Mental Focus: Confidence

“Focus” is an increasingly important part of any sport, but for many athletes today, the concept is easier said than done. Not only the ability to concentrate on a particular goal, but knowing what the right goals to choose are.  Some might assume that constantly thinking things such as: winning, scoring, having a good game, or who their competitor is, are the right things to focus on before and during their games.  Constantly thinking about these things, however, can actually work against you and lower your confidence and, in turn, possibly cause you to choke.  The reason for this is that while putting all this stress of doing well on yourself, you actually put negative pressure, or distress on your body, which can completely throw off your game.  With that being said, you want to steer away from thinking those thoughts when preparing for a big match.  Mental focus in sports is a very important key to your success as an athlete, and I am going to tell you how you can begin to understand it and utilize it from here on out.

Sports specialists on the mental game call mental focus a “process focus”, the reason being that when you are focusing on the whole big picture and process of your game, you cannot constantly think about doubts of winning or anything else that may be distracting to you while you are playing.  While you may think that concentrating on avoiding making little mistakes in your game will help your performance, it is already starting to lessen your chance of success.  So what you really need to have is “sports confidence.”

Some of you may be thinking, what is sports confidence?  The answer to that question is simply this: you have to believe that you have the ability to successfully complete a physical task or skill in your sport of choice.  You must only focus on the thoughts that are relevant to you completing a specific task during your match, and understand that the other thoughts are irrelevant and just hurting your performance.  Some of the things that may sway our self-confidence in sports is what other teammates or fans say or don’t say to us.  When this happens, one thing to do is to draw your confidence off of others who are succeeding at the moment and just continue to strive to do better. Another effective thing to do is to have efficient practices that will motivate you and increase your physical skill level, including running drills, touches on the ball, free kicks, stretches and many others. Finally, once you are doing better and feel accomplished, you will begin to regain your self-confidence.

Additionally, process focus involves you letting go of thinking about the outcome of the pass, play, or game.  Like I have mentioned many times before, thinking of the outcome will only overwhelm you, in turn forcing you to mess up.  Players who use process focus simply use techniques, such as the six below to successfully help their game.  In this instance, we will use a pass in soccer as an example.

1.       You must think of a similar situation where you have successfully made that pass to one of your teammates.

2.       Practice a few swings at the ball before the game, at half time, or on the side lines to get your touch down right.

3.       Develop an image in your head of correctly doing the exact pass you want to make.

4.       Next, have one single thought in your mind when you are about to make that pass; think “perfect” or “accurate”.

5.       Then, have absolutely zero concerns about where the ball is going to go.

6.       Last and most importantly, make sure your complete focus remains on the process of preparing for that perfect pass you are about to make.

REFERENCES:

http://www.sportsconfidencetips.com/whats-sports-confidence/

http://www.sportsconfidencetips.com/119/mental-focus-in-sports/

http://www.sportsconfidencetips.com/14/article-2/

http://www.drkevinroby.com/node/51

Visualization

Before any game, everyone gets nervous about making that one mistake that lets their whole team down.  If you really think about it, most athletes have much harder time thinking about the good things that are going to happen in their game than the possible mistakes they may make.  Losing is the thought that is always racing through athletes minds.  What if we lose?  Are we going to have to do extra sprints?  How much are we going to disappoint our fans?  I have touched on the topic of the technique of visualization in one of my recent blogs, and now I will elaborate on the subject a bit more.

Visualization is the most common technique athletes use worldwide, and is also known as meditation, guided imagery, or mental rehearsal.  No matter what you chose to call it, visualization is simply pulling up a mental imagine in your head that you want to see happen in your next performance as an athlete.  Visualization is a proven mental technique that helps any individual increase their success rate, athletes especially.  It can also relax and calm your nerves, which is a big factor in improving your game as well.   To really succeed through the employment of the visualization technique, you must practice it just like any other skill.  Having exceptional focus is the number one key to visualizing yourself doing well in a situation and actually making it work.

