PHYSIOLOGICAL AREA   

Medicina dello Sport 2017 December;70(4):419-29

DOI: 10.23736/S0025-7826.16.02951-3

Copyright © 2016 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English, Italian

The interaction of external/internal and relevant/irrelevant attentional focus on skilled performance: the mediation role of visual information

Esmaeel SAEMI ¹ ✉, Behrouz ABDOLI ¹, Alireza FARSI ¹, Mohammad A. SANJARI ²

¹ Department of Sport Sciences, Shahid Beheshti University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran; ² Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

BACKGROUND: The present study examined the interaction of external-internal and relevant-irrelevant attentional focus on accuracy of basketball free throws. The potential mediating role of visual information in skilled basketball throwers was also examined.
METHODS: Eleven male skilled players (mean age 21.45±2.50 years) were recruited. The participants were counter-balanced and performed 80 trials in four attentional strategies of external-relevant, external-irrelevant, internal-relevant, and internal-irrelevant (20 trials per condition). In each attentional condition, half of the trials were performed using visual information and in the other half of the trials visual information was removed.
RESULTS: The results of the factorial repeated measure ANOVA fund an internal-external main effect, a relevant-irrelevant main effect, a main effect of vision, and an interaction of internal-external with relevant-irrelevant.
CONCLUSIONS: Overall, the results suggested that the external relevant attentional strategies can lead to improved free throw skills regardless of the presence or absence visual information.

KEY WORDS: External relevant attentional strategies - Visual information - Basketball free throw