Comparative Study of Effect of Mental Imagery and Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) on Basketball Shooting Skill and throwing Movement Pattern in Non-elite basketball players

Background & Objectives: Basketball shooting is the most important technical movement of this sport, and to win games, players must constantly improve their shooting performance. Achieving this goal, besides physical exercise, requires the use of complementary methods. Therefore, in this clinical trial study, we compare of the effect of mental imagery and the non-invasive tDCS technique on the shooting skill and ball throwing movement pattern in non-elite basketball players was done.Materials & Methods: ۳۶ non-elite basketball players (۱۸-۲۵) according to inclusion and exclusion criteria and results of MIQ-۳ questionnaire, were randomly divided into three groups with the same average age and gender: ۱) mental imagery; ۲) anodal tDCS over motor cortex area and ۳) control with routine exercise. The interventions were applied for six weeks, two sessions per week and each session lasted ۲۰ minutes. Participants' shooting skills were measured by modified AAHPERD basketball shooting test, before, after ۱۲ treatment sessions and one month after the last session, to check the durability of the effect. To determine the movement pattern of throwing the ball, an iPhone camera was used at a distance of ۱.۵ meters from the ground and at the height of the athletes' shoulders, and the athletes were filmed while performing the AAPHERD test. The resulting data were analyzed using the Coach's Eye app installed on an iPhone iOS Seven+.Findings: The findings of this research showed that there is no statistically significant difference among the three groups of control, mental imagery and tDCS. Bycalculating the effect size, it was demonstrated that the effect size of tDCS intervention on improving shooting skills is greater than the other two interventions. Also, in all three groups, a significant and permanent improvement in the subjects' movement pattern (shoulder angle) was observed, but no significant effect was observed on elbow and wrist angle .Conclusions: According to the findings of this research, routine sports exercises are as effective as mental imagery or the use of tDCS to improve the shooting skill and movement pattern of ball throwing by basketball athletes. In this way, during times of no training or for injured athletes who are unable to perform physical exercises for a while, performing mental imagery exercises or using tDCS can be useful to maintain the acquired skills and prevent the athletes from losing their performance.

کلیدواژه ها:

Basketball shooting skill ، ball throwing Movement pattern ، mental imagery ، tDCS