Objectives This study examined the moderating effect of attentional focus on basketball shooting performance under varying fatigue levels. Methods A 2 (Attentional Focus: External vs. Internal) × 3 (Fatigue Level: No Fatigue, Moderate Fatigue, Severe Fatigue) within-subject design was employed. Thirty male basketball players (mean age: 20.1 ± 0.3 years) completed 20 standardized free-throw attempts under each condition. Shooting accuracy was recorded, and repeated measures ANOVA was performed to analyze main and interaction effects. Results Significant main effects were observed for attentional focus F (1,29) = 8.15, p = 0.008 and fatigue level F (2,58) = 26.32, p 0.001 along with a significant interaction effect between attentional focus and fatigue level F (2,58) = 4.27, p = 0.018. Shooting accuracy under external focus (75.0%) was significantly higher than under internal focus (65.0%). Under severe fatigue, external focus resulted in a 15% higher shooting accuracy than internal focus, with this advantage increasing as fatigue levels intensified. Conclusion Fatigue impairs basketball shooting performance; however, adopting an external attentional focus can mitigate its negative impact, particularly under severe fatigue conditions.
Luo et al. (2025) studied this question.