jafar Belali voshmehsara; Saeed Arsham; Shahab Parvinpour; Fazlollah Bagherzadeh
Abstract
One of the key factors for success in sport competitions is the ability to predict the movements of an opponent before performing them. The aim of the present study was to determine the effect of choking under pressure on predictive performance and to compare it between elite and novice fencers. In this ...
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One of the key factors for success in sport competitions is the ability to predict the movements of an opponent before performing them. The aim of the present study was to determine the effect of choking under pressure on predictive performance and to compare it between elite and novice fencers. In this quasi-experimental study, the subjects included 15 elite athletes of the youth fencing national team (16-20 years old) and 15 students from University of Tehran (18-22 years old) as novice athletes who were assigned to two groups by convenience sampling method. Prior to the test, 15 clips out of 100 video clips of different attacks on different parts of the fencers' body were performed and recorded by two professional members of the Iran National Fencing Team. After each video clip was stopped (before the sword hit the opponent's body), an answer sheet appeared on the screen and the subjects had to predict the location where the sword hit the opponent. The present study was conducted under high and normal pressure conditions. The high pressure condition was applied by the presence of a national team coach as the evaluator and in the non-pressure condition, the efforts were made without the presence of the evaluator. The results of mixed factor analysis of variance showed that the main effect of condition and group was significant but the interactive effect of condition and group was not significant. Bonferroni post hoc test results also showed that those players who were in normal condition had better predictive performance than those who were under the pressure condition; also, elite players had better predictive performance than novices in both conditions (P<0.05). But generally, choking under pressure decreases predictive performance in both elite and novice fencers.
Ebrahim Moteshareie; Behrouz Abdoli; Seyed Mohammad Kazem Vaez Mousavi; Alireza Farsi
Abstract
The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of PST on performance, retention, and transfer under pressure of novice badminton players. 40 novice badminton players were randomly assigned to experimental (20 participants) and placebo-control (20 participants) groups. In acquisition and retention tests, ...
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The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of PST on performance, retention, and transfer under pressure of novice badminton players. 40 novice badminton players were randomly assigned to experimental (20 participants) and placebo-control (20 participants) groups. In acquisition and retention tests, short and long service, toss clear and drop shots were used; in transfer under pressure test, notational analysis was applied. All participants acquired specific badminton skills in 24 sessions over three months. In addition to specific badminton skills, the experimental group received the specific package of PST during 24 sessions (each session 20 min.) while placebo-control group received the same number of sessions about general information on badminton. The results of mixed ANOVA indicated that in all tests, the scores of experimental group were significantly higher than those of the placebo-control group, which indicated the effectiveness of PST on performance and learning of novice male badminton players. The results of this study extended the effectiveness of PST to learning new motor skills.
Ghazal Mohamadi; Masomeh Shojaei; Afkham Daneshfar
Abstract
The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of variability of attentional focus distance by self-talk on the learning of table tennis forehand in. After pretest, the participants performed 180 forehand strokes during 6 sessions with repeating the words “slightly rotation” ...
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The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of variability of attentional focus distance by self-talk on the learning of table tennis forehand in. After pretest, the participants performed 180 forehand strokes during 6 sessions with repeating the words “slightly rotation” in the internal focus group “slightly open” in the near external focus group, “over the net ” in the far external focus group, and each of the words “slightly rotation, slightly open, and over the net ” respectively in each 2 sessions in the increasing distance of attentional focus group. Control group performed without self-talk during acquisition phase. Retention test was performed 48 hours after acquisition test in the same situation without self-talk, and after break, transfer test was done by changing the direction of target (parallel forehand) without self-talk. The accuracy and the pattern of forehand strokes were measured by a 5 point-scale (Liao and Masters, 2001) and researcher-made scale, respectively) .According to the results of 2-factor mixed ANOVA, acquisition, retention, and transfer of forehand accuracy in internal focus of attention group were significantly lower than other groups (p<0.05).Furthermore, the effect of increasing attentional focus distance on acquisition of forehand pattern was significant. The effect of near external attentional focus on retention of pattern was significant. But transfer of stroke pattern in control group was significantly more than far external focus group (p<0.05). Thus, it is recommended to use self-talk by increasing attentional focus and near external attentional focus and not to use internal focus of attention to instruct forehand to novice adolescents.
