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 ControlDefinitions:

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 ControlDefinitions:

Distractions: meaningless or irrelevant information

about your task.

______: ability to totally involve yourself in your

sport/task.

Attentional ControlAny sport or physical activity requires

attentional demands.

There are two useful

dimensions to help you

understand your own

attentional control.

Attentional ControlThe two dimensions of attentional control

are:

1. Broad Narrow

2. Internal External

Attentional Control2 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 ControlBroad

Narrow

ExternalInternal

Attentional ControlWith 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.

Narrow BroadFocus

Internal ExternalOR

Focus

Attentional ControlWhat 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 forrecievers 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 ControlAttentional Styles:

1. Broad – Internal Style

2. Broad – External Style

3. Narrow – Internal Style

4. Narrow – External Style

Attentional Control1. 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 Control2. 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.

Attentional ControlWhich is your Attentional Style?

Ideally you do not want to be dominantin any one particular style. The idealathlete is strong in all four styles andis able to readily shift from onetype to another.

Attentional ControlExercise 1: Identify a list of common or

recurring distractions that you experience

in your sport.

____________________________________

____________________________________

____________________________________

Attentional ControlExercise 2: What kind of things do you do

to get ready for a game? To get focused?

____________________________________

____________________________________

____________________________________

Attentional ControlScan the following sports carefully. Use yourpowers of concentration and imagery.

Attentional ControlNow 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 andIrrelevant cues.

Attentional ControlMany athletes find it difficult to focus correctly,especially when under competitive pressure. Thiscan 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 ControlChoking 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 ControlThere are two types of distractions:

1. External Stimuli: Fans yelling, noises in the crowd, playing environment (poor fields), coach yelling.

2. Internal Stimuli: worry, unrelated thoughts, think too much.

Attentional ControlHow 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 ControlWays 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.