Written by I’ll be the first person to admit that I struggle to focus pretty often. I have a real ‘wanderer’ of a mind and that can make things difficult for me. Whether it’s trying to get myself to sit down and finish writing this article or getting myself to actually pay attention while reading a book, my mind doesn’t always want to follow along. And that’s what brings me to our topic: FOCUS.
The dictionary definition of focus is, “the center of interest” or “paying particular attention to”, which are adequate definitions in a broad sense. But when working with athletes, it gets even more complex because typically there isn’t just one singular point of focus. Athletes have a million different things to think about and focus on, but we want to reign that in and be able to fully control that focus and direct it toward whatever is most pertinent and important in a particular moment. Controlling focus as an athlete is one of the most powerful skills you can have!
Focus, or the ability to focus, can be a weird concept to talk about because in most settings, it isn’t something we really think about. We expect our minds to focus on what we choose and follow along without ever getting caught up. Sadly, this isn’t always the case. It’s easy to lose our focus, and thinking about getting it back on track can get tricky.
There can be tons of different reasons you or an athlete may be struggling to focus at practice or in a game. It could be something going on in their personal lives, it could be something distracting them within the game, or it could be a larger issue across the team as a whole. We may not fully understand what’s causing the lack of focus, and we may not even be able to ‘fix’ the issue. But we can use different tools and strategies to help get their mind back on track as quickly as possible.
The ability to focus is truly a skill that can be taught, learned, and improved upon. The goal here is to educate you a little bit more about what Focusing really is, why it’s so important to performance, and how we can improve our athletes’ ability to focus.
So why is it so important to be able to focus properly?
Can you expect someone to perform their best if they aren’t really paying attention? Obviously not. If we aren’t getting the best out of our athletes at all times we’re setting the standard that mediocrity is OKAY within our team, and it’s pretty obvious how detrimental that will be to a team’s culture across the board.
If we want the best performances from our athletes, it all starts with having their best focus. Not only getting their focus on the task to begin with, but also getting them back on track when things go wrong and their focus starts to shift and change throughout the duration of a game. Once everyone within a program has a better ability to focus, it also aids in building a common understanding and feeling of everything we’re doing together. Further fostering that positive and productive team culture we all want.
Focusing properly typically leads to better performances, but sadly it’s not a magic cure-all to everything.
When athletes possess a high level of focus during a competition, and are ‘locked-in’ or ‘in the zone’ it changes the way their mind operates. Being fully focused allows athletes to:
-Think more clearly
-Make better and quicker decisions
-Reduce anxiety
-Improve confidence
The better we can get our athletes to focus, the better they are able to think, and therefore the better they are able to perform. No, it isn’t as cut and dry as that, there’s a lot more that goes into it, but at the end of the day we know that improved focus leads to better performance and that is all that matters.
If we can provide our athletes with the tools and skills to get ‘into the zone’ we’re setting them up for the best chances of success for both themselves and the team as a whole. When they are ‘in their zone’ it’s a lot more difficult for things to throw them off and negatively impact their performance.
So, how do I teach my athletes how to focus better and get into their zone every single game?
Teaching and learning how to focus better isn’t a one-size-fits-all thing. It ‘s important to understand that every single athlete will respond differently and just because a technique works with one person, doesn’t mean it’ll work for everyone.
There are many different techniques to teach focus out there, so there is likely something to fit every athlete you encounter. I want to provide you with a few of my favorite techniques for teaching and improving focus.
I picked this list of techniques because they’re what I have found to be the most effective, easiest to grasp, and the best for sustained, long-term improved focus in my experience in working with athletes and teams as a Mental Performance Coach.
- Controlling the Controllables
This is a saying that I heard from many different coaches throughout my playing career, but I never really understood it until I started learning more about the science behind focus and sport psychology as a whole.
When we talk about ‘controlling what we can control’ the goal is to prevent the outside factors of a game from impacting the way our athletes behave and perform. If we can get our athletes to focus on their process and the goal of the team entirely, nothing that happens outside of that can affect them.
What are some of our Controllables?
-Our Effort
-Our Attitude
-Our Decision Making
-Executing Our Job
-Being a Good Teammate
I like to refer to those things ‘on the outside’ as the ‘Uncontrollables’. These are those distractors that pop up during games that are bound to throw athletes out of their zone if they aren’t properly equipped to handle distractions and redirect their focus effectively.
What are some of our Uncontrollables?
-The Officials
-The Other Team
-The Crowd
-The Environment
-Our Teammates’ Decisions
This is just a short list of some of the controllables and uncontrollables that our athletes face every single competition. Every sport and every team will experience their own unique sets of these, but the same principle applies.
If our athletes are spending the entire competition focused on the poor call an official made for example, they are unable to really control their own effort, attitude, decision making, etc. because they’re too worried about what will happen when the official makes another bad call.
By teaching them the importance of focusing on their controllables, we’re allowing them to put their full focus and effort toward the things they can do to positively impact the game and their performance.
Controlling what you can control is always one of the first topics I teach when talking about focus.
