PURPOSE This study examined the effects of focus of attention on beginning golfers’ competitive anxiety and motor performance. METHODS Forty-eight college students with no prior golf putting experience were selected as participants and randomly assigned to internal-focus, external-focus, holistic-focus, and control groups (12 participants each). All subjects performed 5-m golf putting in acquisition, noncompetitive, and competitive situations. RESULTS In competitive situations, the internal-focus, holistic-focus, and control groups showed golf putting accuracy and consistency similar to those in noncompetitive situations, whereas the external-focus group’s golf putting accuracy and consistency were significantly lower in competitive situations than in noncompetitive situations. In addition, the holistic-focus group showed significantly higher golf putting accuracy than the control group in both competitive and noncompetitive situations. CONCLUSIONS Holistic-focus can be used effectively as a strategy for beginners to learn motor skills and reproduce learned motor skills when state anxiety increases. However, external attention focus cannot be considered a strategy to induce effective beginners’ exercise performance when competitive state anxiety increases.
