The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of attentional focus on football performance. 20 junior elite football players participated in a repeated measure experiment where the effects of external focus and internal focus (compared to a control condition with no instructions regarding attentional focus) in a football related performance was investigated. The participants got to do an obstacle course three times, one with no instructions regarding focus of attention, one with internal focus and one with external focus. Significant effect of focus was found in two out of three dependent variables, passing points and cone touches, but no effect on time taken to finish the obstacle course. The participants got more points in passing and touched less cones in the obstacle course when having an external focus (with medium to strong effect sizes) compared to both internal focus and no instructions regarding focus. There were no differences in performance between internal focus and no instructions. The result in this study indicates that having external focus could enhance performance for junior elite football players, even though more research is needed on the subject for senior football players.

Background: Evidence indicates that an external focus (EF) of attention on the intended effect of one’s movement results in better motor performance and motor control than an internal focus (IF) on one’s own body. Despite this, an IF is predominantly encouraged through instructions and feedback provided by clinicians during sports and rehabilitation from injuries such as anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury. Aim: The aim of this pilot study was to investigate the influence of EF and IF on motor control and performance on a bilateral leg extension and flexion task. The secondary aim was to investigate potential differences in the outcomes between a control group and a group with ACL reconstruction (ACLR). Method: Fourteen controls and four individuals with ACLR performed a bilateral leg extension and flexion task with instructions that encouraged either an IF, EF or neutral focus (NF) of attention. The instructions encouraged participants to either keep the individual tubes located on the footplates under the soles of the feet (EF) or the feet themselves (IF) level with each other. A three-dimensional motion capture system was used to record kinematics. Motor control was assessed based on the movement smoothness according to the knee angular velocity profile and performance was assessed based on the absolute mean deviation of the tubes/footplates from parallel. Results: For the control group, IF instructions resulted in significantly better motor control than EF instructions for left knee movement smoothness (p=0.02) and NF instructions resulted in significantly better motor control than EF on a majority of dependent variables. Conclusion: For our task, EF instructions did not result in better outcomes compared to IF instructions which might be explained because the task was proprioceptive demanding with less involvement of the vision. The reason for better motor control with NF instructions compared to EF instructions might be because of differences in angular velocity and instructions between conditions.

Os objetivos da dissertação foram investigar (a) os efeitos dos focos interno e externo de atenção na aprendizagem de habilidades motoras em função da automatização (experimento 1) e (b) se os efeitos do foco externo de atenção seriam dependentes daqueles do foco interno anteriores na instrução (experimento 2) e na aquisição (experimento 3). Nos três experimentos a tarefa foi a tacada putter do golfe e os participantes foram adultos jovens de ambos os sexos. A quantidade de tentativas na fase de aquisição também foi igual para os experimentos (100 tentativas). O experimento 1 envolveu dois grupos (foco interno e foco externo), sendo que metade de cada um, ao final da fase de aquisição e no teste de retenção foi testada com uma tarefa distratora. Os resultados mostraram que nenhum grupo alcançou a automatização e, por conseguinte, não aprenderam. O experimento 2 envolveu 4 grupos, sendo dois de foco interno e dois de foco externo na fase de aquisição. A diferença entre os grupos de igual foco esteve na instrução prévia, ou seja, um grupo de cada foco recebeu foco interno durante a instrução. Um outro aspecto do delineamento de experimento foi a utilização de testes de transferência e retenção. Os resultados mostraram aprendizagem apenas para o grupo de foco interno na instrução e foco externo na fase de aquisição. No experimento 3, ao invés de o foco interno ser dado na instrução para um grupo de foco interno e outro de foco externo, ele ocorreu na fase de aquisição. Verificou-se que somente o grupo com foco interno anteriormente ao foco externo na aquisição demonstrou aprendizagem / The objectives of the dissertation were to investigate (a) the effects of internal and external foci of attention in learning motor skills due to automatisation (experiment 1) and (b) if the effects of external focus of attention would be dependent on those of previous internal focus instruction (experiment 2) and on acquisition (experiment 3). In the three experiments the task was the golf putter shot and the participants were young adults of both sexes. The number of attempts in the acquisition phase was also the same for the experiments (100 trials). The first experiment involved two groups (internal focus and external focus), and half of each, at the final phase of the acquisition and retention test was tested with a distracter task. The results showed that no group has achieved automaticity and therefore, they havent learned. The second experiment involved four groups, two of internal focus and two of external focus in the acquisition phase. The difference between the groups of equal focus was on previous instruction, i.e. one group of each focus received internal focus during previous instruction. Another aspect of the design of this experiment was the use of retention and transfer tests. The results showed learning only for the group with internal focus on instruction and external focus on the acquisition phase. In experiment 3, instead of the internal focus instruction being given to an internal and to an external focus group, it occurred in the acquisition phase. It was found that only the group with internal focus previous to the external focus in acquisition demonstrated learning

