The effects of combining focus of attention and autonomy support on shot accuracy in the penalty kick

Abstract

The penalty kick is of great importance in the sport of soccer. Therefore, the aim of this study was to test predictions of the OPTIMAL theory and identify key attentional and motivational factors that impact the accuracy of the penalty kick. The following six groups of moderately skilled participants performed penalty kicks following instructions that directed their focus of attention or impacted their autonomy support: external focus with autonomy support (EF/AS), external focus alone (EF), internal focus with autonomy support (IF/AS), internal focus alone (IF), autonomy support alone (AS) and control (C) groups. The analysis showed that the EF/AS group demonstrated better kicking accuracy relatively to the IF/AS, IF and C groups, but there were no significant differences between the EF/AS and EF or AS groups. Interestingly, the EF/AS group showed higher self-efficacy compared to the EF, IF/AS, IF and C groups. The finding suggest that a combination of attentional and motivational factors may produce benefits in motor performance.

Can We Capitalize on Central Nervous System Plasticity in Young Athletes to Inoculate Against Injury?

“…Specifically, OPTIMAL theory identifies three distinct and partially independent motivational (enhanced expectancies, autonomy support) and attentional (external focus) motor learning factors/principles (i.e., "pillars") theorized to leverage the capacity for CNS plasticity to achieve enhanced motor behavior through adaptive neuroplasticity [160]. Further, the pillars of OPTIMAL motor learning can be combined for more robust, additive effects [1,23,102,103,106,128,161], but a conceptual framework for application of OPTIMAL theory in the context of ACL injury management strategies in youth-inclusive of prevention, rehabilitation, and exercise performance more generally-has yet to be proposed. A better mechanistic understanding regarding the role of motor learning on the CNS may help practitioners 'buy-in' and implement such methods in practice.…”

The Effect of Different Attentional Focus on the Penalty Kicking Performance of Adolescent Male Soccer Players in Different Levels

“…Recent work by Makaruk et al (26,27) has investigated the effect of attentional focus on the penalty kicking accuracy. As predicted, participants demonstrate more significant improvement in the penalty kicking accuracy, both with and without the goalkeeper, when adopting an external instead of an internal focus of attention.…”

“…However, there were several defects in these experiments. First, the researchers (26,27) only assessed the penalty kicking performance after practice, but overlooked participants' performance before practice. Therefore, the different kicking accuracy between the external and internal groups in the post-test maybe by the group difference before practice.…”

“…Moreover, the authors (26,27) only measured kicking accuracy while overlooking kicking velocity. According to Fitts law (28), the penalty taker may sacrifice kicking accuracy for kicking velocity (29,30).…”

“…According to Fitts law (28), the penalty taker may sacrifice kicking accuracy for kicking velocity (29,30). It is unclear whether participants decrease kicking velocity to gain kicking accuracy in these experiments (26,27). In addition to these defects, it is still inconclusive whether novice participants benefit from an external focus of attention in the same manner as skilled participants (31)(32)(33).…”