This mental rehearsal is what trains athletes’ minds, in turn teaching our body’s muscles to perform just as we want them to during the real game.  This is why when we worry too much about missing a shot, or failing to make the right pass, we actually do.  When our mind is thinking “mistake,” we are going to make them.   In recent years, studies have found that visualization is improving individuals’ physical and psychological reactions and performances in many kinds of different situations.  Focus is what really can either make or break our performance, which is about 90% just mental focus.  However, you cannot become a better player without actually practicing the game physically, but when you combine that with mental imagery, you have twice as much of a chance succeeding.  Now, before your next few big games, practice this technique and watch the transformation.

REFERENCES:

http://sportsmedicine.about.com/cs/sport_psych/a/aa091700a.htm

http://www.sportsnetworker.com/2010/07/28/how-mental-imagery-helps-athletes-succeed/

Getting in the Zone – Part II

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

In the second installment of “Getting in the Zone”, we will discuss how athletes can achieve a state of flow during competition as well as the different factors that can disrupt athletes and prevent them from getting in the zone.

While most athletes have experienced flow, achieving it consistently is not an easy thing to do. According to Jackson and Csíkszentmihályi (1999), reaching a state of flow depends largely on your perception. If you perceive the challenge to be equal to your skill set, the chances of achieving flow increase. Studies by Jackson (1995) have revealed that while athletes cannot control flow, they can certainly increase the probability of it occurring. To improve your chances of experiencing flow, consider trying a few of these tips:

• Recall a competition or moment in your life when you felt completely absorbed in the activity. Remembering these states of flow will help you experience it again.
• Have a clear idea of what makes flow possible for you. Everyone is different!
• Try not to focus entirely on outcomes. For example, if you are too worried about winning, you may not be focused enough on your mental state.
• To achieve flow consistently, you need to keep increasing your skills. This is important because if your skills do not increase with the challenge, you will experience anxiety instead of flow.

Understanding how to achieve flow is critical, however learning the factors that prevent a disrupt flow is equally important. According to Weinberg and Gould (2011), the factors that athletes identified as preventing flow were less than optimal physical preparation, readiness, and environmental or situational conditions; the reasons the gave most often as disrupting flow were environmental and situational influences. Some examples of preventative factors are: injury, fatigue, unwanted crowd response, self-doubt, no goals, unforced errors, and poor technique. Disruptive factors can include: stoppage in play, negative referee decisions, lack of physical preparation, negative talk on the field, loss of concentration, and putting pressure on yourself.

As you have learned, flow is a very positive and performance-enhancing state that can be achieved by any athlete. Recalling previous memories of flow should be part of your mental training just as visualization or goal setting is. Increasing the probability of achieving flow will undoubtedly improve your athletic performance, and being aware of potential threats to flow will help you remain focused and in the zone when faced with adversity.

References:
Jackson, S.A. (1995) Factors influencing the occurrence of flow state in elite athletes. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology 7(2): 138-166
Jackson, S.A., & Csíkszentmihályi, M. (1999) Flow in sports. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics
Weinberg, R.S., & Gould, D. (2011) Foundations of sport and exercise psychology. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics

Related articles

• How Great Athletes Find “The Zone”: Part I (exactsports.com)
• Calling All Athletes! Do You Need A Sports Psychologist? (medtopicwriter.com)

What is Competitive Stress and How Can I Beat It?

“All of us get knocked down, but it is resiliency that really matters. All of us do well when things are going well, but the thing that distinguishes athletes is the ability to do well in times of great stress, urgency and pressure.” — Roger Staubach

We’ve all been there – the referee makes an unfavorable call; your opponent is faster than you; your pitching is off; the ground is wet, but what separates elite athletes from mediocre athletes is the ability to perform at a higher level despite the obstacles and adversity they may face. There are a million excuses for not performing your best during a competition, but professional athletes make no excuses. Simply put, if you want to become a professional, you’ll need to learn how to deal with stress and pressure effectively.

So what exactly is competitive stress? Generally, sport psychologists define it as “an athlete’s perception of the imbalance between the environmental demands placed on him or her and the athlete’s response capacity and resources for meeting those demands” (Gould and Rolo 2004). For example, a hockey player may face a situation where he or she needs to score a crucial penalty shot to win a tournament for their team. If the player perceives the demands as exceeding his or her capabilities, the result is increased competitive stress. This increase in stress can lead to apprehension, loss of confidence, tension and inability to concentrate. Luckily, because competitive stress is one of the most studied areas among sport psychologists, there are many strategies and techniques athletes can learn to cope with their anxiety during competition.

