduce, please contact the Goucher Special Collections & Archives at 410-337-6347 or email archives@goucher.edu.

Abstract

This purpose of this research was to determine the effectiveness of mental training on 9 Division II swimmers ages 19-22. A one group pretest-post test design was used and found that racing time was not improved by mental training. A self-evaluation questionnaire that measured positive or negative mental states did reveal that positive item responses were correlated modestly with swimming performance and did increase after mental training. A swimmer’s feeling of security and confidence become stronger following mental training. There was a similar pattern of relationships among negative item responses on the questionnaire indicating that swimmers’ performance became less tied to their negative feelings after they received mental training.