2.2.4 Attention/Concentration

ATTENTION/CONCENTRATION

Examples where attention and concentration intervene:

• I often lose concentration during the game due to:
  • • The referee’s decisions ( Wrong calls, calls against me, the team…).
    • Think or worry about the final score.
    • Bad sportsmanship from rival.
• During trainings I am usually very focus in the tasks asked of me.
• I often have problems in concentrating during a game.
• When I make a mistake it’s hard to forget about it to focus on the next play.
• During a game my attention constantly switches between what i need to do and other things.

The ATTENTION is choosing what to focus on. ➡️ DIRECTING 🔦

The CONCENTRATION is not getting distracted. ➡️ KEEPING THE 🔦

ATTENTION:

Ability to “voluntarily” direct our senses towards relevant stimuli / objects (and reject those that are not useful or relevant) for the task we are doing.

➡️ It is a limited and unstable ability that is trained on a day-to-day basis. We cannot attend to everything at once.

➡️ Athletes and coaches must know which key stimuli they should attend to or not.

➡️ Athletes and coaches must know well which key stimuli they should attend to and which ones they should NOT.

CONCENTRATION:

Ability to maintain attention on specific relevant stimuli for a specified period of time.

➡️ The simplest action requires concentration. Maintaining proper concentration throughout competition (and training) is one of the most important factors for athletic performance.

➡️ Losing concentration for a second at a key moment can have negative consequences.

EXAMPLE: We can associate it with a bubble, which does not break if we manage to keep the focus of attention on the correct stimulus. If the bubble is perfect we reach the state of flow (state in which you play the best).

Source: https://www.flaticon.es/icono-gratis/limpiar_2891104?term=jab%C3%B3n&page=1&position=26&page=1&position=26&related_id=2891104&origin=tag

FLASHLIGHT METAPHOR: To explain attention and concentration in a very understandable way (although it has greater complexity and nuances) we can use the metaphor of the flashlight:

Source: https://www.flaticon.es/icono-gratis/linterna_1022329

* The spotlight or flashlight represents our senses. Especially sight, hearing and touch, which are the ones that most influence sports practice.

* Where we direct the focus is our attention.

* We cannot enlighten (attend) to two things at the same time.

* We can, to some extent, voluntarily control where we focus the flashlight. Requires training.

Source: own elaboration 

As we see in the image, if at the moment of the execution you are with your attention and thoughts focused on the task (ball, the hit…) you will have more options of what to do for a good execution (performance) than if you are thinking at the same time. time you execute the action on the result (win, the tournament…).

In short, CONCENTRATION:

• • ➡️ Your ability to focus attention in a SUSTAINED and CONSTANT way.
  • ➡️ It has a decisive role in the competition. Mind control = breath control = situation control.
  • ➡️ Increase your chances of success = better results.
  • ➡️ Direct her exclusively to the task (no negative thoughts). We ignore external situations, doubts, thoughts.

The ATTENTION goes from selecting what to focus on.➡️  DIRECTING THE 🔦

The CONCENTRATION is not getting distracted. ➡️ KEEPING THE 🔦

💪🏻YOU NEED TO TRAIN IT. DO THE EXERCISES!💪🏻

• • 🏃🏼‍♂️Routines (pre-match, pre-training, fouls, etc)
  • 📝Clear objectives, in writing, with follow-up to work on them weekly
  • 🧠Visualization (successes and errors) “warms your mind”
  • 🌬Breathing = balance and control = security