Psychological Focus

Psychological focus is the ability to maintain focus on the here and now and switch concentration as the need arises.

It is often referred to by a variety of other names, for example, bottle, heart, hunger, killer instinct, mental toughness, single mindedness, will power and will-to-win.

It involves players being able to maintain attention on the here-and-now and switch concentration from task to task as the need arises. Players who are competent, confident and who are committed to achieving their full potential will be best able to retain focus and maintain their composure and competitiveness. The more they undertake a balanced training programme - based on the 3 T's and 3 P's - the more successful they will be in this regard.

There are a number of strategies that can be used to achieve an even greater level of bonding and cohesion among members of a team panel. These include: use of team uniforms, social outings or team building weekends. Given the differing personality types involved and the range of thoughts and emotions, which they experience across situations, and, at various stages of their development, fluctuations in focus are inevitable. This helps to explain why some players:

• try harder than others when they are losing.
• strive to prove doubters and knockers wrong
• throw caution to the wind when the odds are stacked against them.
• allow themselves to be carried away when the team wins. Players who are not used to winning are most vulnerable in this regard. (They usually come back to earth in their next game).
• who experience little competitive pressure when they are young, become more vulnerable as they grow older, and vice-versa.

What makes this area so intriguing is that different players respond in different ways. Indeed the same player will often respond in different ways when presented with the same circumstances.

Competitive stress

While competitive pressure can help to arouse players, it can also overwhelm them with the result that they sometimes, choke, freeze or even lose the head. The fears, doubts, worries, anger, insecurities or nerves which trigger such responses are most likely to impact when players lack belief in their own ability. Apart from further diminishing self-belief, these distractions can undermine their level of commitment, too. The anxiety triggered by competitive pressure may physically reflect itself in butterflies in the stomach, cramps, diarrhoea, sweaty palms, dry mouth and racing heartbeat. In terms of behaviour, players may find it hard to eat or over-eat, yawn a lot or tap their feet.

Loss of focus can be triggered, and fuelled, by any one or a combination of internal disruptions or external distractions. These include the following:

• Internal Disruptions
• Negative Perceptions/self-Talk

Players convince themselves that they are not good enough for the task at hand, are self-conscious about their lack of fitness or their opponents perceived superiority etc. Alternatively, players may experience an exaggerated sense of superiority, which can, in turn, lead to complacency.

Mistakes/guilt

Players question their ability when they take the wrong option, lose possession, miss a scoring opportunity, concede an easy score or feel guilty about not doing enough during games or in training etc.

Poor coping Mechanisms/self-deception

When things are not going well for Players, they sometimes resort to the use of negative coping mechanisms, for example, complaining, making excuses, denying problems, blaming others or generalising from one problem to another. The more important the game or uncertain the outcome, the more likely it is that distractions will be magnified and attention will be deflected away from the task at hand. The more ingrained these responses become, the harder they are to change and the more likely they are to surface.

Losing

Players get dejected when the opposition has the upper hand or when the team is trailing or the lead is being whittled away. The more they lose, the more pessimistic and defeatist in attitude they become. This is sometimes referred to as learned helplessness or as a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy. First we make our expectations then they make us.

External Disruptions

Intimidation

Players are intimidated by physical or verbal provocation or by opponents who engage in gamesmanship, for example, who feign a foul or an injury or who simply waste time.

Match officials

Players get irritated when a match official makes what they perceive to be a poor or biased decision.

Spectators

Players get annoyed when spectators become abusive.

Lifestyle

Players lead an unbalanced lifestyle attempting to cram in as much as possible or burn the candle from both ends. (They should endeavour to get 8 hours continuous sleep each night). Players who lose focus can sometimes trigger a chain reaction, which culminates in a breakdown of team cohesion, also. There are a variety of routines, which can be used by players to maintain psychological focus. These are usually classified on the basis of being mind-to-body or body-to-mind techniques depending on whether relaxation is achieved primarily through the mind or the body.

Developing Psychological Focus

Mind Body Techniques

• Mental Rehearsal or Motor Imagery (MR): players learn to generate mental images of performance and rehearsing images of activities likely to occur during competition.
• Cognitive Stress Management: stress management techniques designed to alleviate the stress bought on by worries, fears and negative self-statements. Players can often talk to themselves in attempt to build up confidence and to convince themselves that they can be successful.

Body Mind Techniques

• Centering: a breathing technique in which players learn to consciously relax starting from head to toe. Players inhale deeply and control their breathing when exhaling
• Progressive Muscular Relaxation Training (P.R.T): is a much more elaborate and time-consuming relaxation procedure. It is based on the principle of feeling muscular tension. Players tense the each muscle group in succession which leads to a more pronounced relaxation of the muscles and this helps players to recognize the feeling of relaxation in a particular muscle group.