Should golfers focus on their bodies, the club, the ball, or the target when they’re trying to change or improve a movement? The conventional wisdom strongly favors external focus, and there is substantial research supporting that position. However, newer analysis has raised important questions about publication bias, differences between studies, and whether the effect is as universal as it’s often made out to be. The guys discuss how internal and external cues actually work in golf instruction, why an internal focus may be useful when building a new movement pattern, and why a golfer may ultimately perform better with an external cue or feel. The bigger takeaway is that there probably isn’t one attentional strategy that works for every golfer, every skill, or every stage of learning; good coaching means figuring out what helps this golfer make the desired movement and perform the shot.

Links to the studies referenced:

• Reanalyzing the Evidence for External Focus Superiority – A robust Bayesian meta-analysis and reanalysis of previous external-focus research found that, after accounting for publication bias, the advantages of external focus were negligible and the evidence often favored the null hypothesis.
• External vs. Internal Focus in Golf Learning – A review of research on attentional focus in golf found that external-focus strategies generally outperformed internal-focus strategies, although much of the research involved novice golfers and relatively simple putting tasks.
• External Focus and Learning a Golf Pitch Shot – An experimental golf motor-learning study found that golfers using an external focus showed better delayed retention and transfer, along with greater self-efficacy and more positive affect, than those using an internal focus.
• Attentional Focus and Motor Learning Review – A broad review of motor-learning research concluded that an external focus generally promotes more effective and automatic movement than an internal focus, including evidence from novice golfers.
• External Focus and Motor Learning Overview – This review synthesizing roughly 15 years of attentional-focus research concluded that external focus generally improves performance and learning across a wide range of tasks, skill levels, and populations, while discussing possible explanations for the effect.
• Meta-Analysis of External vs. Internal Focus – A meta-analysis combining 73 studies on performance and 40 on learning found advantages for external focus in immediate performance, retention, and transfer, with the effects generally becoming larger for measures of learning.
• Foundational Review of Attentional Focus – This foundational review of motor-learning research proposed that directing attention internally toward body movements can interfere with automatic control, whereas focusing externally on the movement’s effect can promote more efficient automatic processes.

Hosts: Erik J. Barzeski, Jayson Nickol, Tyson Deskins