Examination of the effects of 10-week imagery and concentration training on visual focus control in dart throwing

The main purpose of the present study was to examine the effects of 10-week imagery and concentration training on visual focus control in dart throwing. The study group consisted of 23 male athletes attending Ege University in İzmir with an age average of 23.3±2.7 years and minimum training age of 4 years. The participants were sorted based on their pre-study dart competition scores and distributed into research groups (control, n = 8; imagery, n = 8; concentration n = 7) homogenously according to their sort order. Afterwards imagery and concentration groups undertook 10-week of internal imagery training and concentration training (using yantra), respectively. Visual focus, performance and eye fixation were examined by ASL mobile eye-tracker, while state anxiety level was determined with STAI questionnaire. Results of the study showed that there was no statistically significant within-subject and between subject difference in visual focus, eye fixation, and state anxiety levels (p> 0.05). It was identified that no statistically significant effect on dart performance variable both in control and imagery group (p > 0.05), while 10-week practice had positive effect in concentration group (p = 0.004). Moreover, there was a statistically significant positive relationship between post-test eye fixation and post-test visual focus score in imagery group (r = 0.73; p = 0.024), and statistically significant negative relationship was found between percentage change in visual focus score and percentage change in performance in the concentration group (r = −0.82; p = 0.024). It can be said that while imagery training had positive effect on visual focus, concentration training with yantra statistically improved dart throwing performance, and wide range of looking provide better performance on dart throwing instead of focusing on one point on dart board (bulls eye).