Focusing pitfalls and how to overcome them
The importance of honing focus in life versus sport
The inability to maintain focus in school can affect one’s grades. A lack of attention in relationships may cause social issues. These types of attention gaps may be frustrating, but they are not necessarily acutely harmful to our immediate health. Yet in sport, the inability to pay attention consistently, cannot only suck one of their full potential, it can be dangerous.
The cycle of distraction
In sport, several factors can pull attention from an intended task. And although it is not difficult to identify gaps in attention, many avoid addressing this problem because of post-practice or competition exhaustion or the uncomfortable feeling that arises when the topic is mentioned. An athlete may chalk it up to a bad/okay day, resulting in the self-promise:
“I will fix it tomorrow.”
Yet, fixing focusing skills during an event whether it be practice or competition, might never happen, especially without proper preparation. Keep reading and you will see why.
How physical prep differs from mental prep
Great coaches know how to prep an athlete physically. Especially at the higher levels, many have it down to a science. They create schedules and assignments to balance challenging practices with what we call maintenance workouts. This is called periodization —creating assignments that are both mentally and physically challenging, then mixing them with basic workouts to rest the system and to boost confidence. This is the best way to physically gain strength and stamina while preventing injuries that stem from overuse. But some athletes can get caught in a psychological glitch during this regimen. The glitch happens when an athlete becomes hyper-fixated on only the difficult assignments, causing an inability to regroup during the easier assignments, in-turn making the entire practice/week seem nerve-wracking. The exhaustion can even cause subconscious anticipatory anxiety, where the athlete does not even realize how often they are focusing on negative what if scenarios. Thus, when the relief of the end of practice arrives, they just want to shut down. They may promise to “fix it” the next day, but as we said before this rarely occurs —which unfortunately causes the cycle to continue.
If this is you, or an athlete you work with, it is worthwhile to know that streamlining focusing skills only takes a few steps each day in addition to a regular training regimen. Attention can be easily improved with an athlete’s willingness to identify their mental gaps and making small commitments daily to close them. This process is extremely helpful for parents and coaches to understand too. Honing attention can improve one’s level in sport as well as many other future aspirations.
Start with these strategies to build stronger focus for when it counts:
Commit to learning and practicing the following skills: relaxation, visualization, stress-recovery and the physiology related to these skills
Look at each of the prior mentioned ideas at a personal level: what is relaxing/stressful to me; when do I visualize the best; how much recovery time is needed; how will practicing each of these things make a difference in my game plan, etc.
Identify if you are distracted more externally (noise, people, sights, etc.) or internally (thoughts, worries, negative self-talk etc.) This is a very important part of the process (!)
Pinpoint specific distractions and write them down to target the right solution --we call this identifying the “ping”
Choreographing a way to train the brain to perform at peak under pressure is not natural for everyone. It is actually not natural for many of us. But with added awareness to one’s thoughts under pressure, training can become more enjoyable and safer. It is then easier to transfer this consistency to competition.
Contact Aspire to learn more about personalized game plans to strengthen your foundation of focus.
