Performing incompatible movements at the same time induces response-response incompatibility costs. Such costs also occur in sports settings, for example, when passing the ball in one direction while orienting the head in the opposite direction (i.e., head fake). In Basketball, performing passes with head fakes results in higher initiation times and error rates compared to passes without head fakes (so-called head fake production costs) when participants had no or only little time to mentally prepare the movement (Güldenpenning et al., 2022). This study addresses the question whether the production costs of head fakes can be reduced when using effort instructions (asking participants to try harder in the following trial). These effort instructions could allocate some cognitive capacity to the task, which are otherwise used for monitoring processes (e.g., observing the environment; Kahnemann, 1973). This should reduce the initiation time of the participants following effort instructions. In this study participants (N = 20, Mage = 22.3 years) were asked to perform passes with or without head fakes. In 20% of all trials, they received effort instructions (“Anstrengen”) and in the remaining 80% of trials, a standard instruction (“Standard”) was presented. The results show that the use of effort instructions generally reduces the initiation time compared to standard instructions (435 ms vs. 448 ms, F(1,19) = 14.33; p = .001; ɳp2 = .43), regardless of the type of pass. The effectiveness of the effort instructions was therefore not modulated by the difficulty of the chosen task (pass with or without head fake).