EXTERNAL FOCUS OF ATTENTION AFFECTS SHOT ACCURACY IN ELITE ARCHERS

Abstract

The intention of this study was to find out if external focus of attention, steering the archers’ focus on distal movement effects, will provide better shooting accuracy expressed as higher number of 10 points and higher overall result. The subject sample was consisted of 10 elite male archers, with average age 25.8 years. The sample of variables was derived from observed characteristics of entities in different shooting conditions. A measure of arrow distance from the center of the target face was used in order to estimate shooting precision. The testing consisted of three different shooting conditions: C1- free focus of attention, C2 – internal focus of attention and C3 – external focus of attention. The analysis showed that the highest results were obtained in condition of externally oriented focus of attention (C3), and the lowest results in condition of internally oriented focus of attention (C2). Friedman’s ANOVA did not show statistical differences between the conditions, but they were found between C2 and C3 in afterwards administered Wilcoxon’s test (p=0.047).