THE EFFECTS OF ATTENTIONAL FOCUS ON THE PERFORMANCE OF VOLLEYBALL JUMP SERVE IN ELITE PLAYERS

Ehsan Rahimi Alishah, Osman Ates, Malek Ahmadi

Abstract


Evidence of the last few years demonstrated that the far external focus of attention would lead to better motor performance (e.g., Mc Nevin., et al, 2003; MacKay and Wulf, 2012). According to the Frequency of Movement Adjustment analysis evidence of “Constrained Action Hypothesis”, the aim of this study was to examine the effects of different attentional focuses on the performance of a manipulative-complex motor skill in highly skillful athletes. 12 professional volleyball players completed a 4 blocks of 8 trail (4 trail for accuracy, 4 trail for effectiveness) of jump serve in four experimental conditions (Non-Instruction, Internal focuses on hand movement, Near external focuses on ball, and Far external focuses on target zone or player). The data of accuracy, effectiveness, and self-perception of the performance was acquired by pointed target areas, analyzing volleyball serve effectiveness method, and self-rated manipulative check, respectively. Results of ANOVA with repeated measures showed that accuracy scores, effectiveness, and self-perceived performance of volleyball jump serve in far external condition was better than near external and internal conditions. In addition, the significant differences between non-instructional and far external conditions were observed only in self-perceived performance. In general, these results confirmed recent findings regarding the detrimental effects of internal focus of attention and the facilitative effects of external focus of attention, especially far external on skilled performance. 

 

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Keywords


focus of attention, distance of attentional focus, elite player, volleyball jump serve

References


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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.46827/ejpe.v0i0.1222

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