2. Deliberate control or tacit control? Explicit/implicit, procedural/declarative, effortful/effortless, etc…

3. 1 Another study to consider... Focus of attention – Wulf, McNevin, & Shea (2001) – A study designed to examine the different performance styles promoted through different verbal cues. 23

4. And a quote: It would seem indeed that we fail of accuracy and certainty in our attainment of the end whenever we are preoccupied with much ideal consciousness of the means. We walk a beam the better the less we think of the position of our feet upon it. We pitch or catch, we shoot or chop the better the less tactile and muscular (the less resident), and the more exclusively optical, (the more remote) our consciousness is. Keep your eye on the place aimed at, and your hand will fetch it; think of your hand, and you will very likely miss your aim. – (James, 1890: 520)

5. 4 And what about the feedback conundrum? Wulf & Shea (1999) (ski sim.) – Concurrent feedback – The more often feedback was presented, the better people performed – Why? Performance improvement Smith, Taylor, & Withers (1997) (golf chip) Terminal feedback BW (10%) better than BW (0%), for transitional feedback Performance improvement 12

6. 5 Maybe it depends on what you are told to think about… Retention data from a soccer kicking study Pay attention to: – Feedback frequency – Attentional focus – Interaction between the two 12

7. 6 Maybe it depends on what you are told to think about… Another way of looking at that data… 1

8. The feedback statements... Internal Focus Feedback Position your foot below the ball’s midline to lift the ball Position your bodyweight and the non-kicking foot behind the ball Lock your ankle down and use the instep to strike the ball Keep your knee bent as you swing your leg back and straighten your knee before contact To strike the ball, the swing of the leg should be as long as possible External Focus Feedback Strike the ball below it’s midline to lift it, that is, kick underneath it Be behind the ball, not over it, and lean back Stroke the ball toward the target as though passing to another player Use a long-lever action like the swing of a golf club before contact with the ball To strike the ball, create a pendulum- like motion with as long a duration as possible 7

9. Study 1 (Becker & Smith, 2015) Coaches’ cues, teachers’ cues: – Duba, Kraemer, and Martin (2007): “curl your wrists under the bar” & “bring your shoulders to your ears” (for power clean) – Physical education literature (Fronske & Wilson (2001) “arm close to body, brush shorts” (volleyball serve).

10. Study 1 Specificity of internal focus cues: – Bernstein’s (1967) endpoint control Russell (2007) and Oudejans, Koedijker, and Beek (2007) – Outcome invariant, joint movements giving rise to outcome variable » Blacksmiths’ hammer example – Focusing on one aspect of a movement (as with an internal focus) may introduce a type of control counter-productive to this endpoint control – Moreover, the more specific the internal focus is to the role of one joint within the overall organization of the movement, the more potentially disruptive to the overall organization of the movement it may be.

11. Study 1 Standing long jump Groups and Focus Cues: (1)Narrow Internal Focus- “Focus your attention on extending your knees to jump as far as possible” (2)Broad Internal Focus- “Focus your attention on using your legs to jump as far as possible” (3)External Focus- “Focus you attention on jumping as far as possible past the start line” (4)Control (no assigned focus) Dependent Measures: Jump Distance (cm) Data Analysis: An ANCOVA on jump distance was conducted with participant height as the covariate.

12. Study 1 5 jumps in each condition Results – No effect of specificity

13. Study 2 Related to the task complexity effect again – Performance only examined this time – Wulf, McNevin, Shea (2001) No effects in practice, only in retention (balance task)

14. Study 2 Related to the task complexity effect again – Difficulty of maintaining any focus when making errors Poolton et al. (2006), Wulf et al. (2001): Attention switches common Why no effects during practice? – Wulf and others’ findings due to subjects’ inability to maintain focus early in practice?

15. Study 2 Balance task, one trial (after warm up) – 39 students – 4 conditions (45s each) Control Internal External Digit span – Counterbalanced

16. Study 2 Results – Digit span better than all conditions

17. Study 2 Implication – Attentional requires complexity to emerge (Wulf et al. 2007) – But beyond that level they may disappear again, at least temporarily The difficulty of maintaining focus of attention becomes challenging, & performance differences do not emerge as a result. – Then other methods of manipulating attention (Nafati & Vuillerme, 2011) may prove more effective.

18. Study 3 Pedalo Warm-up, 20 trials practice 4 trials retention (24 hrs later) 3 groups – Internal – External – Distraction

19. Study 4 Balance Warm-up, 14 trials practice (2 days) 3 trials retention (24 hrs later) 3 groups – Internal – External – Distraction