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I’ve been thinking about this since I taught a module on “concentration” in my Psychology of Coaching class a few weeks ago. We broke down the science of concentration, which I will refer to as “focus” going forward, and discussed strategies for helping athletes improve theirs.
As we chatted, I asked the class who had been told by a coach, teacher, or parent to “concentrate,” “pay attention,” or “focus.” All hands went up.
My next question was, “How many of you have been taught how to concentrate or focus?” Zero hands!
It’s like telling someone to get their head out of their rear end or be more confident. If they knew how to do that, you probably wouldn’t need to give them such a great suggestion!
“It is difficult to conceive of any aspect of psychology that may be more central to the enhancement of skill learning and expert performance than attention,” said Abernathy, et.al. (2007). If this is the case, then we better do something about teaching it!
Aside from asking my class this question, I spent time with two of my athletes this past week talking about things that distract them. One is working on picking better pitches. It’s not that she can’t see or doesn’t know a ball from a strike, it’s that after she swings at a ball, she swings at another one. After the “mistake,” she’s looking at the ball, but she isn’t seeing it…because her mind is somewhere else. She’s focused on what happened or what might happen instead of what is happening!
My other athlete is a college basketball player with talent coming out of her ears (not the one in the pic :)). She isn’t starting and is frustrated (even though she’s a sophomore on a nationally ranked team and is playing behind seniors and juniors…a normal place to be on a championship-caliber team). Even so, it’s not her talent that’s keeping her off the floor. It’s her inability to make quick decisions and stay focused.
For both of these athletes, who are very talented and work very hard, where their attention goes, they are, as they say…and if their attention is where it needs to be, they will be where they want to be…on base or in the lineup respectively!
What is focus and why is it so hard to do?
Moran (2004) defines it as follows “Concentration refers to a person’s ability to exert deliberate mental effort on what is most important in any given situation”. MOST IMPORTANT are the operative words!
But here’s the problem, our mind wanders almost 50% of the time. As I tell my basketball coaches, “They aren’t listening to you for half the game.” Think about that!!!
And if they aren’t “there” half the time, where are they? Like all of us, they spend a lot of time in the past (which makes us slow), in the future (which makes us rush), and, as Dr. Rob Gilbert likes to say, wondering WWOPS (what will other people think).
None of which helps them do what they need to do NOW! And here’s a bulletin (as my dad used to say), our body ALWAYS works in the present!
I pulled this from Foundations of Sport and Exercise Psychology (Weinberg and Gould, 2019) to give us a solid list of what focus is…and to give us a second to process how hard it is, especially under pressure.
Focusing on the relevant cues in the environment (selective attention)
Maintaining that attentional focus over time
Having awareness of the situation and performance errors
Shifting attentional focus when necessary
We’ve talked a lot lately about our amygdala – our built-in alarm system and its tendency to take over during pressure-filled situations. Since our ability to direct our attention toward a single task is powered by our prefrontal cortex, we need systems to put it in the driver’s seat and quiet our internal alarms.
There are several ways we can refocus…but we need systems in place before it happens. No one ever focused more by being yelled at to “focus”!
One thing we are learning in our coaching communication class is the power of external cues on focus and performance. When we focus on things outside of ourselves, particularly things away from our bodies (like the preferred flight path of the ball instead of the location of the barrel of our bat…or any internal cue like “lift your elbow”, we perform better. Unfortunately, research shows that DI coaches tend to provide cues and instructional feedback that shift athlete focus internally…to a part of their body or a movement instead of getting them to relate that movement to something in the environment. I’m pretty sure they could have included me in their cohort!
Why does this distinction matter? Because the more we focus inside ourselves…head or body…the slower we are and the more resistance (physically and mentally) we run into!
An example in our book The Language of Coaching when instructing someone prepping to complete a dumbbell press would be “Drive upward as if to shatter a pane of thick glass.” Now the athlete is focused outside of themselves. We don’t have time to get into the science of this, but this focus changes the way the muscles fire and allows for a more powerful and efficient movement and increased performance outcomes.
This type of outward focus leads me to the book I am reading and its implications on our focus. The book, The Outward Mindset by The Arbinger Institute, discusses the transformational benefits of shifting from an inward mindset, or one focused on personal goals and self-interest, to an outward mindset where leaders prioritize others’ needs and look at everything and everyone around them to make decisions.
The same goes for our focus. The world’s best athletes, when asked about their peak performances, report that they are completely absorbed in the present, they are mentally relaxed and in control AND they are in a heightened state of awareness of where they are in space and of the environment and those in it.
In fact, Beilock, et. al. found that choking occurs when athletes overanalyze physical movements and specifics related to the performance of a task which breaks down the movement patterns that have been automated by repetitive practice sessions. What they are saying is that the skill that can be performed without thinking is now being performed with conscious thought and this slows us down and gives us more opportunity to second-guess!
We know instruction can change our focus from internal to external, but what about those times you are on your own or in the thick of it and need to shift RIGHT NOW?
The hitter I mentioned earlier is learning the physiological sigh, practicing outside of at-bats and games, so she can shift after a “mistake” and get back into her zone. We know that increased arousal throws our focus out of whack, so after we swing at ball 4 and now have a 3-2 count along with some frustration and a slight bit of fear, we can’t wait too long to shift our focus to what’s important now off of what just happened. And in the meantime, we need to reset our body back to flow mode, not freak-out mode!
My basketball player is taking a different route. She is talking herself back into focus. Sometimes she will narrate what she sees. Other times she will tell herself what she is going to do. Either way, she is looking out OUTWARD and making decisions on what she sees, not on what she feels or fears.
Both of these tools are so simple…and we are starting small. We don’t want to be overwhelmed by our shifting technique and different things work for different people. Neither (or nothing) will work every time, but becoming more aware of when we lose focus helps us strengthen our focus “muscle” over time.
Since we demand focus and know we are all better when we are attending to the task at hand, teaching it does much more than improve performance. It empowers people to navigate distractions, bounce back from setbacks, and remain competitive under pressure.
Without a trained ability to refocus, we’re left vulnerable to self-doubt, frustration, and errors.
However, building a focus tool and using external instruction enhances the ability to shift back to the present.
It’s a constant battle, but one we can win one shift at a time.
Manage your focus!
Julie
P.S. Let’s build your team’s Mental Performance Operating System! Contact me to find out how!
Send me a text at 234-206-0946 or an email at juliej@ssbperformance.com and schedule a call to see how we can enhance your program’s mental approach!
Julie Jones
Mental Performance Coach
SSB Performance
juliej@ssbperformance.com • 234-206-0946
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