The Influence of Attentional Focus on Balance Control over Seven Days of Training |
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| Authors: | Jed A. Diekfuss Christopher K. Rhea Randy J. Schmitz Dustin R. Grooms Robin W. Wilkins Alexis B. Slutsky |
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| Affiliation: | 1. The SPORT Center, Division of Sports Medicine, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH, USA;2. Department of Kinesiology, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, NC, USA;3. Division of Athletic Training, School of Applied Health Sciences and Wellness, College of Health Sciences and Professions &4. Ohio Musculoskeletal &5. Neurological Institute, Ohio University, Athens, Ohio, USA;6. Joint School of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, NC, USA |
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| Abstract: | This study examined the training effect of attentional focus (external focus, internal focus, or no focus instructions) on a dynamic balance task. Participants completed baseline balance testing, seven consecutive days of dynamic balance board training, and retention testing 24 hours after the last session. The novel finding of this study was the presence of a training effect on balance control when adopting an external focus relative to an internal focus or no focus instructions. Further, we report the unique observation that more patterned behavior was adopted regardless of the focus instructions. These findings provide insight into how instructions can be altered to enhance human balance control and complement the constrained-action hypothesis. |
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| Keywords: | attentional focus balance training wobble board sample entropy |
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