Improve your concentration

by R. Gordon Williamson

Regardless of what sport you play, an essential ingredient of all sports is the ability to concentrate. Attending to the most important aspects of the sport is vital for good performance. What cues you as an athlete or coach to focus on is dependent on a number of factors, such as skill level or experience level, the conditions of the athletic event, the strengths and weaknesses of your opponent, your team, and yourself, and the immediate requirements of the situation. Whatever your level of experience, your strengths and weaknesses, the conditions, and the varied types of attention requirements of your sport, the first step to improvement is awareness.

AWARENESS
What are your attention strengths and weaknesses? To help identity your strengths and weaknesses, begin by making a list of the kinds of things that tend to distract you while you are playing. In developing your list be sure to include both internal and external distractions. Internal distractions might include worrying about your performance, talking negatively to yourself, as in putting yourself down, excessive muscle tension, frustration, rapid heart rate, feelings of confusion or fatigue (mental and physical), and an inability to concentrate. Becoming aware of the types of internal distractions during competition will require practice and insight. External distractions include the crowd, opponents, teammates, and the conditions (i.e., water temperature, water clarity, type of starting blocks etc.) Once you begin to develop an awareness of the kinds of things that distract you during competition, you have taken the first step. The next step requires taking action.

KEYS
Once you have identified the types of things that distract you during competition, the key to maintaining focus is to recognize the distractions, and turn a negative into a positive. Just becoming aware of the distractions is not enough. If you stay focused on the distractions for too long, performance would likely be negatively affected. Example, if you notice your heart racing you are breathing too quickly. If your palms are sweating, take a couple of deep breaths and repeat key words, or cues, such as "calm," "cool," "focused." Use words that come naturally to you, but be sure that the words can produce a calming affect, not an increase in arousal. If arousal is increased, it could lead to muscle tension and more problems. If you suspect that lack of arousal is your problem, then "pump you up." Be careful to avoid going to the extreme of getting angry at yourself or distractions, as this will likely lead to misdirected concentration. These cues can be supplemented with positive statements like, "I feel alert and focused." These are called positive affirmations.

TRUST
All athletes must be able to trust their own skills. If you begin to doubt your ability, to analyze every bad play, you will probably see a decline in performance. Skill improvement takes time, years possible, so don't expect to see dramatic improvements in performance instantly. Know your strongest skills, and play to those whenever possible. Don't try new shots, plays, or moves in the heat of battle, especially if you haven't practiced them. To help you identify and clarify your best skills, moves, shots, or plays, make a list and rank them from "best" to "needs work." For example, I always finish a 200 strong during the last 50. Not only does making the list help reconfirm my belief in what part of my race is the best, it also helps identify those parts of the race I should work on in practice. Trust what you can do and don't get discouraged at what you can't!