P98: Effect of Attentional Focus of Self-Statements in Basketball Practice on State Anxiety of Novice Players before Free Throw in front of Audience

The purpose of present study was investigation of the effect of attentional focus of novice players’ self-statements in basketball free throw practice on their state anxiety in transfer test with spectators’ presence. Therefore, 38 novice females (mean of the age=22 yrs.) who had intermediate trait anxiety were selected randomly by sports competitive anxiety test (SCAT). The participants were assigned to 3 matched groups according to the pretest and performed 120 basketball free throws with repetition of the words “wrist” (self-statement with internal focus) and “center of ring” (self-statement with external focus) and without self-statement (control) during 6 sessions. Transfer test was performed 2 days after the acquisition phase with spectators’ presence. Throw accuracy and trait anxiety in pretest, last session of acquisition and transfer test were measured by a 5-point scale and Illinois self-evaluation questionnaire (CASI-2), respectively. Results of mix 2-factor MANOVA did not indicate significant difference among trait anxiety of groups in different phases (P>0.05). Thus, variation of attention direction of novice players’ self-statements during basketball free throw practice has not considerable effect on their state anxiety before throw in front of audience and coaches can entrust the selection of instructional self-statements to players without spending time and energy for it but these results show that we need to more researches in the future.