Abstract
Previous studies have confirmed that the temporal attentional control created by the repetition of stimulus–response compatibility (SRC) tasks was transferred to shooting skills in lacrosse players. In the current study, we investigated whether combining motor imagery training with SRC tasks could enhance the scoring ability of lacrosse players. We grouped 33 male lacrosse players into three groups: an SRC task and motor imagery group (referred as to SRC + Image), an SRC task group, and a control group. Players in the first two groups underwent five sessions of 200 SRC task trials. In addition, the SRC + Image group completed five sessions of motor-imagery training. The control group underwent no training interventions. All three groups performed a lacrosse shooting test and a Simon task before and after training sessions to assess the magnitude of the interference effects of the various types of training they underwent. The results of the Simon task showed that repetition of 1,000 trials was enough to create a short-term representation with the incompatible special mapping being transferred to a dynamic activity like lacrosse shooting. Moreover, a combination of a computer-based Type 2 task and motor-imagery training could effectively increase players’ scoring abilities in a field of large spatial conflict.
Highlights
Previous studies for the improvement of lacrosse skills have primarily focused on the physical and biomechanical aspects of training (e.g., Gutowski and Rosene, 2011; Macaulay et al, 2016), comparatively few researchers have shed light on the cognitive dimensions of the sport
We demonstrated that the repetitive execution of a Type 2 task could have potential as a training tool for proper attentional allocation vis-à-vis lacrosse shooting, we found two critical problems with the use of stimulus–response compatibility (SRC) tasks to improve lacrosse shooting
A three-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) for the error rate revealed a significant interaction between test and group [F(2,26) = 3.66, p = 0.040, η2p = 0.22], indicating that the error rate of the SRC group was higher in the post-test than in the pre-test [t(7) = 3.83, p = 0.006, d = 1.06]
Summary
Previous studies for the improvement of lacrosse skills have primarily focused on the physical and biomechanical aspects of training (e.g., Gutowski and Rosene, 2011; Macaulay et al, 2016), comparatively few researchers have shed light on the cognitive dimensions of the sport (e.g., attentional regulation). Effective scorers assess the goalie’s position and movements as quickly as possible and shoot in the opposite direction This is relatively difficult, given that the direction the goalie steps toward is spatially incompatible with the place the shooter should aim. Regardless of the intention of the shooter, their attention is automatically attracted to the goalie’s movement because they automatically process the body orientation of another person (Langton and Bruce, 2000). This automatic allocation of attention is commonly used as a feinting or “fake” technique (Kunde et al, 2011). This automatic attentional mechanism could affect the allocation of the shooter’s attention, resulting in a suboptimal shot execution
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