Concentration and focus of attention in sport

One of the many factors that influence the performance of any sport is concentration. What's more, this process has become crucial over the years to achieve great sporting successes. We talk about the conquest of championships, medals and world records; athletes who have reached the top of any sport have managed to direct their attention exclusively to the task, avoiding any external distraction.

This enormous importance of targeting athletes has not gone unnoticed by sports psychologists, who have tried to know in depth the different psychological and contextual aspects that influence concentrationn, with a view to trying to improve athletic performance.

Concentration and sports performance: cause and effect

Having said that, I believe that it must be emphasized that concentration is a process that proportionally improves sports performance, and that therefore maximizes the chances of success within any discipline. The more concentration you have on any task, the better you will develop it, and therefore, you will obtain better results.

Concentration concept

A good definition of concentration can be the following: it is the ability of a person to focus their attention in a sustained and constant way for an extended period of time, in an activity or task, ignoring external situations or circumstances.

Concentration, then, is primarily a form of selective attention that allows us to process information that interests us, ignoring the rest of external factors or circumstances that surround. The exact concept is the focus of attention; focusing all our senses on the task we are doing.

Some examples of focus of attention

To try to graphically explain the concept of attention focus, we can resort to a series of illustrative examples. For example, the footballer who focuses on what he controls; in the ability of him to get ahead of the opponent in an accurate dribble, or in correctly kicking the ball so that that shot ends in a goal. Or we could also think of the tennis player who focuses his attention on hitting the ball well, or his anticipation of the rival tennis player's hitting to get to the ball and be able to make a good hit.

In addition, focused attention is commonly assigned a sports slang; phrases like “I played the whole game very concentrated”, “I lost my concentration and I couldn't get it back again "," after the first failure I lost concentration ", the latter very common in football players. In short, recurring phrases in the sports world that are a clear sign that concentration is an aspect that plays a decisive role in sports competition.

Lack of concentration

Concentration is essential in sport, and its deficit in any individual who practices a sporting discipline can cost him many mistakes. That is why Lack of concentration is considered one of the biggest problems in sportsand.

To try to mitigate the harmful effects of lack of concentration in sport, coaches use a number of strategies. Although motivation and activation can be very positive elements for the athlete when it comes to maintaining a adequate concentration and therefore good performance, technical professionals from the world of sports have detected what the presence of sports psychologists can help avoid mistakes due to lack of concentration.

Sports psychologists

In sports like soccer, many sports psychologists work specifically on the consolidation of behavior patterns that facilitate the player to remain with all his senses in the game throughout the game. It may seem like an easy task, however, getting the footballer to understand that in order to stay focused, factors such as the referee's performance, field conditions, weather conditions and ultimately various factors that he cannot control, that evade him from his task and distract him, is really complicated.

A widely used strategy is visualization or mental rehearsal, a task that mainly consists of the athlete mentally reproducing each step at a time perform during the activity, getting to feel those sensations so characteristic when he is in competition.

When the athlete reaches maximum concentration, he enters what experts call flow status, in which the individual is so involved in what he is doing that he maintains his attention without hint of being disturbed by any situation or circumstance.

Don't just focus on concentration

Maximum concentration is reproduced naturally and automatically, without the need to focus our attention on one's concentration, that is, that task that has become Automatic should be executed in such a way that it does not require focusing attention on each of the steps or elements that make up the task, but must focus on what is going to happen and leave what happens.

To conclude, it must be clarified that every type of sport has its methodology and progress. Without a doubt, one of the most relevant factors when it comes to improving in any discipline is concentration. Consequently, the knowledge of several strategies that allow us to enhance this ability will allow any athlete to achieve better records and results.