The 4 C's

The ability to focus on the right thing, at the right time, while under pressure is a central part of sporting performance.

Effective concentration is all about knowing exactly what you need to focus on:

• During training you need to focus on your process goals (i.e. techniques, skills).
• During competition you need to focus on how you, with your coach, have decided you are going to approach the event.

By doing this you select the most important aspects of your performance on which to concentrate.

To help you clarify how to concentrate more effectively on your goals, look at the two dimensions of attention and see which one, or combination, fits your own sporting needs best.

Dimension 1: Width (broad–narrow) This refers to how many things you are paying attention to at any one time. When your attention is broad you are paying attention to many things. When you have a narrow attentional focus, you are usually concentrating on one thing or at most two to three things at once. For example, team sports such as Wheelchair Basketball demand a broad attentional focus, whereas Archery or Shooting require narrow concentration.

Dimension 2: Direction (internal–external) This is defined by whether your attention is focused internally on your own thoughts, feelings and behaviour (performance) or externally toward the events in the training or competition environment.

Once you know the type of concentration style your sport requires (it may change to suit different situations within a match/competition), you then need to identify the level of intensity you require.

• Sustained concentration is used in sports like distance Running and Cycling.
• Short bursts of concentration are used in sports like Shooting, Archery and field events in Athletics.
• Intense concentration is used in sports like sprinting events, Track Cycling and Alpine Skiing.

Distraction can significantly undermine your ability to concentrate, effectively resulting in poor performances and ‘below par’ results.

Examples of common distractions include:

• Anxiety, focusing on mistakes.
• Fatigue
• Weather
• Equipment problems/failure
• Difficulties in key relationships (e.g. coach, teammate, family)
• Media
• your opponent
• Negative thoughts

Distraction management is an important set of skills that can be learnt. Distraction management typically involves you thinking and behaving in ways that you know help you to remain positively focused. These skills include focusing on your process (technique-based) and performance (results-based) goals and identifying specific ‘trigger words’ that remind you to concentrate on your performance and not the outcome.

Focusing and refocusing can be a very useful tool. Refocusing is necessary when something has distracted you and you are at risk of letting the quality of your performance drop because of it. Here is a routine that you can use to help you refocus:

1. React – take a moment to release the build-up of emotional tension. This could include silently saying ‘let it go’ to yourself.
2. Relax – take a moment to calm down by taking a deep breath in and simultaneously tense your upper body muscles then ‘let go’ and release the tension as you breathe out.
3. Reflect – decide what action you need to take to improve your next point, lap or whatever you are doing in the next couple of minutes.
4. Refocus – get yourself ready to put into practise what you have decided to do. A trigger word such as ‘drive’ or ‘smooth’ can help switch your focus.

Confidence is something you know you have, or you know you don’t. What is more difficult to know is how to gain or regain it.

Confidence is the feeling you get that lets you know you can achieve the level of performance you desire. Goal setting and imagery are two effective techniques used to improve confidence.

Imagery

Sometimes referred to as ‘visualisation’ or ‘mental practise’.

Imagery is the process of imagining a performance in your mind’s eye. You might see yourself preparing at the start line of a race or alternatively you might visualise scoring a goal and hearing your teammates cheer. It can be a really powerful tool and is something most of us already have some experience of (e.g. mentally planning how a meeting with your boss will go so that you feel prepared and relaxed when you actually have the meeting).

As well as enhancing confidence, imagery can also increase focus and improve relaxation. It can also help you maintain your technique when you are injured by allowing you to mentally rehearse your performance. Imagery can be used at any time because it requires little, if any equipment. You might visualise your performance while travelling to the event or in the changing room right before. Similarly, in the build-up to the event use ‘dead time’ as an imagery opportunity. When you have more time, you may benefit from performing more carefully planned, structured imagery. This technique can be helpful but accurate, detailed imagery is a skill and takes plenty of practise.

Good imagery is vivid and detailed so try to incorporate a variety of senses to bring the process to life (e.g. the smell of the pool, the sound of the ball bouncing or the feel of the ice). It is a lot to think about so sport psychologists often advise creating what is called an ‘imagery script’ that provides all the necessary details. This can be audio recorded and played back to guide your imagery.

Finally, think positively. Visualising everything going wrong will wreak havoc with your confidence. That said, visualising how you will deal with setbacks can be a useful strategy but this needs to be done well in advance, not the night before or the morning of your competition.

Maintaining control of your thoughts and feelings and being able to remain focused on your performance goals under pressure is important. One of the most used phrases in sport is to focus on ‘controlling the controllables’. Focus on managing the situations that you have some influence over; how you think, feel and behave (perform). You have moderate influence over others and very little influence over the environment within which you’re training or competing.

Ideally you need to focus most of your energy and coping resources on the areas that you have the greatest influence; yourself! To do this you need to have a good understanding of how you react to pressure (your thoughts, feelings and behaviour) and you need to identify which situations (types of relationships, circumstances during competition) ‘rub you up the wrong way’. This includes developing the ability to consciously identify what you’re thinking and feeling, and why. Learning about how you react to these situations will help you develop helpful coping strategies to reduce any negative effects on your performance.

There are two main emotions that typically pose the greatest challenge to maintaining focus that you may need to manage: anxiety and anger/frustration.

Anxiety

Anxiety is an emotion associated with numerous side effects. If you are anxious, you may experience nausea, a racing heart, sweating or muscle tension. You may also feel preoccupied, distracted or find it difficult to sleep.

Anxiety often occurs when our performance is really important to us, for instance at a National Championships. Interpreting anxiety as a positive indication of how important this event is to you will help make your anxiety work for you.

Is your thinking focused on you having a good or bad performance?

The previously highlighted skills of goal setting and visualisation can help you challenge unhelpful thoughts. Effective goal setting should give you the self-confidence to tackle tough situations and you can visualise how you will overcome the cause of your anxiety. Relaxation techniques can also be helpful to reduce the level of anxiety and help you to focus on succeeding.

Anger/frustration

Anger/frustration can distract you at critical times during your performance. You generally experience this emotion when you think that something unfair has happened to you. Anger/frustration are closely associated with blame. Some athletes will blame themselves; ‘I knew this would happen and I should have done something about it’. Others will blame people, situations or things around them; ‘the referee is a fool’ or ‘the organisation of the tournament was awful’. Anger/frustration will generally serve to distract you from your stated game plan. It is important to acknowledge your feelings and then encourage yourself to re-focus on the task in hand. It can be useful to call on the refocusing routine highlighted earlier. The quicker you move on, the quicker you can get back to competing at your best.

Many athletes have talent. Many will put in some of the required time to develop their talent. Only a few will ‘do what it takes’ to get to the top.

Your level of commitment will shape whether you reach your true sporting potential. ‘Winning a gold medal takes living a gold medal, it’s a lifestyle, which must be present every conscious moment’ Randy Snow (2000).

It’s useful to regularly reflect on your commitment. Below are some warning signs that if left unmanaged can weaken your commitment:

• You perceive that there is a lack of progress or improvement in your performance.
• You feel that you aren’t sufficiently involved in the development of your programme.
• You feel that you don’t fully understand and/or agree with the objectives of your programme.
• You experience injury and/or delays in rehabilitation from injury.
• You feel a lack of enjoyment.
• You experience unhelpful anxiety about competition.
• You are becoming bored with your sporting life.
• You feel that your coach and/or support staff are not working as a team.
• You feel that there is a lack of commitment, as you see it, by other team members, your coach or support staff.

If you become aware of anything affecting your performance you need to act promptly and find ways to resolve the challenges you have identified, otherwise your commitment to your goals may suffer.