The Effectiveness of Attentional Strategies on Throwing Performance and Gaze Behavior of Self-paced Tasks Under Fatigue and Non-fatigue Conditions

The participants will arrive at the Ribstein Center for Sports Medicine and Research at the Wingate Institute on four different occasions, 2-3 days apart, in order to complete three motor learning phases. Session 1 and 2 will include the acquisition phase, Session 3 will include the retention and transfer phases, and the last visit, Session 4, will include the fatigued session.

Sessions 1 and 2 The participants will be informed of the purpose, methods, and study protocol. Then an informed consent form will be provided to the participant to be signed. The participants will learn the throwing task according to specific instructions. Participants in all groups will be given the same technical instructions on how to throw the dart. The technical instructions will be followed by attentional focus instructions that will differ between groups. After receiving the instructions, the participants in both these groups will be given a questionnaire to fill in. The researcher will go over the answers with each participant to ensure that the instructions were understood. If needed, the instructions will be repeated until appropriate understanding and performance is achieved. Then, a 3-min practice period will begin. The participants of the internal focus group will be asked to perform the throwing movement of the arms 20 times without holding the dart. The external focus group's participants will be asked to perform the throwing motion 20 times while holding the dart. The participants in the control group will be asked to practice their stance, posture, and the holding of the dart.

Testing will begin after the preparation period. The Mobile Eye gaze tracking system will be fitted and calibrated to six different reference locations. The calibration target will be a board with six "X" shapes spaced 30 cm apart on a white paper that will be placed on the target. The external video will be located perpendicular to the participant in a way that the upper body and the arm movement can be seen in the frame. The participant will then perform the dart throwing task of 5 blocks of 12 trials, with a 2-min rest in between each block of trials. During the 2-min rest interval the researcher will remind each participant to use the attenational focus strategy. During the rest interval between the blocks, the system's calibration will be checked and calibrated again if necessary. In total, each participant will complete 120 trials of the dart throwing task in the acquisition phase.

Session 3 Upon arrival to the Lab, participants will be fitted with the Mobile Eye system, and calibration will be performed. The external video camera will be turned on and the participants will perform the same dart throwing task for 2 blocks of 10 trials, with 2min of rest in between. A transfer task will be performed after a 15-min break. Participants will be re-fitted with the Mobile Eye and re-calibration will be performed. The transfer task (an underarm throw) will be performed for 2 blocks of 10 trials with 2-min of rest in between.

Session 4 On the fourth and final visit, the participants will be randomly assigned into two groups. Each subgroup will perform two blocks of 10 trials, with a 60-sec rest in between, under different types of anaerobic physical exertions: (1) Leg Anaerobic condition (WAnT-leg): using the modified WAnT, and (2) Arm anaerobic condition (WAnT-arm): using the WAnT arm modification.