The River Tiger Podcast from Dynamics Coaching
Our mission is to bring evidence-based research, theory, and practice to life in an engaging, enjoyable, and practical manner. We aim to foster a vibrant community where knowledge meets application in the realms of adventure, lifestyle, and equestrian sports.
Join us as we delve into spontaneous and insightful conversations with practitioners and researchers across the fields of learning, skill acquisition, movement sciences, ethics, and philosophy, particularly in relation to adventure and equestrian sports. Our focus is on sports that embrace fluidity and lack rigid boundaries or rules, inherently involving risks that cannot be completely eliminated. We believe that these sports present unique challenges and opportunities that differ from those found in many traditional sports. However, we aspire for our podcasts to resonate with coaches and participants across a diverse spectrum of sports and activities.
Become part of our passionate community, nurture your skills, forge connections, uphold ethical standards, and revolutionise your approach to acquiring movement skills.
The River Tiger Podcast from Dynamics Coaching
Are instructions always good? Exploring the importance of how and why coaches guide 'Focus of Attention' with Dr Vicky Gottwald and Dr Robin Owen.
In this episode we revisit the importance of considering where an athlete or learner is focusing their attention and why focus of attention is so important for skill acquisition, retention, and transfer.
My guests bring the topic to life with an overview of the research literature to date. We also discuss some of the challenges of research, application to practice and why this area is so important for coaches to be aware of.
Findings in the 'focus of attention' literature for the benefits of an 'external focus' has been one of the most replicated phenomena in sports science. But, is it that simple? More recent research is challenging the simple internal vs external focus dichotomy and looking at what perceptual information might be most important for the performer to be attuning to.
We also discuss the importance of researchers learning from practitioners.
My guests on this episode are Dr Vicky Gottwald and Dr Robin Owen.
Vicky Gottwald
X @GottwaldVicky
University profile
https://www.bangor.ac.uk/staff/spss/vicky-gottwald-016917/en
Robin Owen
X @RobinOwenPsych
University profile
https://www.hope.ac.uk/si/dr-robin-owen.html
Useful Links
Gottwald et al, (2023). Every story has two sides: evaluating information processing and ecological dynamics perspectives of focus of attention in skill acquisition
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fspor.2023.1176635/full
Harnessing the power of attention: Exploring 'focus of attention' theories, practice, and myths. In book: Myths of Sport Performance (Due in Spring 2024). Publisher: Sequoia.
Draft version: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/377416924_Harnessing_the_power_of_attention_Exploring_'focus_of_attention'_theories_practice_and_myths