Improve Your Focus, Improve Your Performance
October 6, 2023
The highest performing athletes and executives tend to be people who have exceptional focus. High performing individuals are required to think on their feet, to train to their highest potential, to perform despite the pressure they are facing, and to make the best use of limited time. All of these skills are dependent on the ability to concentrate effectively. Staying focused in a high performance setting is difficult because of countless internal and external distractions. Learning to maintain concentration despite these distractions is a skill that can be developed. Strategies that can help to improve focus teach individuals how to manage different types of disturbances that they are likely to face as high performing athletes or leaders.
The first step to enhancing concentration is to determine what is disrupting your focus.
Start by recording your concentration throughout several practices and competitions. Once you have identified patterns in your focusing abilities, you can implement strategies that can help you to best manage the distractions that are affecting you the most.
On top of managing distractions, it is important to know what to focus on. “Concentration includes letting go of distractions. But it also means knowing what to focus on and prioritize. This is where visualization can help, as it enables you to practice what you need to focus on through mental imagery” - Kim Foster Yardley.
Here are some strategies that can help to manage different kinds of distractions and to direct your concentration to what will help you most:
Visualize success.
Practice visualizing yourself successfully competing in your sport or in your high performance setting. Involve all of your senses in the visualization as if you are watching a movie in your mind. Try adding movement to the visualization as well. Play the mental movie in your mind as part of your training routine. Mental imagery trains your mind for success and can help you learn how to stay focused despite all the pressure you are facing at competitions.
Intentionally focus on the muscles you are trying to work while you train.
Several studies have found that when athletes direct their attentional focus to the muscles that they are trying to target, muscular output is increased. Focusing internally on specific muscle groups during training strengthens neuromuscular connections, which creates greater muscular output. Additionally, focusing on specific muscles is particularly beneficial when learning a new movement or when working on improving form and technique. It is important to note that attentional focus is highly effective for strengthening muscles and improving form during training sessions, however, it is usually not the best approach for competitions because focusing internally can increase mental fatigue.
Learn how to manage emotional arousal.
Feelings of anxiety, excitement, happiness, and sadness are common to experience throughout training sessions and competitions. Some arousal is necessary for optimized performance. However, these emotions can also interfere with performance because they can distract athletes and leaders from maximizing their focus on the task at hand.
These steps can be taken to better manage emotional arousal:
Notice the emotions you are feeling before, during, and after training sessions and competitions. Simply becoming aware of the emotions you are experiencing can help you to better manage them.
Practice mindfulness through doing breathwork exercises. If you practice breathwork often, you can use it to effectively manage emotional arousal before a competition or other stressful situations.
Take note of the types of thoughts you are having while training and competing. Are your thoughts helping or hurting you? How can you reframe your thoughts to be more productive?
Limit unnecessary interactions with people on the day of a competition
Adopt a pre-performance routine.
A pre-performance routine is a sequence of actions that can be performed in sports before a competition or in other high performance settings, such as before a meeting. Pre-performance routines can help to limit distractions and increase focus.
Examples of pre-performance routines are:
Specific physical movements
Listening to the same song before every competition
Standing in a power pose
Breathwork practice
Accept physiological and psychological fatigue and move your mind elsewhere.
As physical and mental fatigue set in, it is common to become distracted by the feelings of discomfort in your body and mind. Remaining focused on your movements and goals while enduring physiological and psychological stress is challenging, however, it is an essential skill for high performers.
Shift your attention away from fatigue through:
Implementing breathing exercises before competing
Sticking to your routine and not trying anything new during the competitions
Avoid focusing internally as this can make mental and physical fatigue worse
Actively move your attention externally, towards your environment and how your movements interact with the environment - shifting your focus externally can automate movements and decrease energy expenditure
Having exceptional concentration despite all external and internal distractions is challenging. However, it is a skill that can be learned. Creating concentration goals based on the distractions that are the most disruptive to your performance and learning what to focus on can help you to develop your ability to concentrate. Exceptional concentration lays the framework for exceptional performance.
Written by Noa Marley
References
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How Pre-Performance Routines Can Set You Up for Success (2022, December 11). The Sprint Project. https://www.calvin.edu/library/knightcite/index.php
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