Concentration and Attentional Focus
Focus! Pay attention! Concentrate!
Growing up, you can probably remember a teacher, coach or parent saying something like this in an effort to get you to work on some chore or assignment. In chemistry lab, you might have heard a teacher say this during a critical section of an experiment. As an athlete, you can easily recall hearing a coach, fan, or teammate yell it in the midst of a competition at a critical moment. Yet, while this seems like a simple and easy reminder, often when a coach yells “FOCUS!” the athlete’s mental or physical response is “On what?”
A quick litmus test is to think back to the last time you were cued this way. Now ask yourself: “What specifically did they want me to focus on/pay attention to/concentrate on?” Do you remember? Was it a big thing, a little thing? Did it work? Was it a helpful cue? Often times a vague cue gets a vague response. Alternatively, having a laser-like focus and the ability to concentrate in the midst of increasing pressure is a hallmark of elite athletes. Opponents and fans know this as well, which is why they employ methods to distract, overwhelm or break their opponents focus, which can lead to errors. By understanding the different aspects of concentration and knowing how to use attentional focus to cue in on the right stimulus, you’ll find it easier to maintain a hold on the task or play at hand.
Concentration
Concentration can be defined as a person’s ability to exert deliberate mental effort and energy on what is most important in any given situation. Concentration has many aspects including; being able to focus on appropriate cues, adapting and reacting to what is occurring on the field, sustaining the effort for a length of time, and shifting one’s attentional focus as needed.
The challenge faced in concentration is that the harder the subject, the length of time required to stay focused, or intensity of distractions all challenge our ability to maintain focus. Compare the time demands faced by a marathon runner versus a javelin thrower. Each athlete has their window of time during which they need to focus. The long-distance runner has to remain focused for several hours versus the track athlete who needs an intensely focused period of about fifteen seconds. However, imagine the crowd noise and pressure on a marathon runner spread out over 26 miles compared to a javelin thrower’s packed stadium and bright lights. Preparing and building your ability to focus and concentrate to meet these demands will allow you to focus in the correct way, which in turn builds your efficiency. With practice, you’ll be able to maintain concentration longer, ward off errors caused by distraction, and perform better.
Attentional Focus
One of the keys to developing more efficient concentration is understanding the different types of attentional focus. With so much to pay attention to, athletes who are locked in, rarely stay focused on one singular thing, but rather they easily shift their attention to many different cues as they occur. A basketball player begins with her attention on the coach to hear the play, refocuses on the court again to find her teammates, and then in closer to the person guarding them, back to the shot clock, back to the court to find her open teammate to score, and finally on her passing ability. Having a solid understanding of attentional focus allows athletes to see concentration as a constantly moving and floating ship.
Robert Nideffer and his team of researchers designed a grid to help coaches and athletes understand that attentional focus exists across two spectrums: width and direction. His grid layout of the four different types of attentional focus can help pinpoint strengths, weaknesses, and help select the right drills to find improvement.
As coaches and athletes begin to understand attentional focus, cueing can become more specific. We will also be working to find which of these four is your strength and which one we will need to work on through drills such as play stoppage, concentration grids, or perhaps implementing dynamic cue words. Suddenly the simple “focus” cue response of “on what?” vanishes and you will feel more relaxed and locked in on better performance.

WIDTH
Broad attentional focus is the type of focus needed to perceive several events simultaneously. Think of
scanning the defensive scheme of the outfield as you are at bat or scanning the field and moving into position while a play unfolds. Narrow attentional focus occurs when you need to zoom in and prepare for very specific information. For example, think about how you focus on the pitcher’s hand and delivery when you are at bat.
DIRECTION
External attentional focus is seen when you direct your attention outside of your body and onto other
objects such as the ball, the other players, the field and the world outside. Internal attentional focus occurs when you shift to focus in on yourself, your feelings, thoughts, and actions.