Sports Performance 15 Attentional Control

Attentional Control Attentional Control is about concentrating on those things that are important during training or competition and avoiding all _______ __________.

Attentional Control Definitions: Attention: is the ability to be aware of information from inside or outside of yourself. _____________: ability to stay focused on your sport task or role. Focus: ability to attend to meaningful or relevant task cues.

Attentional Control Definitions: Distractions: meaningless or irrelevant information about your task. ______: ability to totally involve yourself in your sport/task.

Attentional Control Any sport or physical activity requires attentional demands. There are two useful dimensions to help you understand your own attentional control.

Attentional Control The two dimensions of attentional control are: 1. Broad Narrow 2. Internal External

Attentional Control 2 Dimensions of Attentional Control: 1. Is your attention narrowly focused or broadly focused? 2. Is your attention directed toward the external environment or internally, to the self?

Attentional Control Broad Internal External Narrow

Attentional Control With the two dimensions an athlete: Can have a broad, narrow or somewhere in between focus. Can have either an internal or external focus– no in between. Focus Narrow Broad Internal OR External Focus

Attentional Control What kind of attentional focus would a sprinter have? What kind of attentional focus would a quarterback have? What kind of attentional focus would a batter up to bat have? What kind of attentional focus would a striker in a volleyball match have?

Attentional Control A sprinter would need a narrow internal focus. A quarterback reading a defense and looking for recievers would need a broad external focus. A batter getting to hit the ball would need a narrow external focus. A striker in a volleyball game about to make a hit would need a broad internal focus.

Attentional Control Attentional Styles: 1. Broad – Internal Style 2. Broad – External Style 3. Narrow – Internal Style 4. Narrow – External Style

Attentional Control Broad – Internal Style These athletes are thinking players; they plan the game well in their heads, are quick to make tactical adjustments in the game, and are skillful at ________ ______ _________ of their opponents and making anticipatory responses. They can get caught up in analyzing too much and tend to out guess themselves and miss important cues.

Attentional Control 2. Broad – External Style Athletes are able to attend well to rapidly _______ ___, taking in a lot of information. Are susceptible to information overload, which can result in their not being able to decide how to respond to rapidly changing events that they readily perceive.

Attentional Control 3. Narrow – Internal Style Good at being able to focus on a single thought/idea with full attention but such diagnostic tendencies carry the risk of becoming highly critical self-analysis. Athletes with this type of attention style perform better in sports where change takes place slowly

Attentional Control 4. Narrow – External Style Are able to focus on one or two objects while blocking out distractions. For example golfers and bowlers. Except when the environment changes and decisions need to be made about how to respond to the changes.

Which is your Attentional Style? Attentional Control Which is your Attentional Style? Ideally you do not want to be dominant in any one particular style. The ideal athlete is strong in all four styles and is able to readily shift from one type to another.

Attentional Control Exercise 1: Identify a list of common or recurring distractions that you experience in your sport. ____________________________________

Attentional Control Exercise 2: What kind of things do you do to get ready for a game? To get focused? ____________________________________

Attentional Control Scan the following sports carefully. Use your powers of concentration and imagery.

Attentional Control _Baseball____ __Soccer____ __Tennis____ Now try and remember all the sports you just saw. What were they? _Baseball____ __Soccer____ __Tennis____ _Golf________ __Football___ __Rugby____ _Hockey_____ __High Jump_ __Basketball_ _Javelin_____ __Volleyball__

Attentional Control Too Focused, miss important cues Perfect amount of Focus . Takes in relevant cues and Ignores irrelevant cues. Not focused enough. Take in all relevant and Irrelevant cues.

Attentional Control Many athletes find it difficult to focus correctly, especially when under competitive pressure. This can result in: Loss of concentration Perception is hampered Makes poor decisions Performance deteriorates Attention narrows, feel overloaded Increased internal focus, more mistakes and tuned out

Attentional Control Choking under pressure is mainly due to the fact athletes ____ ______of their ability to focus their attention. They rely on their attentional strengths and are not flexible to the changing environment.

Attentional Control There are two types of distractions: External Stimuli: Fans yelling, noises in the crowd, playing environment (poor fields), coach yelling. Internal Stimuli: worry, unrelated thoughts, think too much.

Attentional Control How do we lose out attention? Attention is broken because . . . . The performer entertains distractions (internal & external). The performer attempts to attend to too many cues. The performer loses motivation. The performer becomes anxious/stressed.

Attentional Control Ways to improve attention: Stay in the present moment. “Be here now” Recognize the attentional demands and shifts involved in your performance. Ie. passing vs. shooting. Learn to concentrate under the worst conditions. Develop pre-performance and performance routines or plans to keep you from being distracted. Park all your problems and distractions.