The Impact of an External Compared to an Internal Focus of Attention on Simple and Complex Motor Skills Acquisition in Novice Female Volleyball Players.

OBJECTIVES

This study aimed to investigate the effects of external (EXT) versus internal (INT) focus of attention on acquiring and transferring simple and complex motor skills in novice female volleyball players.

METHODS

Fifty-seven participants were assigned to one of the three groups: The external focus (EXT), the internal focus (INT), and the control group (CON). Over a 6-week intervention, participants practiced a simple skill (volleyball passing) and a complex skill (overhead tennis serve). Pre-tests, post-tests, and transfer tests (conducted two weeks later) assessed movement form and accuracy.

RESULTS

The results showed a statistically significant interaction among focus methods, skill complexity, and testing periods for movement form and performance outcome. The EXT group showed higher movement form and performance outcome improvements during the simple skill (passing) compared to the INT and CON groups. For the complex skill (serving), the EXT group outperformed the INT and CON groups regarding movement outcome; however, no differences in movement form were observed between the EXT and INT groups. Post hoc Tukey tests indicated that the EXT group scored higher than the INT and CON groups in the post-test and transfer test for the simple skill, with movement form improving from 1.68 ± 0.48 to 2.32 ± 0.58. In the complex skill, the EXT group's movement outcome improved from 11.32 ± 6.83 to 44.47 ± 16.57.

CONCLUSIONS

External focus significantly enhances movement form and outcome in simple tasks and performance outcomes in more complex skills among novice athletes.