Focus! Keys to Developing Concentration Skills in Open-skill Sports

Abstract

Sideline shouting to “focus” and “anticipate” can be stressful and counterproductive for athletes, especially when they are novices playing in dynamic sport environments. An alternative aproach is to coach athletes to understand that focusing is a concentration skill that improves with practice. Selective attention, attentional focus style, and attentional shifting are three keys to concentration that have important implications for motor performance and decision making during open-skill sports. In this article, these characteristics are described and associated with practical activities to improve athletes' concentration skills.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Eva Monsma

Eva Monsma ([email protected]) is a professor in the Department of Physical Education at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, SC. Melanie Perreault is an assistant professor in the Department of Kinesiology, Sport Studies and Physical Education at the College of Brockport, State University of New York, in Brockport, NY. Robert Doan is an assistant professor in the School of Kinesiology at the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg, MS.