The effect of a motor imagery performance intervention among Cape Town Netball Federation female netball players in the Western Cape, South Africa.

Abstract

Netball places high demands on spatial awareness, rapid decision-making and controlled movement, yet mental skills training remains inconsistently applied in the South African netball context. Although motor imagery has been shown to support skill execution and recovery under controlled conditions, comparatively little research has examined whether a structured, sports-specific motor imagery programme can improve the underlying imagery abilities of netball players, and no such intervention has been evaluated among club-level players in the Western Cape. This gap limits the ability of coaches and sport scientists to apply imagery in a systematic way. This study aimed to investigate and compare the effects of a sport-specific motor imagery intervention on internal visual imagery, external visual imagery and kinaesthetic imagery among female netball players affiliated to the Cape Town Netball Federation (CTNF) in the Western Cape, South Africa.