Pouya Biabani; Amir Dana
Abstract
The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of educational and motivational self-talk on dart throwing performance with different difficulties. A total of 60 beginners and right-handers with an age range of 22 to 28 years were randomly selected and randomly divided into three groups of ...
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The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of educational and motivational self-talk on dart throwing performance with different difficulties. A total of 60 beginners and right-handers with an age range of 22 to 28 years were randomly selected and randomly divided into three groups of educational self-talk, motivation and control. The study groups performed 5 groups of 12 attempts according to their instructions. All throws were performed at low difficulty level at a distance of 1.80 m, at medium difficulty level at a distance of 2.37 m and at high difficulty level at a distance of 2.87 m from the dartboard. The performance measurement index was evaluated based on the amount of radial error (distance of the dart from the center). The statistical method of two factor analysis of variance analysis was used with repeated measurements in the difficulty level factor for testing hypotheses. The results showed that educational and motivational self-talk led to significant improvement in the dart throw performance. Also, the effect of difficulty was significant, and finally, the interactive effect of self-talk and difficulty on the performance of the dart throwing was significant. In simple tasks, due to the nature of the skill, educational self-talk based on related cues seems to improve the skill well, but at a moderate difficulty level, the role of motivational self-talk seems to become more prominent because the situation requires more effort for success, and this is consistent with the relationship between task difficulty and performance.
Ebrahim Norouzi; Fatemeh Hosseini; Mohammad Kazem Vaez Mousavi
Abstract
The employment of neurofeedback is growing rapidly in sport performance enhancement. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of neurofeedback training on motor performance and conscious motor processing of skilled dart players. The subjects were 20 male skilled dart players. The research ...
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The employment of neurofeedback is growing rapidly in sport performance enhancement. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of neurofeedback training on motor performance and conscious motor processing of skilled dart players. The subjects were 20 male skilled dart players. The research was conducted in five phases: pretest, neurofeedback training, posttest 1, under pressure test and posttest 2. Neurofeedback training consisted of prevention training of the alpha frequency band (8 to 12 Hz) in F4. To analyze data, descriptive statistics and mixed ANOVA were used. Results indicated that the amounts of conscious motor processing for neurofeedback training group decreased in posttest 1 (P=0.001) and under pressure test (P=0.001) but this reduction was not observed in the control group (P=0.83). The dart throwing points for neurofeedback training group and control group in the posttest 1 increased compared with the pertest (P=0.001), but only neurofeedback group (P=0.001) was able to preserve this increase in the under pressure test. The findings indicated an effect among neurofeedback training, conscious motor processing and sport performance. In other words, the neurofeedback training leads to the desired motor performance and creates automatic sense in the athlete by reducing the conscious motor processing.
Hamid Salehi; Zahra Zamanpour Boroujeni
Abstract
This study examined the effects of practice scheduling and attentional focus on learning a sport skill. 40 female high school students (mean age = 16.02 ± 0.88 years) practiced dart-throwing skill under either blocked or random practice schedules while their attention was directed ...
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This study examined the effects of practice scheduling and attentional focus on learning a sport skill. 40 female high school students (mean age = 16.02 ± 0.88 years) practiced dart-throwing skill under either blocked or random practice schedules while their attention was directed to either the skill (dart scores) or an irrelevant cue (auditory tones) using dual-tasks. Analysis of variance were conducted at baseline, practice phase and a delayed transfer test. Results demonstrated a significant score improvement from baseline to delayed transfer test for all groups. Furthermore, the greatest improvement from baseline to delayed transfer test was observed in random-irrelevant condition compared with the other conditions. In conclusion, the current study provided new information about the interactive relationship between practice scheduling and attentional focus during learning a sport skill.
Ghoobad Mehrabeyan; Ali Heirani; Mahmoud Gholipoor
Abstract
This study aimed at examining the effect of different focus of attention instructions and cognitive styles on the learning of dart throwing skill. 80 children were randomly selected and divided into four equal groups: a) field independent-external attention, b) field independent-internal attention, c) ...
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This study aimed at examining the effect of different focus of attention instructions and cognitive styles on the learning of dart throwing skill. 80 children were randomly selected and divided into four equal groups: a) field independent-external attention, b) field independent-internal attention, c) field dependent-external attention and d) field independent-internal attention based on their pretest scores (10 trials of dart throwing). Then, in acquisition phase, they practiced 6 blocks of 10 trials of dart throwing task with regard to their focus of attention and cognitive style. Retention test was conducted 24 hours after the acquisition phase similar to pretest. After ensuring data normality by Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, ANOVA 4*6 with repeated measures was conducted on block factor and one-way ANOVA and Bonferroni post hoc test was applied in acquisition and retention phases respectively. Results showed significant differences in scores of all groups in all phases (P<0.05) and those with field independent style had better performance in external focus of attention than internal focus of attention and those with field dependent style had better performance in internal focus of attention than external focus of attention. In other words, cognitive styles must be noted during recruiting the focuses of attention.
Maryam Lotfi; Jalal Dehghanizade; Fateme Sadat Hosseini
Abstract
The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of focus of attention on learning dart throwing in mentally retarded children.In this quasi-experimental study, 22 mentally retarded boys (age 10-12 years old) were randomly selected according to IQ (50-70) and were assigned to two homogenous attention ...
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The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of focus of attention on learning dart throwing in mentally retarded children.In this quasi-experimental study, 22 mentally retarded boys (age 10-12 years old) were randomly selected according to IQ (50-70) and were assigned to two homogenous attention (internal, external) groups after the pretest and a training session according to the obtained scores, age and IQ. The subjects practiced in 5 blocks and each block 8 throws. Two-way analysis of variance with repeated measures and ANOVA were used to analyze data. In retention phase, both groups increased accuracy in their throwing (P=0.044). Variability (P=0.044) and throwing accuracy (P=0.047) decreased due to the training. In transfer phase, internal focus group could not transfer skill to new conditions while variable group succeeded to transfer their skill to new conditions. Also, external focus group had lower variability (P=0.049) and higher accuracy (P=0.048) than internal focus group. According to the findings, external focus group was able to retain and transfer skills to new situations which confirmed constrained action hypothesis (Wulf et al., 2001) in mentally retarded individuals.