Never say never becuase limits, just like fears, are often just illusions
- Michael Jordan
Introduction
How to improve focus and concentration? Many athletes have asked themselves this question at least once in their careers. Everyone knows how frustrating it is to be good at your game but to lack focus. Concentration can make or break athletic performance. Even with the best training and skills, an athlete who cannot focus on their game will be at a major disadvantage. Fortunately, many sports psychology techniques support focus and concentration. In this article, we will look at how you can enhance your focus during the game so that you perform at your maximum potential.
Focus defined by sports psychology
Sports scientists define focus as the process in which all attention, thoughts, and senses are concentrated on a selected object or activity while leaving everything else aside. In other words, to focus is to devote all your mind to a single thing. If you’re an athlete, you already know how this feels. Perhaps you had moments where you zoomed in so closely on the game that everything else faded in the background. Ideally, you would want to have this sort of moment in every single game, but you probably know how difficult this is. Sometimes, the mind can wander in many directions which affects your performance.
How to improve your focus according to sports psychology
Athletes now benefit from a lot of research insights from sports psychology that show them how to optimize their focus and concentration. In the following paragraphs, we will talk about those ideas and show you how to implement them in your daily practice.
Use mental imagery
Mental imagery is one of the many sports psychology methods for improving your focus. It requires you to visualize yourself doing something you’d want to achieve in your sport: maybe it’s finishing a race strong, or scoring a goal. Imagery prepares you to see how you’ll perform, trains you to think about what’s most important in a great performance, and allows you to relax by being focused on the things within your control that matter.
To practice mental imagery, choose something you’d want to improve and focus better on. Now walk yourself mentally through even a single step involved in that action. Visualize yourself moving closer to the goal and performing at your best. Make a mental movie of the entire performance and dwell on every detail involved in the process. If it helps, you can also write down your mental movie in the form of affirmations (e.g. I am perfectly focused on the game”).
According to research in sports psychology, elite athletes have at least one meditation and visualization practice. They think about the type of athlete they want to become daily. They intentionally act towards that goal by taking daily action and behaving as if they already are a high-performing athlete.
Choose a cue word
Sports exercise and performance psychology advise that athletes can enter a focused state by using a certain cue word they associate with a state of deep concentration. For example, using sentences “I am doing this now” or single keywords such as “focus” can help the mind associate with a state of deep concentration. Cue words are great sports psychology mental skills that would help you enter states of concentration when you need to.
Positive self-talk
In sports psychology, positive thinking is a foundational skill for success. Another mental preparation technique that can be used as a sports psychology strategy for improving performance is positive self-talk. This means the inner dialogue that someone has in a given situation. For example, before a competition, an athlete can choose to tell themselves encouraging words such as “I got this” or “I have all the skills I need to perform well”. Positive self-talk increases confidence, decreases nervousness, and helps the athlete cope with competition stress a lot better.
Mindfulness techniques
Meditation is one of the most popular techniques used by high-performers and elite athletes. It helps the athlete connect to the present moment and bring their attention to one single thing. This improves concentration and improves reaction time. By training the mind to stay focused on the present and let go of distractions, athletes can enhance their ability to concentrate during training and competitions.
Mindfulness techniques are one of the most researched, evidence-based techniques that improve focus. When meditating, you only focus on the present moment and observe your automatic thoughts.
To start meditating, look for a meditation app or an online guided meditation. You can start with only 5 minutes until you get used to the practice. Find a quiet and comfortable place and follow the instructions from the guided meditation. If you find it difficult to implement this practice, you may choose to do a body scan or breathing technique. These are some other sports psychology methods you can use to become more aware of the present moment and improve your focus.
Mental preparation
Many athletes will need to get in ‘the zone’ before a game. In this mindset, they can perform with ease and let themselves fully absorbed in the moment. They can begin by practicing a series of mental preparation techniques to get into this mental state. For example, they can try a guided visualization exercise or a short mindfulness session. The link between sports performance and meditation is well-studied: numerous research studies showed that mindfulness enhances concentration and reduces pre-game nerves.
Pre-performance routines
Another sports psychology tip for athletes who want to improve their concentration is to create a pre-performance routine that gets them into a state of focus. For example, you can recreate a pre-performance routine in your mind and go through it multiple times. If you practice it daily, it will be a lot easier for you to access this rehearsal before a game, because your mind will have already stored all the visual stimuli.
An example of a pre-performance routine can be:
- Turning off all notifications and sources of distraction
- Checking in with yourself and how you’re feeling
- Taking notice of the surrounding environment
- Saying the focus keyword to yourself
As part of this routine, you may also choose to do a short meditation or visualization exercise. Just find what works for you and stay consistent with that.
Cultivate a state of flow
Another sports psychology example of concentration tip is learning to get in states of flow. In moments of flow, the athlete is fully concentration on the action they are performing. As a result, all other stimuli and distractions fade away, leaving them with a pure focus on the moment.
Getting in the zone while playing a sport is usually the result of previous mental and physical training which allows the athlete to be confident in their skills. There are three different phases that athletes go through before reaching a flow state:
- Preparation stage: enter a mental state of readiness where you are ready to plunge into the game. In this stage, you will focus on warming yourself up, bringing your focus on how you’re feeling mentally and physically, and checking in with yourself to see if you’re experiencing any negative emotional states such as anxiety or nervousness.
- Entering the zone: begin by setting a goal (e.g. to improve a technique, to reach a certain time score), and simply allow yourself to immerse deeply into the activity. Don’t think about what you’re doing — just allow your mind and body to take over. Keep your focus on what you’re doing and don’t make any judgments about your performance, as this will get you out of the zone.
- Exiting the zone. Once you’ve been in the zone for a while, you will gradually begin to get out of it. You will know this happens when your mind will become active again or you will get distracted by physical sensations such as hunger or tiredness. At the end of your performance, you will feel a sense of accomplishment or mental relaxation as a result of the game termination. However, there is also a chance that you encounter negative emotions if the state of flow ended as a result of errors.
Keep in mind that cultivating those states of slow takes a lot of time to practice. However, this remains one of the best sports psychology strategies for improving performance.
Final Thoughts
How does psychology affect sports performance? Well, the topic of focus and concentration is a key aspect that is intensely studied by sports psychology. In this article, we looked at various ways in which you can enhance your focus in athletics. We suggested the following tips:
- Using visualization exercises
- Mindfulness meditation
- Positive self-talk
- Using keywords
- Having a pre-performance routine
- Learning to create states of flow
While there are many other tips that you may useful, we hope that these suggestions give you a good start to sharpen your focus before your games! What’s most important is that you find that sports psychology method for focus that works for you and stick to it. We wish you the best of luck in your games and practice!