PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Hubert Makaruk
AU  - Jared M. Porter
AU  - Jerzy Sadowski
AU  - Anna Bodasińska
AU  - Janusz Zieliński
AU  - Tomasz Niźnikowski
AU  - Andrzej Mastalerz
TI  - The effects of combining focus of attention and autonomy support on shot accuracy in the penalty kick
AID  - 10.1101/560813
DP  - 2019 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 560813
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/02/25/560813.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/02/25/560813.full
AB  - 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 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.