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Background: External attentional focus has an advantage over internal attentional focus in improving closed motor skills and in tasks involving the use of physical fitness components. This superiority was also found in a short run. Aim: The purpose of this study was to examine whether the external attentional advantage was maintained among young learners during 60 meter sprint Method: 134 4th grade students were divided into three research groups: an external focus group (25 boys, 26 girls), an internal focus group (28 boys, 24 girls) and a control group (14 boys, 17 girls). Participants performed a first measurement of a 60-meter sprint and then received intervention according to their research group. After the intervention, another measurement was performed to examine the effect of the intervention on performance. Results: Among the girls, no difference was found in the running times before and after the intervention and no interaction was found between the results and the study groups. Among the boys, no significant difference was found between running times before and after intervention, but an interaction was found between the results and the study groups (F = 7.022, p = 0.002). Post-hoc tests show that the external focus group ran worse in the second run (12.67 sec) (p <0.05), compared to the internal focus group (11.99 sec) and the control group (11.89 sec). Discussion and Conclusions The internal focus improved the boys' performance. That is, young learners produce an advantage in internal focus like novice golfers and those who don’t perform the skill automatically. It is possible that the lack of effect of the focus among girls is related to the fact that their competitiveness component is low compared to boys. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: External attentional focus has an advantage over internal attentional focus in improving closed motor skills and in tasks involving the use of physical fitness components. This superiority was also found in a short run. Aim: The purpose of this study was to examine whether the external attentional advantage was maintained among young learners during 60 meter sprint Method: 134 4th grade students were divided into three research groups: an external focus group (25 boys, 26 girls), an internal focus group (28 boys, 24 girls) and a control group (14 boys, 17 girls). Participants performed a first measurement of a 60-meter sprint and then received intervention according to their research group. After the intervention, another measurement was performed to examine the effect of the intervention on performance. Results: Among the girls, no difference was found in the running times before and after the intervention and no interaction was found between the results and the study groups. Among the boys, no significant difference was found between running times before and after intervention, but an interaction was found between the results and the study groups (F = 7.022, p = 0.002). Post-hoc tests show that the external focus group ran worse in the second run (12.67 sec) (p <0.05), compared to the internal focus group (11.99 sec) and the control group (11.89 sec). Discussion and Conclusions The internal focus improved the boys' performance. That is, young learners produce an advantage in internal focus like novice golfers and those who don’t perform the skill automatically. It is possible that the lack of effect of the focus among girls is related to the fact that their competitiveness component is low compared to boys. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]