We examined effects of attentional focus on swimming speed. Participants' task was to swim one length of a pool (16 m) using the front crawl stroke. In Experiment 1, intermediate swimmers were given attentional focus instructions related to the crawl arm stroke or the leg kick, respectively. Participants were instructed to focus on “pulling your hands back” or “pushing the instep down” (internal focus), or on “pushing the water back/down” (external focus), respectively. Swim times were significantly shorter with an external focus. In Experiment 2, a control condition was included. Times were significantly faster in the external focus compared with both the internal focus and control conditions. These findings have implications for enhancing performance in swimming.

RESUMO O objetivo desta pesquisa foi de investigar os efeitos da utilização de diferentes dicas visuais na aprendizagem do nado crawl para alunos surdos. Participaram do estudo 22 alunos, de ambos os sexos, com idades entre 10 e 17 anos. A pesquisa envolveu dois grupos (G1=dicas através de modelo e G2=dicas através de figuras e modelo) e três fases experimentais (préteste, aprendizagem e pós-teste). Tanto no pré-teste quanto no pós-teste os grupos foram filmados e avaliados por um "instrumento de avaliação do nado crawl". Utilizou-se como medida de aprendizagem o padrão do nado crawl, a distância nadada e a quantidade de paradas. Porém obteve-se resultados significantes apenas no padrão do nado crawl. Dessa forma, os resultados da análise intra-grupo mostraram que em ambos os grupos houve melhora do pré para o pós-teste em termos do padrão de movimento. Os resultados da análise inter-grupos mostraram superioridade do grupo G2 em relação ao G1 no padrão de movimento (componentes 2 e 3), no pós-teste. Pôde-se concluir que a utilização de dicas nas figuras ilustrativas associadas às dicas no modelo real e simulado adicionou informação que permitiu o direcionamento e a manutenção da atenção dos aprendizes aos pontos chaves da habilidade.

No abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of self-talk on motor learning in beginners. The learning task was the forehand stroke in tennis. Eighty-four students were assigned into five self-talk groups and one control group. One of the self-talk groups used four cues for directing attention to key elements of the forehand stroke. The other self-talk groups made use of only one of the four cues (ball, bounce, hit, and ready), and the control group received only general instructions. In the acquisition phase, all groups performed 180 trials over three days. Then they performed a transfer test of 10 trials involving a change in the target direction. After five days they performed a retention test in the same conditions of the acquisition phase. The performance was analysed in terms of rates of success and consistency of the forehand hit to the target located on the opponent’s court. Results showed that all groups improved their performances in the acquisition phase, and that they maintained the improvement in the retention and transfer tests. However, no differences were found between the groups. It was concluded that self-talk did not affect the learning of forehand stroke in tennis. In addition, learning with self-talk with four cues was similar to that with selftalk with only one cue.

The present study followed up on previous findings showing greater movement efficiency when performers adopt an external relative to an internal focus of attention. We used a swimming task to examine if those effects were dependent of the task component. Specifically, the aim of this study was to investigate the effects of attentional focus related to breathing and body position on crawl swim performance. Eighteen young adults (20.1 years old; ±3.0) participated in the present study. The task required participants to cover a 16 m swimming crawl, as fast as possible. Participants were asked to “keep body at water line” (external focus) or to “keep your body horizontal” (internal focus), and to “breathe when hand leaves the water” (external focus) or “breathe when head turns sideways” (internal focus). The dependent variable was time spent to cross the swimming pool in seconds and tenths of seconds. Two-way ANOVA (2 focus X 2 components) did not show any significant differences between external and internal focus in both components. The results led to the conclusion that when the focus was related to body position and breathing, the external and internal attentional focus had similar effects on performance of the crawl swim.