Distractions in sports: Befriend Them!

Distractions in Sports: Befriend Them!

When an athlete has a race or competition coming up, the level of success in their performance will be determined by their ability to focus under pressure. There are internal and external stimuli that impact your focus.

Internal and external stimuli

Internal stimuli are distracting thoughts and feelings such as "The other players are bigger and stronger," "I feel frustrated and tired," or "I feel nervous." External stimuli encompass everything outside of yourself. There are many things in your environment that are beyond your control, and these things can disrupt your game.

Athletes training for an event need to consistently introduce distractions to put themselves under pressure so that when the event arrives, nothing will shake their mental state. There are unlimited sources and combinations that can come into play. It will vary for every sport, depending on whether it's a team or individual sport, if the field of play is outdoor or indoor, the number of people on your support team, spectators or crowd noise, the level of risk of injury, and what is at stake (medal, trophy, championship, or maintaining your record). Regardless, you must treat your concentration as if it were a muscle that needs training, or else it will be weak and vulnerable.

Testing your limits

The challenge is to progressively add more distractions and test your limits. If you start too fast and with too many distractions, you are likely to get discouraged by the process and make little progress. You need to be able to identify and discern what has the biggest impact on your focus so that you can learn how to overcome the obstacles. Seeking support from your trainer, coaches, and teammates can make this process more efficient and relevant. They can observe things you may not notice.

Practicing scenarios

Practice for the event under worst-case scenarios. For example, a basketball player preparing to take a free throw shot might have to wait for the length of a time-out before shooting. Some football coaches use water-soaked balls during plays to prepare for rainy games.

In my case, when preparing for my karate second-degree black belt exam, I performed mock testing as if it were the actual test. During these mock tests, I placed myself in different conditions that I might encounter. Some of these conditions included testing while being videotaped, having someone call out techniques with a strong accent, receiving critiques between combinations, testing alongside someone making ridiculous mistakes, someone calling out combinations not part of the syllabus or out of order, practicing in the dark, outdoors, on wood, on carpet, and on tatami mats.

Focus in athletics

There were days when I would lose focus and freeze, unable to remember the next move, even though I had done it a thousand times before. Other times, I would go into autopilot mode and not realize my mistakes until a training partner pointed them out. They might ask for five moves, but I would only do three. Videos don't lie. Watching them helped me see when my gaze drifted from my target to the person next to me. With time, it became clear which distractions posed the biggest obstacles for me and where I needed to put extra emphasis. I trained with those distractions—practice, practice, practice.

During my exam, there were rolling videotapes, techniques called out at a low volume, people testing on all sides of me during different phases, and many spectators. None of this phased me because I had trained for my exam under the pressure of various testing conditions. Train with distractions to elevate your game and reach performance levels you never thought possible.

To learn more, visit: https://mentalaccelerator.com/resource/focus/how-to-improve-your-attention

For further information, visit: https://www.maximumcomposure.com