14722 ISSN 2286-4822 www.euacademic.org EUROPEAN ACADEMIC RESEARCH Vol. II, Issue 11/ February 2015 Impact Factor: 3.1 (UIF) DRJI Value: 5.9 (B+) The Performance Function of Imagery on Rowing Athletes VINCENT PARNABAS Sport Science and Recreation Faculty University of MARA Technology (UiTM) Shah Alam, Malaysia JULINAMARY PARNABAS Institut Pendidikan Guru Kampus Darulaman, Jitra Kedah, Malaysia ANTOINETTE MARY PARNABAS Medical Unit, Hospital Taiping Taiping, Perak, Malaysia Abstract Imagery has been defined as “using all the senses to re-create or create an experience in the mind”. Imagery has both a cognitive and motivational function. The cognitive function of imagery is the use of mental imagery to experience specific sports skills and to plan strategies in advance for competitions. The motivational function of imagery is the use of imagery to experience goal attainment, effective coping and arousal management requirements. The mental practice literature provides evidence that imagery is an effective cognitive process for enhancing learning and performance of motor skills. The main aim of this study was to correlate the usage of imagery and sports performance among Rowing Athletes. Data was collected from 77 Rowing athletes during a match among universities, using Imagery and Sports Performance questionnaire. One way ANOVA showed significant differences on the level of Imagery Usage among categories of Rowing athletes, F (3, 77) = 18.781, p<.01. Pearson correlation was used to determine the relationship between imagery and sports performance. The results indicated a positive correlation between internal imagery and sports performance, (r = 0.73; p<0.01), and external imagery and sports performance, (r = 0.78; p<0.01). Sports psychologists, sports counselors and coaches should use the present findings to recommend imagery to enhance athletes’ performance. Key Word: Imagery, Internal, external, sport performance Background of the Study Imagery has been defined as “using all the senses to re-create or create an experience in the mind” (Cox, 2011). In other words, mental imagery is recalling a memory that stored in the brain into meaningful images. It