Evaluating Functional Imagery Training and Internal Visual Imagery on Tennis Serve Performance

Imagery is widely used in sport, but its effectiveness depends on how it is structured and the range of senses engaged. This study compared Functional Imagery Training - a multisensory, motivational intervention - with single-sense internal visual imagery and a control condition without imagery training. Thirty-eight competitive tennis players completed imagery ability and preference assessments before engaging in a 6-week intervention. Serve accuracy was measured pre- and post intervention using a target-based scoring task. Both imagery conditions led to performance improvements, with Functional Imagery Training producing significantly greater gains. The control group showed no significant change. Imagery ability and preferred use did not predict outcomes, and participants whose training matched their reported preference did not perform better than those mismatched. These findings support the use of multisensory and motivationally grounded approaches such as Functional Imagery Training, suggesting that the structure and emotional relevance of imagery may be more critical for performance than preference or ability.