Os objetivos da dissertação foram investigar (a) os efeitos dos focos interno e externo de atenção na aprendizagem de habilidades motoras em função da automatização (experimento 1) e (b) se os efeitos do foco externo de atenção seriam dependentes daqueles do foco interno anteriores na instrução (experimento 2) e na aquisição (experimento 3). Nos três experimentos a tarefa foi a tacada putter do golfe e os participantes foram adultos jovens de ambos os sexos. A quantidade de tentativas na fase de aquisição também foi igual para os experimentos (100 tentativas). O experimento 1 envolveu dois grupos (foco interno e foco externo), sendo que metade de cada um, ao final da fase de aquisição e no teste de retenção foi testada com uma tarefa distratora. Os resultados mostraram que nenhum grupo alcançou a automatização e, por conseguinte, não aprenderam. O experimento 2 envolveu 4 grupos, sendo dois de foco interno e dois de foco externo na fase de aquisição. A diferença entre os grupos de igual foco esteve na instrução prévia, ou seja, um grupo de cada foco recebeu foco interno durante a instrução. Um outro aspecto do delineamento de experimento foi a utilização de testes de transferência e retenção. Os resultados mostraram aprendizagem apenas para o grupo de foco interno na instrução e foco externo na fase de aquisição. No experimento 3, ao invés de o foco interno ser dado na instrução para um grupo de foco interno e outro de foco externo, ele ocorreu na fase de aquisição. Verificou-se que somente o grupo com foco interno anteriormente ao foco externo na aquisição demonstrou aprendizagem / The objectives of the dissertation were to investigate (a) the effects of internal and external foci of attention in learning motor skills due to automatisation (experiment 1) and (b) if the effects of external focus of attention would be dependent on those of previous internal focus instruction (experiment 2) and on acquisition (experiment 3). In the three experiments the task was the golf putter shot and the participants were young adults of both sexes. The number of attempts in the acquisition phase was also the same for the experiments (100 trials). The first experiment involved two groups (internal focus and external focus), and half of each, at the final phase of the acquisition and retention test was tested with a distracter task. The results showed that no group has achieved automaticity and therefore, they havent learned. The second experiment involved four groups, two of internal focus and two of external focus in the acquisition phase. The difference between the groups of equal focus was on previous instruction, i.e. one group of each focus received internal focus during previous instruction. Another aspect of the design of this experiment was the use of retention and transfer tests. The results showed learning only for the group with internal focus on instruction and external focus on the acquisition phase. In experiment 3, instead of the internal focus instruction being given to an internal and to an external focus group, it occurred in the acquisition phase. It was found that only the group with internal focus previous to the external focus in acquisition demonstrated learning

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of internal and external focus feedback and their preference on skill learning at age of 12-13 years. Internal focus feedback related with body movements, whereas external focus feedbacks related with movement effects. As a task &ldquo / tennis&rdquo / service in volleyball was used for both acquisition and retention measurements. The subjects (N=78) were randomly assigned to three groups which were internal focus feedback group (IFF), external focus feedback group (EFF) and preference groups (PF). To promote learning three practice days and to assess learning one retention day was applied. Also, during these days, both technique of the skill and targeting was tried to measure. In technique measure the IFF group performed better than EFF group in acquisition and retention phases. PF group had similar scores with IFF group in acquisition phase whereas it did not show better performance than IFF group in retention phase. PF group performed better than EFF group in both phases. In product measure, significant differences between attentional focus feedback groups in acquisition and retention phases. This study indicated that for young children with limited amount of knowledge about a skill internal focus feedback is more appropriate compared to external focus feedback in terms of retention. Being able to choose among internal and external focus of attention also seems to make a difference in retention performance of novice children indicating that active participation on the learning variables is an important concept.

