Self-efficacy assessment hinders improvement on a deliberate cricket bowling practice task

Area of Science:

• Sport Psychology
• Motor Skill Acquisition

Background:

• External attentional focus is generally associated with enhanced motor task performance.
• The impact of self-efficacy on deliberate practice and skill improvement requires further investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how directing attention towards self-efficacy influences performance in a cricket bowling task.
• To determine if self-assessment of self-efficacy impacts improvement during deliberate practice.

Main Methods:

• Participants completed a cricket bowling pre-test measuring accuracy in a "good length" zone.
• Participants were assigned to either an experimental group (rating own self-efficacy) or a control group (rating another's ability).
• Post-test performance was assessed after 12 additional bowling trials for both groups.

Main Results:

• The control group demonstrated significant improvement in bowling performance from pre-test to post-test.
• The experimental group, which focused on self-efficacy, showed no significant improvement in performance.
• Self-efficacy rating was associated with a lack of performance enhancement in the deliberate practice task.

Conclusions:

• Directing attention to self-efficacy may impede skill development during deliberate practice.
• Findings suggest that an external focus may be more beneficial for performance improvement in skill-based tasks.
• Implications for optimizing training strategies in sports and for researchers studying attention and performance are discussed.