Open AccessThe effects of combining focus of attention and autonomy support on shot accuracy in the penalty kick
Author(s) -
Hubert Makaruk,
Jared M. Porter,
Jerzy Sadowski,
Anna Bodasińska,
Janusz Zieliński,
Тоmasz Niznikowski,
Аndrzej Mastalerz
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
plos one
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.99
H-Index - 332
ISSN - 1932-6203
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pone.0213487
Subject(s) - autonomy , focus group , focus (optics) , psychology , regulatory focus theory , social psychology , applied psychology , physical medicine and rehabilitation , medicine , political science , physics , optics , marketing , creativity , law , business
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.