External Focus in Long Jump Performance: A Systematic Review

Abstract

External focus is a way to guide human movement based on outcome rather than execution, therefore all instructions are provided based on factors present in the environment. The aim of this review is to search information about the effects of external focus in the long jump task and to compare its outcomes with other learning methods. For the research, online database search engines such as PubMed, ScienceDirect, Embase, Cinahl, and Scopus were used from January 2010 to June 2020. About 41 articles were identified by searching the online databases, 12 were discarded because they were duplicates, 11 were excluded due to the content of the abstract, and finally, 5 were excluded after evaluating the content of the full text, leaving 13 articles to be included in this review. This review sought to summarize the findings in the literature on the use of external focus in the practice of long jump. The authors concluded that the external focus is a relevant approach and can be used as a tool for the learning process.