• OPTIMAL MOTOR LEARNING requires conditions that learners’ enhance expectancies for future performance, provide learners autonomy, promote an external focus of attention

The OPTIMAL (Optimizing Performance Through Intrinsic Motivation and Attention for Learning) theory of motor learning (Wulf & Lewthwaite, 2016) explains well-established effects of motivational and attentional factors on performance and learning. Implications range from more effective skill development in children and novice performers to athletes and performers in many fields, including clinical rehabilitation.

Conditions that fail to enhance learners’ expectancies and support their need for autonomy, and promote an internal focus of attention can result in a vicious cycle of non-optimal learning (top), whereas conditions that enhance expectancies, provide autonomy support, and promote an external focus can result in a virtuous cycle of enhanced motor learning (bottom) (from Wulf & Lewthwaite, 2016, Figure 8).

• A WINNING EDGE FOR THE OLYMPICS AND EVERYDAY LIFE: FOCUSING ON WHAT YOU’RE TRYING TO ACCOMPLISH RATHER THAN WHAT’S GOING ON WITH YOUR BODY

In this article for The Conversation I review research on external focus and highlight implications for sport performance.

• A condensed version of the OPTIMAL theory can be found in a 2021 Current Directions in Psychology article

• Enhanced expectancies for performance, learner autonomy, and an external focus of attention — key factors in the OPTIMAL theory — contribute in an additive fashion to skill learning.

While each of these factors individually has been shown to enhance learning, three studies showed that combining two factors—enhanced expectancies and autonomy support (Wulf, Chiviacowsky, & Cardozo, 2014), enhanced expectancies and an external focus (Pascua, Wulf, & Lewthwaite, 2015), or autonomy support and an external focus (Wulf, Chiviacowsky & Drews, 2015)—resulted in additional benefits relative to the presence of only one of these factors, or none. The last study in this series (Wulf, Lewthwaite, Cardozo, & Chiviacowsky, 2018) demonstrated that having all three factors present during practice facilitated learning to an even greater extent than did two factors. Instructors can take advantage of these effects by ensuring that success is experienced, giving learners choices to support their need for autonomy and finding appropriate external foci.

• Comprehensive meta-analyses show that adopting an external focus of attention results in superior performance and learning compared with an internal focus

Chua, Jimenez-Diaz, Lewthwaite, Kim, and Wulf (2021) included a total of 153 experiments with 4,269 participants in their meta-analyses. The results demonstrate that the use of an external focus, by directing attention to intended movement effects, provides clear advantages for performing and learning motor skills. The results also show that neuromuscular efficiency (e.g., EMG activity) is enhanced with an external relative to an internal focus. Moreover, benefits for motor performance are generally larger for distal relative to more proximal external foci. The advantages of an external focus are present whether the individual is a child or adult, has a clinical condition or not, and is considered to be a novice, experienced, or an expert at the motor skill.

• Standardized clinical and laboratory assessments of physical capacity and motor performance that do not incorporate OPTIMAL conditions may underestimate true maximal capabilities

A study by Chua, Wulf, and Lewthwaite (2020) examined the impact of a brief optimizing instruction – incorporating enhanced expectancies, autonomy support, and and external focus relative to conventional “neutral” instructions on the performance of the BESS test. The results show enhanced postural stability (16%) under OPTIMAL conditions. The study demonstrates the significance of the provision of OPTIMAL instructions in determining maximal performance outcome in a clinical-applied balance test.

• An external focus on the task goal enhances movement outcomes by optimizing compensatory coordination of body parts

Functional variability – or compensatory variability that involves the motor system’s adjusting various degrees of freedom to ensure that the desired movement outcome is achieved – is a key property of movement coordination seen in skilled performers. An interesting study by Singh, Shih, Kal, Bennett, and Wulf (2022) shows that instructions to adopt an external focus, in particular a distal external focus, increases functional variability and, in turn, movement accuracy. In this study, volleyball players performed overhand serves more accurately when asked to adopt a distal focus compared to proximal or internal foci. Thus, a distal focus facilitates compensatory variability among joint angles, thereby optimizing movement outcome.

• An external focus can be an image

• Giving performers autonomy allows them to move more efficiently

In individuals who are given (small) choices – and who therefore have a sense of autonomy – the motor system operates at a higher level of efficiency. In one study (Iwatsuki, Shih, Abdollahipour, & Wulf, 2021), participants produced the same forces with less muscle activation when they were able to choose the order of tasks. In another study by Iwatsuki, Navalta, and Wulf (2019), runners needed less oxygen while running at a given speed when they could choose pictures to be displayed during the run.