2. Breathing
This one may seem a little strange at first, but the ability to control your breath as needed is such a powerful tool to have in your arsenal. This doesn’t have to be in-depth breath work, it can be as simple as a few deep breaths down into the belly.
When athletes are using their breathing properly, they are providing their body and brain with ample amounts of oxygen allowing them to think as clearly as possible and fuel their muscles to perform at peak levels.
I teach everyone to take a few really deep belly breaths anytime they are feeling a little nervous, unsure, anxious, or they can feel that their mind is wandering a little bit.
A few deep breaths can really help to ‘reset’ someone and pull their focus back to where we want it when something isn’t going the way they had imagined.
Most sports are very up-tempo and fast paced, but there is almost always a stoppage at some point that allows our athletes to stop themselves, take a few deep breaths, and refocus on the task at hand.
Thinking about breathing as a tool to improve focus is a little odd because our breathing is an unconscious task that our bodies do without even thinking about it. But as soon as we make a conscious effort to take these deep breaths we are taking control of our focus- choosing to focus on our breathing- and allowing us to choose where we place our focus next.
3. Creating a Mental Zone
If you’ve seen the movie ‘Happy Gilmore’ you might remember the scene where Chubbs is teaching Happy how to putt. He tells him to think of a ‘happy place’ to go to in order to relax and hit the putt the way he needs to. Now, that movie takes some creative liberties at this point and really goes off the deep end describing Happy’s ‘happy place’, but the lesson is actually pretty sound.
By creating a little ‘zone’ in our heads that’s stress-free, it allows us to focus and think clearly. We are creating a way to control our focus and prevent outside factors from impacting the way we think.
Creating a ‘mental zone’ for your athletes can be pretty complex because, as I said earlier, everyone is different and will see these tools uniquely. But if we can explain this idea to our athletes and help them understand the importance of it, they can usually start to develop this Zone for themselves.
Many people I’ve talked to describe their mental zone as an empty room with a window and door, or their bedroom or house. Or something very secure and impenetrable, like a locked room or very controllable environment. Oftentimes it’s a place that reminds them of something stress-free and happy. There is no right answer here. The key is creating a zone that makes sense to you and allows you to think clearly no matter what is going on ‘outside’.
For me, my mental zone is a snowy mountain scene with no one else around. When I see this open expanse of snow, trees, etc. in my mind, I am able to think clearly and I seem to forget everything else that is going on around me. Allowing me to choose where I place my focus.
Out of this list, this is definitely the most in-depth technique that will probably take the longest to master, but it’s also one of the most effective when it comes to learning how to focus more effectively.
If this is something you have tried before but can’t seem to get it to ‘click’ don’t worry, it takes some time and repetition to get it to stick. This is a process that takes some people years to get the hang of, so don’t get discouraged. Keep experimenting and trying small adaptations during practice until you get something that works for you.
4. Screaming ‘FOCUS’ is a Waste of Time
Coming from a baseball background, this is something I’ve seen more times that I figured I ever would have. Countless times I’ve seen coaches take this approach, especially toward their pitchers.
Example: A kid is on the mound pitching and he’s struggling. He can’t seem to find the strike zone and is throwing a lot of balls. The coach from the dugout will scream “FOCUS!!!” “THROW STRIKES!!!”
Believe it or not, this doesn’t work!
By yelling at his athletes to ‘focus’ he isn’t helping the athlete calm down, reset, and ignore the outside factors. Instead, he’s adding to those outside factors, increasing stress, and making it even tougher for his player to lock-in. It’s not like the kid is out there trying to throw balls, he is just struggling at the moment.
So, instead of yelling at him and raising the tension of the situation, it’s much more effective to try to slow the situation down, help him calm his mind through breathing and resetting, and allowing him to place his full focus back on his job, which is throwing competitive pitches and getting outs.
Regardless of sport, yelling ‘FOCUS’ at your athletes probably isn’t going to help them focus and perform better. If anything, it’s just going to make the situation worse and more difficult to fix.
This one is less of a technique and more of something to avoid.
In the heat of competition, it’s easy to get worked up and look for the immediate fix. But oftentimes, that immediate fix isn’t a fix at all.
The ability to focus effectively is so important for athletes. And the higher the level, the more important it becomes. Competitions or games can be absolute roller-coasters filled with extreme highs accompanied by devastating lows. Our goal with developing the ability to focus is to minimize the extremes of those highs and lows.
We want to create an environment for our athletes that is much more even-keeled and steady. It’s still good to celebrate successes and the lows are often unavoidable, but we don’t want those times to completely define our mentality and ability to focus. The more level-headed we can keep our athletes, the better they are able to focus and perform the way we know they can.
The more consistent and level our athletes feel when practicing and competing, the more safe and secure they feel within our program… And that’s part of our job when running a team or program, right?
The culture we want to foster includes this feeling of sharp focus and comfort. So anything we can do to improve that ability to focus is a massive benefit to us and every single person that’s a part of our program and contributing to our team’s culture.