The effect of internal and external focus of attention on tennis skill acquisition in children

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Tapan T., ŞAHAN A., ERMAN K. A.

Frontiers in Psychology, cilt.14, 2023 (SSCI) identifier identifier

  • Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
  • Cilt numarası: 14
  • Basım Tarihi: 2023
  • Doi Numarası: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1308244
  • Dergi Adı: Frontiers in Psychology
  • Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), Scopus, IBZ Online, Linguistic Bibliography, MLA - Modern Language Association Database, Psycinfo, Directory of Open Access Journals
  • Anahtar Kelimeler: children, focus attention, instruction, skill, tennis
  • Akdeniz Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet

Özet

Objective: The aim of this study was to examine the effect of internal and external focus attention instructions on learning the tennis groundstroke (forehand-backhand drive) for children. Methods: A total of 60 (30 girls, 30 boys) children aged 10.24 ± 0.48 years were included in the study. Children were randomly divided into three groups: External Focused Group (EFG), Internal Focused Group (IFG), and Control Group (CG). Results: In the pre-training tests of tennis skill (TST) and tennis transfer (TTT), there was no significant difference between the three groups (EFG, IFG, and CG) according to one-way ANOVA results (p > 0.05). Significant interaction was determined between groups and measurements in a repeated-measures ANOVA analysis (three groups, three measurements) and TST and TTT (p < 0.01). According to the post-hoc analysis, it was determined that the TST results increased significantly in the EFG compared to the IFG and CG, and there was no significant difference in the TTT between the EFG and IFG, but both groups showed significant improvements compared to the CG. Conclusion: Instructions to children to focus attention externally facilitate learning the groundstroke (forehand-backhand) technique, which is one of the basic tennis techniques.