The Effect of Motivational Highlight DVDs on State Self‐Confidence in Elite Female Hockey Players.

Abstract

Recent technological developments in applied sport psychology utilising video-taping and playback techniques to enhance athletic performance have become increasingly attractive to coaches, athletes, and sport psychologists (Ives et al., 2002: Journal of Applied S84 Abstracts Downloaded By: [Bournemouth University] At: 12:29 15 October 2009 Sport Psychology, 14, 237 – 245). This study aimed to examine the effectiveness of two types of highlight peak performance digital versatile discs (DVDs); peer-modelling and self-modelling, on state selfconfidence of elite female hockey players. It further addressed the issue of whether the experience of watching yourself versus observing peers differentially affects state self-confidence. The volunteer participants comprised 15 members of a female National League hockey squad located in the South of England (mean age 24.53, s¼4.94). DVDs incorporating highlight play were supplemented with inspirational music and viewed by the athletes at two stages in the competitive season (midseason and end of season). At both stages, the athletes were exposed to a peer modelling, selfmodelling, and control video during separate testing sessions. Athletes completed the State Sport- Confidence Inventory (Vealey, 1986: Journal of Sport Psychology, 8, 221 – 246) prior to and after viewing the highlight DVDs. The data were subjected to two 362 RM ANOVAs to determine if the self-modelling, peer-modelling, and control DVDs affected state self-confidence. An RM ANOVA was performed on data collected at the two stages of the competitive season. To determine the nature of change in state self-confidence in relation to type of DVD watched follow-up univariate ANOVAs were carried out on the dataset. Semi-structured interviews were also conducted to explore participants’ perceptions of how the intervention affected their cognition, affect, and behaviour. Interviews were transcribed ad verbatim and analysed using inductive content analysis. Findings support and further encourage the use of motivational highlight DVDs in sport. Both the self-modelling and peer-modelling DVDs had a significant (P50.01) effect on state self-confidence at both stages in the competitive season. No differences were found between the effects of the self-modelling and peer-modelling DVDs during the mid season testing phase. At the end of season testing phase, the self modelling DVD proved to be superior in enhancing state self-confidence. This finding was supported through the results of the qualitative analysis. The results of this study provide empirical support for the use of motivational highlight DVDs as a pre-performance strategy in athletic situations.