For athletes, one key area which is important to them is improvement. They are always looking for something that poses as a weakness to them in order for them to enhance their performance and in turn make them better athletes. Kosslyn, Thompson & Ganis, (2006) describe how during the timeframe of a century, many researchers […]
Athletes spend much of their time mentally and physically preparing for athletic competitions in hopes of improving playing performances. However, many athletes are inconsistent with their athletic performances due to anxiety, lack of self-confidence, and other barriers (Mamassis & Doganis, 2004). Athletes who experience sport related anxiety may also suffer from feelings of worthlessness, physical/emotional […]
The focus of attention is influential in how well athletes learn sport-related and movement skills (movement efficiency, such as force production, speed, and endurance) and how well those skills can be executed (movement effectiveness, including balance and accuracy; Wulf, 2013). Therefore, it is important for coaches to know and understand where athletes should direct their […]
THEORY: Focus is an essential component to sporting success. Focus allows performers to attend to the cues in hand and concentrate on tasks to achieve success. The ability to focus is important because it allows performers an opportunity to achieve their goals. PRACTICE: Focus is something that we can develop in training and take into […]
The topic of frequent physical activity and, more importantly, a sedentary lifestyle dominate the media on a near-daily basis. Although many people feel they undertake enough physical activity to reap the subsequent health benefits, The British Heart Foundation (2012) discovered that less than 10% of men and women could correctly report the government’s guideline recommendations […]
Defining attentional focus. Attentional focus in athletes can be split into two broad strategies, that of association and dissociation (Lind et al. 2009). A range of terms for association and dissociation are in the literature, these include internal focus, attention, and redefinition for association and external focus, distraction and avoidance for dissociation, although the constructs […]
The ability to perform at an elite level is often used as the definition for talent. This term is often bandied around as if young aspiring athletes have it or not, with little discussion centred on the factors or traits that actually help an individual to reach such pinnacles in their chosen sporting arenas and […]
“Lack of direction, not lack of time, is the problem. We all have twenty-four hour days.” – Zig Ziglar This month I would like to discuss the aspect of focus and concentration to create performance and ultimately success. I’m sure it would prove beneficial to discuss the theoretical frameworks of focus and concentration. Concepts such […]
I was on a recent train journey and I needed something to read so I picked up a copy of New Scientist (1 June 2013). Several of the articles took my eye with immediate links to sport psychology. The one that really took my eye was from Ecology around intimidation and how predators influence the […]