CH 16 – Concentration
Concentration = attention
 Many things can affect your concentration; one of the most common is anxiety.
 Concentration is the mental effort placed on sensory or mental events.
Four components of Concentration:
1) Focusing on relevant cues (selective attention):
 Irrelevant cues are either eliminated or disregarded
 You select the cues you will pay attention to and those you will disregard
2) Maintaining attentional focus:
 Difficult to maintain focus for entire contest
 Associative attentional strategy – monitoring bodily functions and feelings, e.g., heart
rate, muscle tension, and breathing rate. (internal focus)
 Dissociative attentional strategy – tuning out distractions. (external focus)
3)
Situation Awareness – players size up game situations, opponents and competitions to make
appropriate decisions based on this situation and often under acute pressure and time
constraints.
 High-ability athletes are able to analyze situations more quickly and use more
anticipatory cues that their non-expert counterparts.
4)
Shifting attentional focus when necessary.
Associative-Dissociative
 Associative attentional strategy – monitoring bodily functions and feelings, e.g., heart
rate, muscle tension, and breathing rate. (internal focus)
 Dissociative attentional strategy – tuning out distractions. (external focus)
Selected Research Findings of Associative-Dissociative
 Associative strategies are generally correlated with faster running performances.
 Runners use both associative and dissociative strategies.
 Dissociation does not increase probability of injury, but it can decrease fatigue and
monotony.
 Dissociation should be used by individuals who wish to increase exercise adherence.
Concentration and optimal performance, characteristics. Elite peak performance is associated with:
a)
Being absorbed in the present and having no thoughts about the past or future.
b)
Being mentally relaxed and having a high degree of concentration and control
c)
Being in a state of extraordinary awareness of both their own bodies and the external
environment.
 Experts can pick up cues quicker and thus make decisions quicker
It is important to focus on only the relevant cues in the athletic environment and to eliminate
distractions.
Types of Attentional Focus:
a)
Broad attentional focus – see several things at one time
b)
Narrow attentional focus – respond to only one or two cues
c)
External attentional focus – directs attention outward to an object
d)
Internal attentional focus – directed inward to thoughts and feelings.
Shifting attentional focus: Example = golfer
Expert-Novice Differences in Attentional Processing:
Experts as compared to novice performers
– Make faster decisions and better anticipate future events
– Attend more to movement patterns
– Search more systematically for cues
– Selectively attend to the structure inherent in sport, and
– Are more skillful in predicting ball flight patterns
Attentional problems:
1) Internal distracters
 Attending to past events
 Attending to future events
 Choking under pressure
 Choking is much more than the actual behavior – it is a process that leads to
impaired performance.
 Usually occurs in a situation of emotional importance to the athlete
 Instead of focusing externally on the relevant cues, your attention becomes narrow
and internal as you focus on your own worries and fears of losing & failing
 The increased pressure reduces your flexibility to shift your attentional focus – you
have trouble changing your focus as the situation dictates.
 Impaired timing and coordination, fatigue, muscle tension, and poor judgment and
decision making soon follow.

Overanalyzing body mechanics
 “paralysis by analysis”
 once a skill is learned well, an overemphasis on body mechanics is detrimental to
performance – the mind gets in the way of the body
 Fatigue
Choking is an attentional process that leads to impaired performance and the inability to retain
control over performance without outside assistance.
2) External Distracters:
 Visual distracters, e.g. spectators, score board
 Auditory distracters, e.g. crowd noise, airplanes, announcements on PA system, beepers,
etc.
 Gamesmanship - strategic ploy to disrupt opponents concentration.
Self-talk – any time you think about something, you are really talking to yourself. Can be positive
(“I can do it” ) or instructional (“Bend your knees) or negative (“That was stupid.”)
Appropriate self-talk helps one focus on the present and keeps one’s mind from wandering.
Self talk works: events in an of themselves do not cause depression, anger, anxiety, hopelessness, or
frustration – it is how the event is interpreted.
Uses of self-talk:
 Skill acquisition – “drop, step, hit” using cues helps reinforce the skill
 Breaking bad habits – the greater the change the more self-instruction is necessary
 Initiating action – cue words like quick or fast
 Sustaining effort – “keep it up”
Process of Self-talk (See page 365 for more)
 Event – missing an important shot in tennis
 Self-talk – “What an idiot I am – I’ll never win now.”
 Response – anger, hopelessness, increased muscle tension



Event – missing an important shot in tennis
Self-talk – “Keep you eye on the ball – this match isn’t over.”
Response – better concentration, optimism, calmness
Negative self-talk:
 Of the 66,000 thoughts we have each day, 70% to 80% are negative.
 Performers who are able to think more positively about negative stressful events are more
successful.
 “Ironic processing” occurs – trying not to perform a negative action inadvertently causes
that event to occur (hitting golf ball into water.)
Six Rules for Improving Self-Talk:
 Keep phrases short and specific.
 Use the first person and present tense.
 Construct positive phrases.
 Say your phrases with meaning and attention.
 Speak kindly to yourself.
 Repeat phrases often.
Techniques for Improving Self-Talk
a)
b)
Thought stopping – concentrating on the undesired thought briefly and then using a cue or
trigger to stop the thought and clear your mind. “Stop.” Will work
Changing negative self-talk to positive self-talk – see above
1).
2).
3).
4).
5).
6).
7).
8).
Tips for Improving Concentration On-Site
Use simulations in practice
 Include the noise/distractions
 Include the situations
Use cue words
 They will trigger a response
 Should be either instructional or motivational
Employ non-judgmental thinking – don’t look at your performance as good or bad, look at
specifics and correct what you can.
Establish routines – can be sued before or during an event to focus attention, reduce anxiety,
eliminate distractions, and enhance confidence.
Develop Competition Plans – focus on the process – what the athlete CAN control
Practice Eye Control – focus on task at hand (ignore the crowd) focus on what you will be
doing
Stay focused in the present – forget what just happened
Over-learn Skills
Exercises for Improving Concentration (pg. 391-392)
1. Learn to shift attention
2. “Park” thoughts
3. Learn to maintain focus
4. Search for relevant cues
5. rehearse game concentration