Effectiveness of Guided Mental Imagery Training in the improvement of Reaction Time and Reduction of Competitive State Anxiety in Karate Athletes

Background: pre-match anxiety and its effect on the psychological states and motor skills of athletes is one of the heated topics raised in sports psychology. it is recognized as a major factor affecting athletes' performance, especially at championship levels.objectives: the study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of guided mental imagery training in the improvement of reaction time and reduction of competitive state anxiety in karate athletes.materials and methods: this quasi-experimental study was of pretest-posttest control group design. the statistical population of the study consisted of all karate athletes in tehran in 2019. the participants were selected via the convenient sampling method and assigned to the guided mental imagery group (n=15) and control group (n=15) using a simple randomization method. in this study, data were obtained using the competitive state anxiety inventory (1990) and a reaction time meter. data were analyzed in spss software (version 22) using repeated measures of analysis of variance.results: based on the results, guided mental imagery training exerted positive effects on the improvement of reaction time (p<0.001) and reduction of competitive state anxiety (p<0.001) in karate athletes.conclusion: it can be concluded that guided mental imagery training effectively improves reaction time and reduces competitive state anxiety in karate athletes. this training can be used to resolve the psychological problems presented to karate athletes.