Bakgrund: Uppmärksamhetsfokus på omgivningen/externt fokus har återkommande visat förbättra motorisk färdighet, inlärning och prestation under flertalet olika motoriska uppgifter i jämförelse med fokus på egna kroppen/internt fokus. Instruktioner som uppmuntrar till internt fokus är mer förekommande vid rehabiliteringen av skador som ruptur av främre korsbandet, däremot har externt fokus visats påverka kinematiska variabler som kan minska risken för återskada. Uppmärksamhetsfokus inverkan på kinematiken under knäböj på vippbräda har dock inte studerats tidigare. Syfte: Syftet var att undersöka om instruktioner som uppmuntrar olika uppmärksamhetsfokus har en inverkan på uförande mätt som rörelseflyt, knästabilitet och balans under ett knäböj på vippbräda samt om det fanns skillnader i utförande mellan personer utan knäskada och personer med främre korsbandsrekonstruktion (ACLr). Metod: Sexton deltagare (11 icke-skadade, 5 ACLr) genomförde sex knäböj på en vippbräda under tre omgångar med instruktioner som uppmuntrade till antingen inget särskilt fokus (neutralt), externt fokus (på vippbrädan) eller internt fokus (på fötterna). Alla knäböj registrerades med ett tredimensionellt kamerasystem. Neutralt fokus utfördes först följt av externt eller internt fokus i randomiserad ordning. Utfallsvariabeln rörelseflyt mättes som avvikelser i knäböjets hastighetskurva, knästabilitet som adduktion/abduktion av underbenet och balans som brädans avvikande lutning i horisontalplan. Resultat: Internt fokus ledde till signifikant mindre knäadduktion (gruppmedian skillnad 1.9°) under flexionsfasen när man slog ihop alla 16 deltagare jämfört med neutralt fokus. Inga andra signifikanta resultat noterades mellan uppmärksamhetsfokus eller mellan grupperna utifrån utfallsvariablerna.   Slutsats: Uppmärksamhetsfokus hade ingen konsekvent inverkan på rörelseflyt, balans och knästabilitet bland våra deltagare. Fler studier med högre deltagarantal vid liknande komplexa uppgifter behövs.

Introduktion: Externt fokus har visats vara fördelaktigt jämfört med internt fokus för en rad olika motoriska uppgifter. Dessutom menar vissa studier att det kan ha en betydande roll för rehabilitering, från till exempel en främre korsbandsskada. Det är dock oklart om uppmärksamhetsfokus påverkar utförandet av knäböj på en balansplatta, en övning som ibland används vid träning och rehabilitering. Syfte: Det primära syftet med följande studie är att undersöka om uppmärksamhetsfokus har en påverkan på rörelsekontroll vid knäböj utförd på en balansplatta. Det sekundära syftet är att jämföra en kontrollgrupp med en grupp individer som haft en främre korsbandsskada. Metod: Femton kvinnor mellan 19 och 24 år deltog, varav tio friska samt fem med främre korsbandsskada. Deltagarnas aktivitetsnivå var minst fyra på Tegners aktivitetsskala. De uppfyllde även FYSS rekommendationer om fysisk aktivitet. De genomförde totalt 18 stycken knäböj på en balansplatta med neutralt, externt och internt fokus. Ett tredimensionellt kamerasystem fångade kinematiken. Variablerna som analyserades var maximal/ minimal flexion/extension, knäadduktion/ abduktion, smidighet i rörelsen, flexions-/extensionstiden, plattans rörelse samt absoluta vinkel. Resultat: Kontrollgruppens signifikanta skillnader gällde knäts rörelsekontroll samt balansplattans rörelse. I den sammanslagna gruppen framkom signifikanta skillnader i utförandet av knäböjen gällande maximala och minimala vinklar. Mellan kontrollgruppen och korsbandsgruppen skiljde endast plattans rörelse under externt fokus. Neutralt fokus verkar i övrigt ha en positiv inverkan på rörelsekontroll vid knäböj på en balansplatta. Slutsats: Uppmärksamhetsfokus har en påverkan på utförandet av knäböj på en balansplatta. Fokusinriktade instruktioner bör därför anpassas utifrån uppgift och individ. / <p>Uppsatsen är skriven inom projektet "Korsbandsskada i knät - orsak, behandling och hur det går senare i livet" vid Institutionen för samhällsmedicin och rehabilitering, avdelningen för fysioterapi.</p>