摘要：An Ironnian triathlon is composed of a 3.8k swim, a 180k bike ride and a 42.2k marathon run, all in one event without any rest in between. The world's best professional athletes complete the distance in less than 8 hours whereas the slowest age group athletes need up to 17 hours to cross the finish line. Finishing such an ultra endurance event is both a physical and a mental challenge. Being involved in physical activity for several hours gives the athlete a lot of time to focus and think. What is the content of these thoughts and where do athletes focus their attention on during such extreme physical activities? This study looks at focus of attention during an Ironman triathlon event and specifically addresses the question whether the use of different attentional strategies in the three disciplines of an Ironman triathlon is associated with overall performance.
The concept of attentional focus in endurance activities had been frequently studied for more than three decades. Morgan and Pollock (1977) were the first to differentiate between an internal and an external focus of attention. (1) An internal focus refers to a concentration on bodily symptoms and other factors associated with the endurance activity. An external focus, in contrast, implies a distraction from physical effort associated with the endurance task. Other researchers have proposed a classification into four categories (Stevinson & Biddle, 1999), however the use of two categories has been enforced (e.g. Connolly & Janelle, 2003). Looking at the definitions of internal and external focus, it is obvious that the concept is rather broad, especially when comparing attentional focus in endurance sports to attentional focus definitions in motor control. In motor control an internal focus refers to a monitoring of movement execution (e.g. Beilock, Carr, MacMahon, & Starkes, 2002; Wulf, 2007) which is a specific internal aspect. However, in endurance sports, an internal focus encompasses all factors pertaining to the activity, such as movement execution and physiological stimuli like heart rate, muscle tension and feelings of fatigue and pain. In the framework of this study the view of this broad concept is adopted and all aspects of internal and external attentional focus strategies are analysed.
