The Effect of External and Internal Focus of Attention on Shot Put Skill

The purpose of the present study was to study the effect of attentional focus instructions on motor skills that requiring near to maximum force production, such as shot put skill. In this experiment, twenty eight right- handed girl students with little shot put experience were selected voluntarily. They divided to two groups (internal and external focus) based on their shot put scores in pre- test (consists of 3 trial). They were asked to shot put using O׳brien technique. Experiment performed in three sessions and each session consists of three trials. Instructions referred specifically either to body movement (internal focus) or to shot (external focus). In this study, mixed ANOVA 2 (group) ´ 3 (session) with repeated measures on last factor is used for analyzing data. The results of this experiment showed that distance of shot put was greater in external focus group rather than internal focus group. Also interaction between attentional focus and practice session was significant (P< 0/001). In conclusion, external focus resulted in producing greater force relative to internal focus. These findings indicate that previously shown benefits of an external attentional focus generalize to motor skills requiring maximal force production.