Sports psych - 4.6 concentration - concentration & attentional dimensions

What is attention?

-The ability to be able to concentrate on the correct things during performance

What is concentration?

-The ability to completely focus on your attention on something for a period of time

What are the four parts/aspects of concentration?

-Focusing on relevant environmental cues —> selective attention (what cues to attend and what cues to ignore)

-Maintaining attentional focus —> maintaining focus for the duration of the situation

-Situation awareness —> the ability to understand your environment

-Shifting attentional focus —> cues alter throughout (e.g change in weather conditions)

What are the two dimensions of attention?

-Width (on a continuum from broad to narrow)

-Direction (from internal to external)

What does width refer to?

-How many things you’re paying attention to at once

-When your attention is broad, you are paying attention to MANY things

-When your attention is narrow, you are concentrating on specifically one or very few things

What does direction refer to?

-Internal —> whether your attention is focused internally toward your own thoughts & feelings

-External —> whether your attention is focused mainly toward the events in your environment

-Events can be both internal & external —> endurance events

What are the four attentional styles?

-Broad internal

-Broad external

-Narrow internal

-Narrow external

Broad internal:

-Requires good thinking and planning, players who can organise information and ideas

-These players are often very good at planning strategies and preparing for opposition moves, but can often be overly analytical and miss other important information

-Examples: A rugby player deciding who to pass to, a softball pitcher planning the next pitch, a cricket captain placing the fielder, or a soccer coach planning set plays for free kicks

Broad external:

-This type of athlete can quickly analyse a complex situation and respond to it

-They “see” everything that is happening

-Occasionally they can suffer from information “overload” making their response to slow or inappropriate

-Examples: a quarterback scanning the field for a receiver, a volleyballer setter aware of his spikers and the opposing blocker, a rugby player winning the ball and deciding whether to run or pass.

Narrow internal:

-This is a good style for analysis in sports in which change is quite slow and predictable

-Athletes can concentrate on their performance, for instance, a diver must focus on what they need to do; the environment is constant.

-Sometimes, athletes in this style can become overly critical of their performance

-Examples: A rugby player checking his body position in mid-air whilst jumping up to take the ball, a diver uses this style of concentration to mentally rehearse his performance, a golfer determining the “force” to apply in a putt

Narrow external:

-This athlete has an ability to focus on one or a few external cues

-A batter in any striking sport is essentially focusing on the ball and perhaps the mode of delivery

-A golfer is concentrating on the line of the putt to the hole

-Problems arise when there are changes in the environment which the athlete doesn’t pick up

-Examples: a rugby player may focus on the ball when catching, a track sprinter listening for the gun, a goalkeeper trying to save a penalty, a baseballer waiting to catch a fly ball

Disadvantages/advantages of the broad internal attentional style:

•Good thinking

•Good planning player

•Can organise information and ideas

•Very good at planning strategies

•Good at preparing for oppositions moves

•Analysis, problem solve and creative thinking

•Able to deal with large numbers of ideas at one time

•Sum up play and makes quick adjustments

•Can be over analytical and out thinks themselves

•Miss other important information

•Have trouble sticking to one thing

•May not react quickly enough

•Mistakes occur when athletes become caught back inside his/her head at a time when attention should be directed elsewhere

Disadvantages/advantages of the broad external attentional style:

•Can quickly analyse complex situations and respond to them

•They “see” everything that is happening

•Good peripheral awareness

•Good at scanning, picking the open teammate

•Can suffer from information overload and therefore can be slow to make decisions

•May also react too quickly without thinking

•Falls for fakes easily

•Too busy reading and reacting to the environment to think

Disadvantages/advantages of the narrow internal attentional style:

•Good style for analysis in sports in which change is quite slow and predictable

•Athletes can concentrate on their performance, e.g. a diver must concentrate on what they need to do

•The environment is constant

•Enhanced kinaesthetic (body) awareness

•Often an indication of dedication and capacity to follow instructions, to stick to a game plan

•Able to focus on a single thought

•Athletes can become over critical of their performance

•Fails to attend to and incorporate new information.

•Not sensitive to what is going on around them

•May result in the athlete becoming distracted by internal bodily processes i.e. in flexibility

Disadvantages/advantages of the narrow external attentional style:

•Able to focus on one or few external cues e.g. golfer is concentrating on the line of the putt to the hole

•Ability to block out distraction and remain focused

•Will stick to a task for a long time

•Able to focus on relevant aspects of the task

•Useful in target skills and as a way of blocking out distractions

•Problems arise when there are changes in the environment which the athlete does not pick up

•May stick to the same response even though it is not working

•Too narrow a field of vision and hearing

•The athlete does not see all things necessary to make a good performance