A Holistic Focus of Attention Enhances Vertical Jump Performance Among NCAA Division I Football Players

Background: Directing attention externally (EF) has been found to be more advantageous for motor performance than directing attention internally (IF). More recently, a holistic focus (HF) has been found to yield similar performance outcomes to an EF focus among both novice and experienced individuals. Purpose: There remains a need to examine kinetics and kinematics under a HF to more fully understand the underlying mechanism for the performance benefits. Study Sample: Seventeen (male; M = 19.81 years, SD = 1.58) NCAA Division I football players performed 12 vertical jumps in a counterbalanced order under four conditions with three jumps in each: IF (i.e., tips of the fingers), EF (i.e., top of the rungs), HF (i.e., being explosive), and control (CON). Data Collection: all participants performed the vertical jumps on a force plate with 16 reflective markers placed on their lower extremities. Research Design: Repeated measures ANOVA with Sidak post-hoc were used to analyze jump height, flight height, peak force, takeoff velocity, and knee and hip flexion. Results: A significant main effect for jump height was observed [F (3, 48) = 8.14, p = .003, η_p² = .34]. HF and EF jumped significantly higher than CON (p = .020; p = .024). No other significant differences for jump height were observed (p's > .05). No significant differences were observed for flight height, peak force, takeoff velocity, and flexion of the knee and hip (p's > .05). Conclusions: The results of our study support previous research in that both an EF and HF significantly improved jump performance, however, the benefit was not attributed to improved kinematics or kinetics. Practitioners can utilize both EF and HF to enhance athletic performance.