Free throw performance in non-expert basketball players: The effect of dynamic motor imagery combined with action observation

We investigated the effect of dynamic motor imagery (dMI) combined with physical practice on free throw performances of advanced basketball players in two conditions: With and without a video of a model. They performed a pre-test, participated in 5-weeks of intervention sessions, and performed a post-test. During pre-test and post-test, they performed 10-free throws followed by the "Evan Fournier test": Maximum number of sequences of two consecutive free throws and round trips to the midfield and shot zone in 45-seconds. During intervention sessions, they were assigned to Control, Imagery or Model + imagery groups and performed five blocks of two free throws. Before each block, they watched a video and performed countdown or dMI. The results revealed that the Imagery and Model + imagery groups had higher free throw performances in the post-test than in the pre-test. At the post-test, the Model + Imagery group made more consecutive shots in the onfield-test Evan Fournier than the two other groups.