A. Concentration is selective attention to relevant
environmental cues, maintaining that focus over time, and shifting it when
necessary.
One’s
attentional focus may be broad—perceiving several occurrences in the
environment simultaneously; or narrow—concentrating on only a few
cues.
Attention
may be directed externally or outward toward objects in the environment,
or internally to thoughts and feelings.
B. Internal distracters cause problems in attention. These distracters (worries and irrelevant
thoughts) may include: Focus on past
events (e.g., mistakes); focus on future events (e.g., worries about how the
event will turn out); having the mind wander; choking (impaired performance/often
narrowed concentration) under pressure; focusing too much on body mechanics
once a skill is learned; fatigue; and inadequate motivation/lack of focus;
C. External distracters
cause problems in attention. These are
cues in the environment that divert attention from task performance. These distracters may include: visual distracters in the environment that
compete for attention; auditory distracters (e.g., noise, sounds, etc.) in the
environment that compete for attention; and various gamesmanship strategies
that are designed to rattle or distract the opponent (e.g., physical and verbal
intimidation, stalling, insults).
D. People may talk to
themselves (may be sub-vocally) in the interval between an event (stimulus) and
a response. This is known as self-talk.
Self-talk may take three forms:
1. Positive (motivational)—to enhance effort or improve
attitude
2. Negative
(self-critical or demeaning). This
increases anxiety and self-doubt
3. Instructional (telling yourself what to do or what not to
do).
E. How does self-talk
affect performance? Negative self-talk
is associated with poor performance.
Positive self-talk and to a lesser extent instructional self-talk is
associated with improving performance.
Positive self-talk should be used often. Stay in the present tense and keep utterances brief.
F. Ways to eliminate
negative self-talk.
1. Thought-stopping:
using a cue to stop the thought and clear your mind (e.g., snapping your
fingers)
2. Substituting a positive self-talk phrase for a negative
one. Halt the negative thought, relax,
and insert the positive self-talk
Class exercise: Describe a situation in which you lose
concentration or focus and analyze the situation according to these
concentration principles. Describe
specifically how you could use self-talk to improve your concentration in this
situation. Write it out and we will
share our answers.