The Effects of Avoiding Instructions Under Pressure: An Examination of the Volleyball Serving Task

Abstract

Wegner predicts that under pressure self-avoiding instructions not to perform in a certain manner will break down precisely where it is least desired that is the hypothesis of the present study. Specifically, the aim was to test the hypothesis that when instructed not to serve into a certain zone, ironic error would be more prevalent under pressure. Our sample comprised 43 female participants between the age of 13 and 16 (Mage = 14.51, SD = 1.35) who were active volleyball players (Mtraining years = 5.40, SD = 2.38). We measured the participants’ psychophysiological indications of anxiety via the heart rate, heart rate variability as well as the self-reported Mental Readiness Form-3. To measure performance, we counted the number of target and non-target serving zones under different anxiety conditions. Participants scored +5 points for serving into the target zone, scored -5 points for serving to the out or hitting the net and 1 point for serving into the court except the target zone. A 2 (anxiety) × 3 (serving zone) fully repeated measures ANOVA revealed a significant anxiety x serving zone interaction F (2, 84) = 36.52, p < .001. When instructed not to serve in a certain zone, players’ overall performance did not change across anxiety conditions t (42) = .68, p =.50. Results did not provide support for the Wegner’s theory as expected, but instead revealed evidence for the Woodman et al.’s (2015) differentiation of ironic performance error. The results demonstrate that the theory of ironic processes may account for practical instruction-based solution for reducing the susceptibility to ironic errors in the serving type of task in volleyball.

The Impact of Hemispheric Activity Priming on Choking Under Pressure in Badminton Tasks: A Study of Three Fundamental Skills

“…Moving to the performance scores from pressure-free to post-pressure conditions, participants' badminton skill execution significantly dropped from the no-squeezing Journal of Human Kinetics, volume 89/2023 http://www.johk.pl condition (condition 3) in comparison to the pressure-free condition (condition 2). The decreased performance scores supported that players choked under pressure during their performance (Gorgulu and Gokcek, 2021). It is highly possible that their well-established automatic and unconscious motor patterns were disturbed by their somatic anxiety so that they were forced to pay attention to their movement and skill executions resulting in conscious processing (Cross-Villasana et al, 2015;Gallicchio et al, 2016;Hoskens et al, 2020).…”

Ironic processes of concentration and suppression under pressure: A study on rifle shooting in Norwegian elite biathletes

“…For example, elite pistol shooters 16 and highly skilled dancers 63 showed contradictory motor actions and movements when instructed not to perform specific actions. However, experienced volleyball players did not exhibit this phenomenon 64 . There is still uncertainty regarding the influence of athletes' level of expertise on their propensity to ironic behavior in response to negative instructions.…”

“…However, experienced volleyball players did not exhibit this phenomenon. 64 There is still uncertainty regarding the influence of athletes' level of expertise on their propensity to ironic behavior in response to negative instructions. According to Wegner's theory, the monitor surfaces to undermine mental control while focusing on unwanted thoughts when the stakes are high, yielding an increase in the likelihood of ironic errors and greater interference effects in Stroop tasks.…”