Contributions of External Attentional Focus, Enhanced Expectancies and Autonomy Support to Enhance Learning Skills of Throwing Darts

Objective: This study aimed to investigate the effect of the combination of attention (external focus) and internal motivation (autonomy support and enhanced expectancies) on learning the skill of throwing darts. Methods: For this purpose, ۶۰ women participated in the study. our study included ۴ groups: a) autonomy support - external focus (AS-EF); b) enhanced expectancies - external focus (EE-EF); C) enhanced expectancies - autonomy support (EE-AS); and d) enhanced expectancies - autonomy support - external focus (EE-AS-EF). Participants were asked to throw darts at a target with their non-dominant arm. In the EE conditions, they received (false) positive social-comparative feedback. In the AS conditions, they were allowed to throw ۵ of ۱۰ trials in each block with their dominant arm chosen by them. In the EF conditions, participants were asked to focus on the target. on the post-test after the end of the training period and retention and transfer test ۲۴ hours after practice, the AS-EE-EF group had the highest accuracy scores and outperformed all other groups. Results: The results of the between-group comparison for throwing accuracy showed that the EE-AS-EF group was a significant difference compared to the other groups. Conclusions: The findings provide evidence that enhanced expectancies, autonomy support, and an external focus can contribute in an additive style to optimize motor performance and learning.

Keywords:

External Focus , Internal Motivation , Autonomy , Motor Performance , Darts