The Feel of Good Movement

Beyond the external/internal dichotomy

I've written and podcasted before about the research showing that, when it comes to performing or learning a movement skill, attention on the task or the environment (external attention) seems generally superior to attention on the body (internal attention.)

But there are some caveats:

• although external attention has a general advantage, internal attention may have some unique benefits in some contexts;

• elite athletes and coaches frequently use internal attention, and we should presume they know what they are doing;

• internal focus that is “holistic” may avoid the drawbacks of internal focus that is more localized and specific;

• the distinction between internal and external focus is often simplistic and fails to respect the complexity and dynamism of attention.

A recent paper provides a good summary of these points:

Attentional focus is not as simple as adopting one focus strategy for all individuals within all contexts.

Following are some quotes from this paper and others with further detail.

What athletes actually do

Random controlled trials are an excellent source of evidence, but we should also be interested in real world practice. Numerous studies have asked elite movers and