José Francisco Gomes Schild

Children's learning of tennis skills is facilitated by external focus instructions

The present study examined the effects of instructions promoting external versus internal foci of attention on the learning of a tennis forehand stroke in 11-year old children. Three groups of participants practiced hitting tennis balls at a target. External focus group participants were instructed to direct their attention to the movement of the racquet, while participants in the internal focus group were asked to direct their attention to the movements of their arm. Participants in a control group did not receive attentional focus instructions. Two days after the practice phase (60 trials), learning was assessed in retention and transfer tests. The results showed that the external focus group demonstrated greater accuracy in hitting a target relative to the two other groups in retention, and relative to the internal focus group in transfer. We conclude that instructions inducing an external focus of attention can enhance childrens sport skill learning.

Feedback autocontrolado: efeitos na aprendizagem de uma habilidade motora específica do golfe

O objetivo deste estudo foi verificar os efeitos do “feedback” autocontrolado na aprendizagem de uma habilidade motora especifica do golfe. A amostra foi constituida de 30 estudantes universitarios, distribuidos em dois grupos de 15 sujeitos, de acordo com os diferentes tipos de regimes de CR: autocontrolado e externamente controlado. A tarefa utilizada foi similar aos estudos de WULF, LAUTERBACH e TOOLE (1999) e WULF e SU (2007), onde os participantes tiveram que bater bolas de golfe, com um taco de ferro 9, com o objetivo de acertar um alvo circular com 50 cm de raio. O delineamento experimental constou de fases de aquisicao e retencao. Os resultados demonstraram inexistencia de diferencas significativas entre os grupos.