Generality and Specificity of Attention Dimensions in Elite Table Tennis Players

Good attentional focus is recognized as one of the key assets of an athlete. It becomes even more crucial in table tennis, a fast-paced sport requiring quick reactions and constant attention. To understand attentional patterns in table tennis, this study utilized the four subscales of the Multidimensional Inventory of Sport Excellence (MUSI) questionnaire: Extensive Internal Attention (EIA), Extensive External Attention (EEA), Narrow Internal Attention (NIA), and Narrow External Attention (NEA). The questionnaires were administered to general university students (Control, n=143) and skilled table tennis players (TTP, n=137) which included national-level table tennis players of Taiwan (NTTP, n=20). Taking gender as a covariate, a mixed model ANCOVA was used to compare the scores on attention dimensions between the control group and TTP (experiment 1) and the control group and NTTP (experiment 2). The weekly practice hours of TTPs and NTTPs were higher than the control group in both experiments. In both experiments, participants scored significantly higher on the narrow aspects of attention dimensions (NIA and NEA). In experiment 2, NTTPs scored higher on all dimensions than the control group, showing a group effect, particularly a significant difference in NIA. Our study indicates that attention generality occurs in all groups, i.e. the narrow dimensions of attention are significantly higher than the broad/extensive dimensions. Specifically, professional table tennis players have significantly higher NIA than the control group. Our results suggest that NIA could be used to differentiate elite table tennis players. Therefore, developing NIA is an important factor for athletic success.