Attention control in sport: attentional approaches

There are several key psychological aspects for an athlete to be good at what he does. The self-confidence that one has in oneself and in situations, the motivation, stress, arousal level, emotional regulation and attention, are the most important. I will talk about the latter in today's article.

All these psychological variables influence each other directly and indirectly. For example, Motivation can affect attention, or stress can affect self-confidence. So they must be taken into account so that an athlete can express the best version of himself in the sport that he practices. There is good news: just like the tactical, technical or physical aspect, the psychological variables are trainable.

What does care depend on?

One of the main objectives of the Sports psychology, is the study of the variables that influence sports performance. The issue has been approached from different approaches: reports from athletes and coaches, research that has focused on specific psychological variables, and field observations.

Regarding the attention, it can be said that it is a decisive variable in order to detect and interpret the demands of each situation, and that the correct attentional control will provide an improvement in decision-making. Attention depends, at least in part, on the athlete's level of activation (more activation, more attentional narrowing), ability to pay attention to the relevant stimuli of the moment, and the ability to control the variables that interfere in the moment concrete. On the other hand, controlling the interfering variables contributes to controlling the activation level.

How does attention affect athletic performance?

In general, the correct control of attention will positively affect the performance of athletes in training and competition, so it is decisive when it comes to:

• Receive information
• Be alert and focused
• Analyze the data
• Take decisions
• Act on time
• Act with precision

A practical case of the importance of psychological variables in sports performance

To illustrate the importance of psychological variables (and the interaction between them), specifically attention, I am going to give you an example. Imagine that a goalkeeper has had an unfortunate play at the exit of a corner kick while he is playing a important game, which cost him a goal in the first play of the second half, so his team loses by a goal.

As a consequence of that error, his self-confidence in corner kicks is undermined by the criticism he has received from his teammates, and there are still 35 minutes to play. This event is affecting his activation level and, in turn, his attention, since in the following corner kicks, he is late for all the balls he overlooks. On the other hand, when the crosses are the consequence of an elaborate play, the goalkeeper arrives on time. This occurs because his attention is focused on the mistake he has made (what is known as inner care) when he should be aware of the stimuli that occur in the game (external attention).

Attentional approaches: direction and breadth of attention

Taking into account the previous case, we can see that there are different attentional approaches. Knowing them and changing them when necessary will increase athletic performance. This means that the athlete must select carefully and correctly what he must attend to at all times, so that his performance is appropriate.

There are four attentional dimensions in which there are different stimuli and responses that an athlete could attend to. These dimensions can be classified and combined between two variables: direction and breadth.

The direction of care

The care direction refers to internal and external attention. Inner attention is when an athlete focuses on aspects that take place in his own body (thoughts, self-talk, sensations or movements). External attention refers to when an athlete focuses on issues beyond him. That is, what happens around him.

Inner attention is positive for: learning and refining skills (and putting them into practice); the analysis of his own performance, the work in imagination, the control of the thoughts or sensations that may favor or harm performance, etc.

External attention is useful when it is necessary to pay attention to the movement of opponents in a match, when it is necessary to attend to the instructions of the coach, etc.

The breadth of care

Not only the direction in which an athlete focuses his attention is important, but also the breadth, which can be wide or narrow.

Wide attention allow the athlete to take into account a greater number of stimuli. While reduced attention will allow greater concentration. For example, wide attention can be useful for learning complex skills with different movements that must be coordinated. On the other hand, reduced attention can be useful for greater precision in execution.

Combination of the different alternatives

These alternatives are combined to form different types of attentional approaches:

Internal-reduced: The focus is on a small number of stimuli or responses that occur in the athlete's body. For example, when a basketball player tries to improve his technique, he stops pumping the ball, since he must focus on the movements and not on the basket (that is, whether he hits it or not).

Internal-wide: The attention is focused on a large number of stimuli or responses that occur in the athlete's body. For example, when a player analyzes what happened in the last competition. It should be used when you are not actively competing and you have time to analyze.

External-reduced: The focus is on a reduced number of stimuli outside the athlete. For example, looking at the basket when shooting a free throw in basketball.

External-wide: Attention is focused on a large number of stimuli outside the athlete. For example, a soccer player when he makes a counterattack and must observe the best position of a teammate to make a pass.

Attention-related problems in sport

Each task requires a different attentional approach, and incorrect use will impair the optimal performance of an athlete. Sometimes, it may be due to a sensory deficit, but when this does not happen, it is possible that the cause is poor learning (and therefore misuse), an excess of information at the same time interfering cognitive activity (for example, a bad past experience), arousal level deficits or excesses, or interfering attentional conditions (for example, boos from the audience rival).

In order to correct these problems related to the care of athletes, the intervention can focus on two possible solutions. On the one hand, the training of athletes in attention skills. On the other hand, the environmental manipulation, by the trainers, of the relevant stimuli (for example, giving fewer instructions at a given moment). In this way, correct attentional control can be achieved.