ABSTRACT
The 1980's witnessed almost linear growth in the use of sport psychology consultants by National Governing Bodies of sport in Great Britain (Terry & Harrold, 1990)(see Figure 1) while expansion in the United States appears to have followed a similar upward trend (Gould et al., 1991). The expanding literature on mental training has generally supported its use, although judgments about its efficacy have too often originated from the sport psychologists themselves without the benefit of empirical support, or have been based upon anecdotal evidence from athletes and coaches. It is apparent that conceptual models for the delivery and especially the evaluation of mental training programmes have received scant attention. Where objective evaluations of mental training have occurred, it has been shown that mental training can lower anxiety (Hellstadt,1987; Elko & Ostrow, 1991), enhance visual imagery ability (Rodgers, Hall & Buckolz, 1991), and improve performance (Li-Wei et al., 1992). An ongoing weekly programme of mental training for elite, junior tennis players (n=27) resident at the Rover LTA School, Bisham Abbey has been taught since 1987. The present purpose is to outline the structure of the programme and to evaluate its success.
