Acute Effects of External, Internal, and Holistic Attentional Focus on Javelin-Throwing Performance in Novices: The Role of Visual Information

Background and Objectives: Sports performance is influenced by a variety of perceptual, cognitive, and motor factors. A better understanding of these factors can help coaches optimize training and improve athletic performance. The present study examined the acute effects of internal, external, and holistic attentional focus instructions on javelin-throwing performance under different visual conditions in novice performers. Methods: Twenty-four university students (12 females and 12 males; mean age: 21.50 ± 1.47 years) with no prior javelin-throwing experience completed 30 throws under six experimental conditions (5 throws per condition) based on three attentional focus instructions (internal, external, and holistic) and two visual conditions (vision-present and vision-absent) using a within-subject repeated-measures design. Throwing distance was measured as the primary performance outcome. Results: The results revealed significant main effects of both vision (F(1, 23) = 14.49, p = 0.001, ηp2 = 0.38) and attentional focus (F(2, 46) = 5.73, p = 0.006, ηp2 = 0.20). Overall throwing performance was superior when visual information was available compared to when vision was occluded (p = 0.001). In addition, both external and holistic focus conditions produced significantly greater throwing distances than the internal focus condition (p = 0.03; p = 0.04, respectively), with no significant differences observed between external and holistic focus (p > 0.05). No significant interaction was found between attentional focus and vision (F(2, 46) = 0.74, p = 0.48, ηp2 = 0.03), indicating that the effect of attentional focus did not significantly differ between the visual conditions. Conclusions: The present findings extend the attentional focus literature to a complex, whole-body ballistic skill, demonstrating that the adoption of external and holistic attentional focus instructions resulted in greater throwing distances than the internal focus condition in novice javelin throwers.