The importance of concentration and focus of attention in sport.

A guide for athletes and sports psychologists who want to improve in this aspect.

One of the many factors that influence the performance of any sport is concentration. Moreover, this process has acquired over the years a crucial importance to achieve great sporting success. We are talking about the conquest of championships, medals and world records; athletes who have managed to reach the top of any sport have managed to direct their attention exclusively to the task at hand.They have managed to direct their attention exclusively to the task, ignoring any external distraction.

This enormous importance of focusing in athletes has not gone unnoticed by sports psychologists, who have tried to sports psychologists, who have tried to the different psychological and contextual aspects that influence concentration and focus.nin order to try to improve sports performance.

Concentration and sports performance: cause and effect

Having said this, I consider that we must insist that concentration is a process that proportionally improves sports performance, and that therefore maximizes the chances of success in any discipline.. The more concentration you have in any task, the better you will develop it, and therefore, you will obtain better results.

Concept of concentration

A good definition of concentration can be the following: it is the ability of a person to focus his or her attention in a sustained and constant way for a prolonged period of time during a prolonged period of time, in an activity or task, ignoring external situations or circumstances.

Concentration, then, is primarily a form of selective attention that allows us to process the information that interests us, ignoring all other external factors or circumstances around us. The exact concept is the focus of attentionthe focusing of all our senses on the task at hand.

Some examples of focusing attention

In order to try to explain graphically the concept of focusing attention we can resort to a series of illustrative examples. For example, the soccer player who focuses on what he controls; on his ability to get ahead of the opponent in an accurate dribble, or to shoot the ball correctly so that the shot ends in a goal. Or we could also think of the tennis player who focuses his attention on hitting the ball well, or anticipating the opponent's shot in order to reach the ball and be able to hit it well.

In addition, focused attention is commonly assigned with a sports jargonI played the whole game very concentrated", "I lost my concentration and I could not regain it again", "after the first failure I lost my concentration", the latter very common in football players. this last one is very common in soccer players. In short, these are recurring phrases in the sports world that are a clear sign that the that concentration is an aspect that plays a decisive role in sporting competition. in sporting competition.

Lack of concentration

Concentration is essential in sport, and its deficit in any individual practicing a sporting discipline can cost him many mistakes. That is why lack of concentration is considered to be one of the biggest problems in sports.e.

To try to mitigate the harmful effects of lack of concentration in sport, coaches use a series of strategies. Although motivation and activation can be very positive elements for the athlete when it comes to maintaining proper concentration and therefore a good performance, technical professionals in the world of sports have detected that the presence of sports psychologists can help to avoid errors due to lack of concentration..

Sports psychologists

In sports such as soccer many sports psychologists work specifically on the consolidation of behavioral patterns that make it easier for the player to stay in the game. that make it easier for the player to remain with all his senses in the game throughout the match. It may seem an easy task, however, getting the player to understand that in order to maintain concentration, factors such as the referee's performance, field conditions, weather conditions and, in short, several factors that he cannot control and that distract him from his task, is really complicated.

One strategy that is widely used is A very used strategy is the visualization or mental rehearsal, a task that consists mainly in that the athlete reproduces mentally each step to make during the activity, getting to feel those sensations so characteristic when he is in competition.

When the athlete reaches maximum concentration, he enters into what experts call a flow state, in which the individual is so involved in what he/she is doing that he/she maintains his/her attention without the slightest hint of being disturbed by any situation or circumstance.

Do not focus only on concentration

Maximum concentration is reproduced naturally and automatically, without the need to focus our attention on the concentration itself, that is, that task that has become automatic should be executed in a way that does not require focusing attention on each of the steps or elements that make up the task, but should be focused on what is going to happen and let it happen.

To conclude, it should be clarified that every type of sport has its methodology and its progress.. Undoubtedly, one of the most relevant factors when it comes to improving in any discipline is concentration. Consequently, the knowledge of several strategies that allow us to enhance this aptitude will allow any athlete to achieve better records and results.