Background/Purpose Previous research has demonstrated that an external focus of attention enhances vertical jumping performance relative to an internal focus of attention or a control condition (no focus instructions given; Wulf and Dufek, 2009). The internal focus cue for Wulf's study was to focus on the fingertips while jumping, while the external cue was to focus on the rungs of the Vertec machine used to record jump height. This study considered whether varying the direction of the internal focus could alter the effect, by adding a second internal focus condition in which participants were asked to focus on their legs while jumping.
Method Twenty-four male and 24 female undergraduate students (M = 19.4 years) were recruited for the study. Participants completed five jumps in each of four conditions: control (no instructions); internal-legs (told to focus on the legs); internal-fingertips (told to focus on their fingertips); and external (told to focus on the rungs of the Vertec machine). Order effects were controlled and assessed using a Latin Square design. Maximum jump height was measured in cm.
Analysis/Results Jump height was analyzed using a 4 (condition) x 4 (condition order) mixed model ANOVA, with repeated measures on condition. Attentional focus instructions only altered jump height when the control condition was presented first. Here, the internal-fingertip condition produced a significantly lower vertical jump height than the other three conditions.
Conclusions These results suggest attentional focus effects can be eliminated by manipulating the order of presentation of the conditions, and by varying the location of the internal focus.
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