Improve Your Concentration

Improving concentration can take your performance to the next level...

improve concentration

In order for athletes to fully concentrate and reach peak performances, they must connect what they're thinking to what they're doing, their minds and bodies totally synced and working together - distractions eliminated from consciousness.

At first, this statement might seem like common sense: focus and get the point, or goal, or win the race. Yet it's not that athletes stop focusing, but that they focus or pay attention to irrelevant details, or details beyond their control.

Athletes get distracted by both internal and external distractions. External distractions are ringing phones, the click of cameras, or poor weather conditions. Internal distractions are worries, concerns about what other people think, fear of losing, or the fear of letting others down. Anxiety (see Anxiety) is also a distraction that deters the concentration of athletes.

Sports psychology researchers agree that certain psychological strategies improve concentration, and top athletes - those who consistently win or come from behind to outplay competitors - use some or all of the following techniques:

Concentration Techniques

Identify and delineate performance goals

Athletes set many goals, such as "make it to the Olympics," or "win the U.S. Open." But for improving concentration, "performance" goals rather than "outcome" goals help the athlete stay focused during competition. These goals are specific and measureable. Examples include increasing the stride rate - steps per minute - for runners, or increasing a topspin serve by 25% for tennis players, or keeping the stick on the ice for hockey players.

Pre-performance routines

These are brief, self-paced actions that have been taught or developed by the athlete, commonly associated with sports that have established "breaks" for preparing for execution, such as tennis, diving, weight-lifting, bowling, archery, and golfing. But team sports also have times for routine, such as basketball players at the free throw line rehearsing the throw before the referee hands them the ball, receiving the ball and bouncing it a set number of times, taking a deep breath or two, and bending and unbending their knees. The routines keep players in the moment rather than thinking too far ahead.

Trigger words

Many athletes develop strategic words or phrases to use during competition, reminding them of certain actions they want to perform, and keeping them focused on those goals. The words can be instructional, such as breathe, follow-through, relax, or stay-low. They can also be motivational, such as give it muscle, explode, or strength. Athletes practice these words during training so that the words become familiar and automatically repeated during competition.

Visualization

This concentration technique means seeing and feeling a skill or athletic event in one's head before actually completing it. Snowboarders imagine an upcoming halfpipe run, mentally completing consecutive double corks, diagonal flips, and double-forward-flipping spins - with perfect form and great height. Before serving, tennis players imagine a serve going exactly into the corner of the service box, or returning a serve into the right corner of the opponent's court.

Practice with distractions

Athletes simulate stressful, loud environments in order to learn how to ignore these distractions. Similar to how performing artists "practice peforming" in front of others, professional athletes learn how to practice competing- having others snap pictures, yell and make derogatory comments.

Practice eye control

Athletes must learn to keep their eyes focused on the court, field, ski slope, ice rink - in all their competitive zones. Looking around removes the athlete's attention (see Attention) from the game or competition, likely altering concentration and even inviting distraction.

Stop rating play as good or bad

This concentration technique affects future competitions. After losing, athletes should never rate themselves as "bad." Instead, they should analyze the competition, learning from what went wrong, focusing on skills that need improvement. This is the point where establishing specific, performance-related goals improves their techniques, preparing their concentration for the next match, game or competition. In the same way, winning athletes detail the specific actions or activities that permitted them to achieve a peak performance.

Sports psychology research on concentration techniques and improving performance is still a relatively new field of study. In the next decade, researchers hope to uncover more concentration interventions and strategies, making this one of the most dynamic psychological fields. If you are interested in helping athletes improve concentration, consider a degree in sports psychology. Request information from the schools offering masters degree programs in sports psychology or PhD programs in sports psychology.