Sports Final Chapter 16: Concentration

Front 1

Attention

Back 1

o The concentration of mental effort on sensory or mental events

Front 2

Concentration

Back 2

o The ability to
 maintain focus on relevant cues in one’s environment (selective attention)
 maintaining that attentional focus over time
 having awareness of the situation
 shifting attentional focus when necessary

Front 3

Associative attentional strategy

Back 3

o Used by successful athletes
o Monitoring bodily functions and feelings, such as heart rate, muscle tension, and breathing rate)

Front 4

Dissociative attentional strategy

Back 4

o Non-elite runners tend to use
o Distraction and tuning out during a race
o Runners flip between the two in practice and competition
o More of a continuum than a dichotomy

Front 5

Theories to explain the role of attention in performance

Back 5

o Information-processing approach
 Early approaches favored either
• a single-channel approach (fixed capacity), where information is processed through a single channel, or
• a variable (flexible) approach), where individuals can choose where to focus their attention, allocating it to more than one task at a time
 neither proved fruitful
 current thinking now favors
• Multiple pools theory approach
o views attention like multiprocessors, with each processor having its own unique capabilities and resource-performer relationships
o attentional capacity is seen not as centralized but rather as distributed throughout the nervous system
 application: extensive practice could lead to the development of automaticity

Front 6

Three processes most focused on in the attention-performance relationship

Back 6

• Attentional selectivity
o Letting some info into the info-processing system whereas other info is screened or egnored
• Attentional capacity
o The amount of information that can be processed at one time
• Attentional alertness
o The notion that increases in emotional arousal narrow the attentional field because of a systematic reduction in the range of cues that a performer considers in executing a skill

Front 7

Types of attentional focus

Back 7

Broad attentional focus
Narrow attentional focus
External attentional focus
Internal attentional focus

Front 8

Broad attentional focus

Back 8

 Allows a person to perceive several occurrences simultaneously
 Basketball point guard leading afast break and a soccer player dribbling the ball upfield

Front 9

Narrow attentional focus

Back 9

 Occurs when you respond to only one or two cues
 Baseball batter prepares to swing or a golfer lines up a putt

Front 10

External attentional focus

Back 10

 Directs attention outward to an object such as a ball in baseball or a puck in hockey, or to an opponent’s movements

Front 11

Internal attentional focus

Back 11

 Directed inward to thoughts and feelings
 A coach analyzes plays without having to physically perform, a high jumper prepares to start her run-up, a bowler readies his approach

Front 12

Internal distracters

Back 12

o Athlete won’t stop thinking about the past
o Athlete won’t stop thinking about the future
o Choking under pressure
o Focuses too much on body mechanics instead of just performing automatically
o Too tired/fatigued
o Self-talk
o Perfectionism
o Athlete believes that their self-worth depends on achievement
o Blaming
o Tendency to view things in absolute all or nothing ways
o One-trial generalization/(aka overgeneralization)

Front 13

Three categories of self-talk

Back 13

• Task-specific statements relating to technique
o Swimmers: “kick, kick, kick”
• Encouragement and effort
o Words or statements that provide self encouragement to the athlete to persevere or try harder
• Mood words
o Words that precipitate and increase a mood or competitive arousal
o Runner: “fast, fast, fast”

Front 14

Techniques to improve self-talk

Back 14

• Thought-stopping
o Athlete is being bombarded with negative thoughts
o Help athlete identify, then eliminate negative thought
o Steps
 Identify event/trigger
 Identify clear signal that athlete will get rid of negative thought
• Might think to self: stop
• Andrei Agassi snapped a rubber band around his racket
 Realistic thought to substitute in for negative thought
• Constructive and/or productive
 Once athlete is comfortable, let them use it during actual competition
o Help them to use self-affirmation statements

Front 15

Perfectionists

Back 15

 “compulsive” has a better connotation
 Lots of “what if” thinking
 Help athlete by trying to counter them with realistic evaluation of the situation

Front 16

Athlete believes that their self-worth depends on achievement

Back 16

 Think they’re only good when they win
 Think they must excel for others to like them
 Help them learn to value themselves more for what they do than their competitive performance

Front 17

Blaming

Back 17

 Allows the athlete to abdicate all responsibility for their actions/behavior
 “I can’t practice anxiety techniques because my parents have always been tough on me”
 Help athlete be personal ly responsible for their actions, remain in control of their performance

Front 18

External distracters

Back 18

o Visual distracters
 Scoreboards, spectators
o Auditory distracters
 Crowd noise, airplanes, mobile phones, beepers
o Gamesmanship
 Mind games with opponents
• Yelling at them
• Complimenting them

Front 19

How to improve concentration

Back 19

o Positive self-talk
 Can help sustain athlete’s momentum
o When negative statements, substitute some kind of positive, productive, constructive statement
o Using cue words to help trigger particular response
 “stay focused”
 “watch the ball”
o Practice
 Excuse: but I have ADD
• Go to pogo.com, show yourself that you can focus on games
o Begin to establish pre-competition routines
 Helps athletes to stay in present moment
 Examples
• Listening to music
• Relax
 Do not want them focusing on the past
o Learn to exercise non-judgmental thinking
 No obsessing about past errors
o Eye control
 Not looking at people around you
 Focus on self
o Help an athlete over learn their skills
 Start to perform competitively almost automatically