In games that involve quick changing moves, not only does winning depend on physical skills and coordination but as we’ve often noted, also on how effectively an athlete cognitively processes complex information.
Watching the NBA playoffs this year, one could not but marvel at the flexibility, dexterity, reaction speed, adaptation, concentration, hand-eye coordination, – you name it – those ball players had it.
Part of their magic source was choosing the right course of action at exactly the right moment and executing this process dependably throughout the entire series. And for that to happen an athlete needs to have attention, focus and concentration skills, descriptors that are often used interchangeably:
- Concentration is the athlete’s ability to perform with a clear and present focus.
- Focus is the central point of the athlete’s attention.
- Attention is what the athlete is observing.
Focusing Skills:
Some athletes have poor focusing skills, which damage their sporting performance. Interfering cues such as negative thoughts, anxiety, even concern over an upcoming contest, can play havoc. As indeed may distracting or irrelevant cues such as an exciting new date, an overdrawn bank account or no gas in the tank. But most elite athletes have far superior focusing skills than your average Joe or Jane.
Are these focusing skills internal or externally driven, wide-ranging or narrow, flexible or rigid? The short answer is that all of them score points one way or another.
While competitors tend to be more at ease focusing on particular cues and avoiding others, most have a dominant style that impacts their performance especially when they are under pressure. Let’s examine this.
When the athlete is focused inwards so to speak, (e.g. thoughts, emotions and physical responses) it’s defined as internally driven. Internals perform best when their focus is narrow and concentrated on the sport they are playing. A downside can be that they’re easily sidetracked especially if they expand their focus by wandering off into other mental pastures. When this happens, they have difficulty sharpening their focus back onto their sport again.
Those who focus on the environment around them (such as the playing conditions, crowd size, the elements etc.,) are said to have an external focus. They use such cues to tap into their inner game but will perform best by shutting out all else at the moment competition starts. When not competing they take their minds off their game and broaden their focus again - particularly if they experience competitive anxiety.
Wide-ranging or narrow focus styles are also important. Having a broad focus means paying attention to different things going on simultaneously without any diminution of performing excellence. For example, seeing players moving into different positions, new gaps opening up and the clock running down - all at once. This is very different from athletes who are better at focusing on specifics or minutiae, such as the make-believe spot on a ball where a player wants to kick it (and to heck with the yelling crowd.)
Another important element is that of the athlete’s prime focus, the cognitive style that identifies an ability to shift between modes as the situation demands. Take the quarterback in American football.
Initially, he’s likely to focus internally. He’ll choose the best play based on the game situation. When the huddle breaks and he moves over center, he expands his focus externally to scan the defensive alignment. When the ball is hiked and he drops back to pass it, he’ll focus on his receiver’s routes until he finds an open player. He narrows his focus onto that receiver and throws him the ball.
Maintaining the right attentional focus is not easy. But one thing the elite athlete knows all to well. Whatever their dominant focusing mode, they must be able to shift across dimensions to meet the required attentional demands of immediate competition.