No abstract

IntroduçãoVários pesquisadores têm investigado o efeito do foco de atenção no desempenho e aprendizagem de habilidades motoras. Mais especificamente, tem-se comparado os efeitos do foco de atenção externo com aqueles do foco de atenção interno. O foco interno se refere aos movimentos do corpo e o externo, aos efeitos desse movimento sobre o ambiente (WULF, 1998). Estes estudos têm sido desenvolvidos com tarefas variadas como batida do golfe (BEILOCK, 2001; BEILOCK el al., 2002;PERKINS-CECCATO, 2003;BELL, 2009), Motriz, Rio Claro, v.18 n.3, p.449-455, jul./set. 2012 Artigo Original Verbal instruction: requesting an attentional focus does not ensure compliance and better performanceAbstract: The purposes of this study were to investigate a) the effect of redundant and non-redundant instruction on external focus of attention adoption, b) the effect of adopting an external focus of attention on performance in a front crawl swimming task, and c) the effect of redundancy in the wording of a verbal instruction on the above variables. 43 college students (m/f) aged 17 to 46 swam 25 m crawl at maximum speed, once under each of three conditions: without focus instruction (SF), following a focus instruction (CF) and a redundant focus instruction (CFR), in counterbalanced order. For focus adoption control, after completing the task participants were asked about what they had focused on while swimming. As a measure of performance, time and number of strokes were taken and the stroke index was calculated. The results showed that under redundant focus instruction (CFR) condition, 42 % failed to adopt the attentional focus as asked, and following focus (CF) instruction, 23 %. Under CF condition, the frequency of participants that adopted the focus was higher than of those who did not. Performance did not differ significantly among the three conditions (p>0,05). These findings stress the need of manipulation checks in attentional focus research, regarding both performance and motor learning efficiency, as well as the need for further investigation into the relation between instruction extension and performance.

The present study followed up on previous findings showing greater movement efficiency when performers adopt an external relative to an internal focus of attention. We used a swimming task to examine if those effects were dependent of the task component. Specifically, the aim of this study was to investigate the effects of attentional focus related to breathing and body position on crawl swim performance. Eighteen young adults (20.1 years old; ±3.0) participated in the present study. The task required participants to cover a 16 m swimming crawl, as fast as possible. Participants were asked to “keep body at water line” (external focus) or to “keep your body horizontal” (internal focus), and to “breathe when hand leaves the water” (external focus) or “breathe when head turns sideways” (internal focus). The dependent variable was time spent to cross the swimming pool in seconds and tenths of seconds. Two-way ANOVA (2 focus X 2 components) did not show any significant differences between external and internal focus in both components. The results led to the conclusion that when the focus was related to body position and breathing, the external and internal attentional focus had similar effects on performance of the crawl swim.

One of the variables that influence motor learning is the learner's previous experience, which may provide perceptual and motor elements to be transferred to a novel motor skill. For swimming skills, several motor experiences may prove effective. Purpose. The aim was to analyse the influence of previous experience in playing in water, swimming lessons, and music or dance lessons on learning the breaststroke kick. Methods. The study involved 39 Physical Education students possessing basic swimming skills, but not the breaststroke, who performed 400 acquisition trials followed by 50 retention and 50 transfer trials, during which stroke index as well as rhythmic and spatial configuration indices were mapped, and answered a yes/no questionnaire regarding previous experience. Data were analysed by ANOVA (p = 0.05) and the effect size (Cohen's d 0.8 indicating large effect size).Results. The whole sample improved their stroke index and spatial configuration index, but not their rhythmic configuration index. Although differences between groups were not significant, two types of experience showed large practical effects on learning: childhood water playing experience only showed major practically relevant positive effects, and no experience in any of the three fields hampered the learning process. Conclusions. The results point towards diverse impact of previous experience regarding rhythmic activities, swimming lessons, and especially with playing in water during childhood, on learning the breaststroke kick.