Document Type : Research Paper
Authors
1 Ph.D. Student of Motor Learning, Kharazmi University
2 Assistant Professor of Motor Control, University of Shiraz
Abstract
Focus of attention instructions and verbal feedbacks that coaches provide to athletes during practice, and how these instructions and feedbacks affect athletes’ focus of attention during competition has rarely been investigated. The aim of this study was to investigate the abovementioned issue in the combat sport of judo using adolescents who were invited to national judo team camp. Twenty-five adolescents participated in this study. Participants were asked to complete a questionnaire about their coaches’ attentional instructions and verbal feedback during practice, and the judo players reported their focus of attention during competition. The questionnaire was adopted from the previous studies, and included multi-choice and open-ended questions. The majority of participants reported that during practice, their coaches provided equal internal and external focus of attention instructions, and equal knowledge of performance (KP) and knowledge of results (KR) feedback. Further, our results indicated that during most phases of competition the most prevalent theme that participants focused on was “winning and strategy.” However, in the execution phase of skill performance, the most prevalent theme was what was categorized as “clear mind” It seems that during the execution phase, adolescent national-level judo players do not adopt any focus or at least are unaware of their thoughts explicitly.
Keywords
Main Subjects
Wulf G. Attentional focus and motor learning: A review of 15 years. Int Rev Sport Exerc Psychol. 2013;6(1):77-104.
Wulf G. An external focus of attention is a conditio sine qua non for athletes: a response to Carson, Collins, and Toner (2015). J Sport Sci. 2016;34(13):1293-5.
Lohse KR, Sherwood DE, Healy AF. How changing the focus of attention affects performance, kinematics, and electromyography in dart throwing. Hum Movement Sci. 2010;29(4):542-55.
Raisbeck LD, Diekfuss JA. Verbal cues and attentional focus: A simulated target-shooting experiment. J Mot Learn Dev. 2017;5(1):148-59.
Kal E, Van der Kamp J, Houdijk H. External attentional focus enhances movement automatization: A comprehensive test of the constrained action hypothesis. Hum Movement Sci. 2013;32(4):527-39.
Wulf G, Su J. An external focus of attention enhances golf shot accuracy in beginners and experts. Res Q Exercise Sport. 2007;78(4):384-9.
Wulf G, McConnel N, Gärtner M, Schwarz A. Enhancing the learning of sport skills through external-focus feedback. J Mot Behav. 2002;34(2):171-82.
Prinz W. A common coding approach to perception and action. In: Neumann O, Prinz W. (Eds.). Relationships between perception and action. Berlin: Springer; 1990. p. 167-201.
10. Wulf G, McNevin N, Shea CH. The automaticity of complex motor skill learning as a function of attentional focus. Q J Exp Psychol, Section A. 2001;54(4):1143-54.
)