Effect Of Visual Mental Imagery Training On Vertical Jump Height And Lower Limb Explosive Power In Young Badminton Players: A Pre-Test–Post-Test Controlled Study

Abstract

Background: Mental imagery — the cognitive rehearsal of a motor skill in the absence of overt physical
movement — is a widely used performance-enhancement strategy in applied sport psychology, but its effect
on explosive lower limb power in racquet-sport athletes remains under-investigated.
Objective: To evaluate the effect of adding visual mental imagery training to a standard sport-specific
exercise regimen on vertical jump height (VJH) and lower limb explosive power in young badminton players.
Methods: In this pre-test–post-test-controlled study, 30 badminton players (12–21 years) from a private
sports academy in Jaipur, India, were assigned by convenience sampling to an experimental group (Group
A, n = 15) or a control group (Group B, n = 15). Over 21 days, Group A received visuo-motor behavioral
mental imagery training — two 7-minute video-based sessions per day depicting the smash stroke and
vertical jump, viewed with headphones in an isolated setting — in addition to their regular sport-specific
exercise regimen; Group B received the exercise regimen alone. VJH was measured using a standardized
vertical jump test, and lower limb explosive power was derived from jump height and body mass using a
validated peak-power equation. Within-group changes were analyzed with paired t-tests and between-
group differences with independent-samples t-tests (α = .05).
Results: Both groups showed statistically significant pre- to post-intervention improvements in VJH and
lower limb power (p < .001). At baseline, the groups did not differ significantly on any outcome. At post-
intervention, between-group VJH did not differ significantly (44.13 ± 12.42 cm vs. 45.60 ± 11.59 cm, p =
.74), whereas lower limb power was significantly higher in Group B than in Group A (3709.71 ± 628.45 W
vs. 3191.44 ± 727.04 W, p = .046).
Conclusion: Both regular sport-specific training alone and training combined with visual mental imagery
produced significant within-group gains in vertical jump height and lower limb explosive power over 21
days. However, the addition of mental imagery did not confer an additional advantage over exercise alone;
contrary to the study hypothesis, the exercise-only group showed significantly greater post-intervention
lower limb power. These findings do not support mental imagery as an adjunct to short-term explosive-
power training in youth badminton players and warrant replication with larger samples and longer
intervention periods.