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How many times during a match have your urged yourself to concentrate? Perhaps your coach or doubles partner has said it to you.
The instruction to concentrate is one of the most common in sport, but what do we mean by concentration? In simple terms concentration is our “focus of attention” and incorporates both the type and the amount of information we are taking in.
Telling someone to concentrate is not enough, what they need to know is what to concentrate on.
An athlete may be focused, if they are focusing on the wrong cues, their concentration won’t be effective.
According to Nideffer (1976) different sports make different attention demands. For example some sports require that we attend to a large amount of information. A football midfielder must be aware of the relative position of members of his team and the opposition. In contrast darts requires a much narrower focus of attention perhaps on a single element to the exclusion of everything else.
It is not only the width of our attentional focus that is the key; the direction of the attention also has a role to play. Some times our attention needs to be directed externally to the environment around us.
For example a golfer may need to attend to the weather conditions before addressing the ball. On other occasions our attention needs to be directed internally to our thoughts and feelings.
A tennis player may need to access his own condition, in terms of muscle tension in his shoulders and forearms before serving.
Although sports tend to demand a particular attentional style in many sports it is necessary to rapidly switch between the different styles. In badminton you many need to switch from a narrow focus on the shuttle to a broad focus on your opponent, and back again very quickly. Ideally we would have absolute control over the width and direction of our attention and be able to switch effortlessly between the different styles as and when the situation requires.
Different athletes have different attentional strengths and weaknesses. Some people are skilled at narrowing their focus and some and blocking out the world and some find it effortless to focus on two or three things simultaneously. Some people can pick up cues from their environment and other can tune into their inner thoughts and feelings.
When the attentional demands of our sport match our attentional strengths we are onto a winner. Additionally research has shown when the pressure is on we tend to play to our strengths and become locked in the attentional style we find easiest whether or not it is appropriate.
Top Tips
Follow the principles of "Attentional Control Training" to train your attentional focus.
1. Identify the attentional needs of badminton