There is a lot of research showing that external focus of attention is generally superior to internal focus for motor learning and performance. Most of the research was done by Gabrielle Wulf, and is well-summarized in this podcast I did with Nick Winkleman. (Also in my book Playing With Movement.)
But this research involves experiments done under somewhat artificial conditions, and for short time periods. Do the findings hold true in the real world? And what kinds of attention do expert performers actually use?
Golf would seem to be an ideal sport to study this question. Each swing is its own experiment, and it’s easy to vary your attention on each repetition to learn what works best.
My experience playing golf, which is shared by many, is that “swing thoughts” can be counterproductive, especially when they involve internal attention on specific body parts. And there are a million different swing thoughts to choose from. If you go to YouTube and search “golf swing and [literally any body part]”, you can find multiple videos by coaches, using slow-motion demonstrations, explaining exactly what a particular body part should be doing during any point in the the swing.
If you follow the advice in the videos and pay close attention to that body part during the swing, you might improve some aspect of your technique. But this often occurs at the expense of poor technique in other elements of the swing, such as … making solid contact with the ball.
On the other hand, swing thoughts seem like a necessary evil if you want to make long-term improvements. Good technique in golf is not totally intuitive or natural, and therefore perfect swings rarely emerge through “self-organization.” Correcting bad habits usually requires placing some conscious attention on the body, at least for a while.
Perhaps bad habits can be corrected through the clever use of external attention, or a well-devised constraints-based approach. But as a practical matter, it's often easier to correct swing flaws by using internal attention. This is why most pro golfers do exactly that, at least some times.
Tiger Woods can explain in detail what his hands are doing during the swing, and he seems to play pretty well. In competition, he tries to banish “swing thoughts” from his mind, and has spoken about his mind being totally blank during important shots. But surely swing thoughts played a role in his practice and development, right? Perhaps part of his mental greatness is being able to shift back-and-forth between different mindsets at different times.
With all that in mind, I was interested to see a study looking at exactly these issues. (Hat-tip to Rob Gray for tweeting it.) The study interviews expert golfers and coaches to learn about the kinds of attention they use during practice and competition.
In discussing the existing body of research on external versus internal cues, the authors note:
while Wulf (2016) is fixed on the view that an external focus is absolute, Poolton and Zachry (2007) accept that [it] is not always appropriate or feasible within real-world settings …
Carson and Collins (2011) proposed that a narrow internal focus is necessary when initiating small technical refinements to already well-established and automated skills … becoming aware of the erroneous movement is necessary to lower the risk of future regression … Once the change has been both realized and later (re)automated, using an external focus of attention will be required (at least in part) within more naturalistic training
These theories were supported by the data collected in interviews with players and coaches. Although the coaches knew about the research on the superiority of external cues, and believed that excessive swing thoughts can interfere with performance during competition, they still believed that internal focus had important uses in practice and even some aspects of competition:
the suggested answer to whether an internal/external focus of attention, or implicit/explicit learning works best, is “it depends” …
One golfer spoke about the difference between working on technique with his coach to playing in tournaments as feeling like “two different sports”. In this vein, another golfer highlighted the difficulty of performing while focusing on body positions: “When I have been thinking technically on what my body is doing, I lose the ability to hit the shot.”
[A] common desire by coaches was for the player to “have no swing thoughts” [during competition]. One coach explained the transition between training and competition foci as requiring the player to “park the technical bit”. Some coaches (40%) were explicit about not transferring foci from training into competition, acknowledging that these cues may not be effective.
In fact, part of the skill of the player is switching between different types of foci depending on the situation:
experts are proficient in switching between internal/external/skill/dual-task foci in response to the interactions between performer (e.g., their technical needs, physical state and/or level of arousal), environmental (e.g., importance and type of context/situation), and task (e.g., simple–complex) demands
The type of shot also matters - internal focus is more likely to be used when the environment is less variable, or when the context requires a specific and rarely used change in swing technique:
participants reported a dynamic focus of attention between internal and external depending on the type of golf shot and demands; what Diekfuss and Raisbeck (2017) termed a “situational focus”, with an internal focus reported more for long drives and short putts. In support, Diekfuss and Raisbeck (2016) found no Division 1 golfer to report using only an external focus of attention in their survey.
Another interesting finding was that coaches were generally reluctant to tell the player anything at all about what to focus on during competition. Instead, the player should develop their own cues for competition.
I would submit that choosing these points of focus intelligently, and maintaining them in the face of distraction, is the bulk of the mental game in golf or any sport.
A few reminders about upcoming events
It’s not too late to sign up for my movement class on shoulders, which starts on January 9. Learn more here.