Abstract
Despite appeals by researchers, few studies have examined the effects of cognitive general (CG) imagery on athletic performance (Martin et al., 1999). The only two controlled studies conducted to date have yielded mixed results regarding the ability of CG imagery to improve performance (Guillot et al., 2009; Munroe-Chandler et al., 2005). The objective of the present study was to develop a strategy evaluation for use in future CG imagery interventions with varsity curlers. In the present study, 106 club and competitive curlers (Mage= 37.51, SD = 13.38) with an average of 21.46 years of experience (SD = 10.83) were recruited to evaluate a variety of curling scenarios to determine the most correct shot to call in each situation. Only curlers who had experience playing skip or vice were used in the analysis. Percentage of agreement was used to determine the inter-rater agreement for each of the 75 curling scenarios (Goodwin, 2001). For each scenario, a value of .70 or greater was used to determine whether acceptable inter-rater agreement was obtained for a single shot option (Baumgartner, 2006). Visual inspection of the shot option that was chosen most often determined that only 21 out of the 75 scenarios revealed an inter-rater percentage of agreement that was .70 or greater. Findings from this study will be used to validate these curling scenarios as a measure of curling strategy performance. These scenarios can then be used in future CG imagery interventions with curlers.Acknowledgments: Research support provided by the Ontario Graduate Scholarship Program.