Imagery Use During Rehabilitation From Injury: A Case Study of an Elite Athlete

The present study explored the perceived affect of personal and Situational variables, perception of pain, and imagery ability on the function and outcome of an Olympic athlete's use or imagery. To gain an in-depth understanding of these factors, semi-structured interviews were conducted across three phases of injury rehabilitation, and return to competition. The athlete also completed the Athletic Injury Imagery Questionnaire-2 (Sordoni, Hall, & Forwell, 2002), the Vividness of Movement Imagery Questionnaire-2 (Roberts, Callow, Mark-land, Hardy, & Bringer, 2008), and the Visual Analog Scale for pain (Huskisson, 1974). Findings highlight the perceived affects of personal and situational variables and imagery ability on the athlete's responses to injury and function of imagery use. Further, this usage was perceived by the athlete to affect outcome depending on the phase of rehabilitation. Interestingly, perception of pain was not considered by the athlete to influence imagery use, this might have been due to the low pain rating reported.