When you’re about to squat where do you focus your attention? When you’re about to jump onto a box what do you think about? When you’re about to attempt a snatch what’s going through your mind? What we think about when exercising or performing a skill usually fits into one of two categories in the movement science world: internal or external focus of attention.
With an internal focus of attention you focus on some component of your own body and the way it is moving. For example, focusing on the position of your knees when squatting would be an internal focus of attention. On the other hand, with an external focus of attention you are fixated on some aspect of the environment related to the successful completion of the task as opposed to your own body. For example, if someone held their hand outside your knee and asked you to push into their hand while you squatted, that would be an external focus of attention because the attention is on their hand rather than your knee.
So, is one of these strategies better than the other? We use and hear about both quite often, but it turns out one of these is probably more effective. There is a growing body of research over the last 10-15 years that supports the use of an external focus of attention over an internal focus of attention with regard to learning new skills, performance of already known skills, and endurance/fatigue. When it comes to motor skills like swinging a golf club or shooting a basketball or when it comes to exercise performance like a max-rep squat test or a balance challenge, it has been pretty consistently shown that people learn and perform better with an external focus of attention. (If you are geeky like me and would like to read any of these original research articles, please let me know. For now, I’ll spare you the details.)
Historically the training world has migrated toward internal focus of attention cues, probably at least in part because it seems to “make logical sense.” However, as described above, the research says otherwise. This may seem counterintuitive, but we can’t forget the miraculous design of the human neuromotor system. It is making countless calculations on a second-by-second basis to help you perform the tasks you desire to perform with the available resources you have. We actually do our body a disservice when we try to consciously control and dictate exactly how it moves. In these instances we become more rigid, less fluent, and less efficient. Thus, we would probably be better off to maximize the body’s resources (through variability in training among other things) and let it coordinate our movements on its own with all those resources while we focus on something in the environment that is important to the task like the barbell, the box, or even the floor.
As coaches, you’ll hear us use both kinds of cues, sometimes just because of old habits. However, we are working to find ways to emphasize external focus of attention cues based on what the research is telling us. Therefore, if you find a particular cue helpful, then please let us know! We want your feedback so we can learn how to best serve you in line with best available evidence.
- Coach Mike