• A coach’s feedback can have an immediate impact on her or his athletes’ endurance

Providing runners with positive feedback about their performance can lead to a decrease in oxygen consumption, or an increase in movement efficiency (Stoate, Wulf, & Lewthwaite, 2012). The study also showed that participants displayed more marked changes in personal performance perceptions (related to ease of running, tiredness, etc.) and greater positive affect compared with the control group.

Read about the study in Runner’s World. 

• Musicians play with superior musical expression and technical precision when they adopt an external focus

A study with classically trained musicians in Munich (Mornell & Wulf, 2019) – including singers, guitarists, pianists, violinists, hornists, percussionists, cellists, accordion players, and others – showed that an external focus of attention improved their performance. Compared with their “normal” performance (control condition) or an internal focus on precise finger or lip movements, an external focus on the sound of the music enhanced both musical expression and technical precision.

Read about this study on Bulletproof Musician. 

• Giving people small choices increases exercise engagement

A study by Wulf, Freitas, and Tandy (2014) demonstrates that supporting their need for autonomy – by allowing them to choose the order of exercises (lunges, medicine ball throws, bear crawls, jumping jacks) – can increase people’s motivation to exercise. Exercisers who had a choice completed more sets and repetitions than did control group participants.

• Professional boxers punch with greater velocity and higher impact forces when they have a small choice

Maximal effort punches were delivered faster and with greater force when professional boxers, including a world-champion kickboxer, were able to choose the order of punches (lead straight, rear straight, lead hook, rear hook) relative to a predetermined order. These findings by Halperin, Chapman, Martin, Lewthwaite, and Wulf (2017) complement research on autonomy support by demonstrating immediate advantages in force production and velocity in experienced athletes.

• An external attentional focus improves a golfer’s movement form and driving distance

A single external focus cue can be sufficient to elicit effective whole-body coordination when performing complex motor skills. A study by An, Wulf, and Kim (2013) demonstrated that a golf swing was performed more efficiently with an external focus – as evidenced by greater carry distance (see below), X-factor stretch, and higher maximum angular velocities of the pelvis, shoulder, and wrist – than with an internal or no focus instruction. These findings show that both movement outcome and form can be enhanced by providing learners with an appropriate external focus instruction.

• Physical therapists can improve the balance of people with Parkinson’s disease by giving the right instructions

Postural instability while standing, walking, and interacting with objects places individuals with Parkinson disease (PD) at risk for falls, injuries, and self-imposed restrictions in activity. But a change in attentional focus can lead to immediate balance improvements. As this study shows, focusing externally – in this case, by concentrating on minimizing movements of the rubber disk – enhances postural stability in those with PD, compared with concentrating on minimizing feet movements (internal focus) or just standing still (control condition). The findings have important implications for instructions given by clinicians and potentially the reduction of fall risk.

• Professional athletes may not always adopt a focus of attention that is optimal for performance.

Guss-West and Wulf (2016) conducted a survey among professional ballet dancers to determine their typical attentional focus while performing certain movements. The majority reported adopting internal foci, or combinations of internal and external foci, most of the time. Thus, there is room for improvement for performance and teaching. We provide examples of how external foci can be promoted in ballet practice.

• An individual’s mindset influences learning and movement automaticity

Pointing out the “learnability” of a task impacts motor coordination favorably — leading to greater automaticity in movement control and faster skill learning (Wulf & Lewthwaite, 2009).

• Enhancing learners’ confidence leads to better learning

Setting criteria that purportedly indicate good performance, but that can be reached relatively easily, can raise learners’ confidence and in turn lead to more effective learning. In this study, golf putting accuracy on retention and transfer tests was enhanced when learners felt more successful during practice (see below).

• Allowing learners to decide when to watch a skill demonstration has multiple benefits 

Children learning a sequence of ballet positions had higher self-efficacy, showed greater positive affect, and reported having more positive thoughts during practice when they were able to choose video demonstrations relative to a control group. Moreover, they demonstrated enhanced skill learning. The findings highlight the motivational underpinnings of learning benefits seen when learners are given choices (Lemos, Wulf, Lewthwaite, & Chiviacowsky, 2017).

Read about this study on Bulletproof Musician.

• Gymnasts’ performance is enhanced immediately when they adopt an external focus

A simple external focus cue – a tape marker on the chest (see figure below) – is sufficient to improve movement form and jump height, as this study by Abdollahipour, Wulf, Psotta, and Palomo Nieto (2015) demonstrates. Thus, even the performance form-based skills, without the use of implements, benefits when attention is directed appropriately.

• Maximal aerobic capacity can be increased by enhancing performers’ expectancies

Maximal aerobic capacity (VO_2max) is regarded as the best measure of cardiovascular fitness. Yet, as the results of this study by Montes and colleagues (2018) show, aerobic capacity is also a function of the performer’s self-efficacy expectations. These findings provide further evidence for social-cognitive-affective influences on (maximum) motor performance.