A study of the Women’s National Soccer team (Holt and Hogg 2002) revealed that players typically use four coping strategies during competition. Other sport psychologists (Van Yperen 2009, Scanlan and Passer 1979, Kristiansen and Roberts 2010, and Anshel et al 2000) have noted these strategies in their research and agree that they can be employed by any athlete in any sport to help manage stress.

Problem-focused coping: involves strategies to manage or alter the problem that is causing stress through behaviors such as information gathering, goal setting, time management skills, and problem-solving. Problem-focused coping can also include what you do before the game to manage stress. Many athletes report that having a good warm-up/start and communication between their teammates helps them manage stress.

Emotion-focused coping: includes the strategies of regulating emotional responses resulting from a stressor through actions like meditation, relaxation, and cognitive efforts to change the meaning the individual attached to the situation. The use of social support like encouragement from teammates or family may also help the athlete de-stress.

Avoidance coping: involves physically or mentally disengaging from the stressful situation. This is typically done by ignoring or blocking irrelevant distractions like parents, coaches, and fans.

Appraisal coping: involves efforts to modify the way you think. People may alter the way they think about a problem by altering their goals and values. Athletes may use positive self-talk, or mental images of past successes to cope with their anxiety.

It is important to note that dealing with competitive stress is a complex process for elite athletes that does not simply involve one coping style employed for all situations. Athletes will often use a combination of the above four strategies, which is why it is important to experiment with different methods of coping. Identifying the strategies that work the best for you will help you improve your performance and mental toughness.

EXACT Sports knows that a player’s success not only depends on their physical and technical prowess, but also their mental aptitude and behavioral characteristics, which is why we work hard to teach and develop these effective ways to cope with competitive stress along with the other mental characteristics needed to excel in your sport.

References:

Anshel, M. et al (2000). Coping style following acute stress in competitive sport. Journal of Social Psychology, 140 (6), 751-773

Gould, D., & Rolo, C. (2004) In C. D. Spielberger (ed.) Encyclopedia of Applied Psychology. (441-447), Academic Press.

Holt, N. L., & Hogg, J. M. (2002) Perceptions of stress and coping during preparations for the 1999 women’s soccer World Cup finals. The Sport Psychologist, 16, 251-271

Kristiansen, E., & Roberts, G. C. (2010). Young athletes and social support: Coping with competitive stress and organizational stress in “Olympic” competition. Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports, 20 (4), 686-696

Scanlan, T. K., & Passer, M. W. (1979) Sources of competitive stress in young female athletes. Journal of Sport Psychology, 1, 151-159

Van Yperen, N. W. (2009). Why some make it and others do not: Identifying psychological factors that predict career success in professional adult soccer. The Sport Psychologist, 23, 317-329

Mental Game in the Majors: Evan Longoria

We know how important the mental game is in all sports, but we never really see a true example of someone using mental training in their game, and then be willing to talk about it at the same time.  Evan Longoria is the perfect story of how the mental game can take you from average to great.  Not recruited by one division I school out of high school, he was barely recruited by division III schools.

After high school Longoria enrolled in community college, and was such a standout that he was offered a scholarship from Long Beach State University, and was moved over to third base.  The most important thing that happened was when Longoria was introduced to Ken Ravizza a Kinesiology professor who preaches mental preparation and structure.  He teaches players how to deal with, not dwell on, failure.  Ravizza says the essence of his teaching is learning to be “comfortable being uncomfortable”.

Ravizza taught Longoria to have a “focal point” where he can focus after he makes a bad swing or feels like he has lost control of his emotions.  All Longoria does is step out of the box and look at the top of the left field foul pole.  If he feels he should have hit a pitch that he missed he will step out of the box and undo his batting gloves to “release” the pitch, and then step back in.

In the video at the end of the post Evan Longoria’s teammate Carlos Pena says, “His ability to be in the present moment makes him one of the best.”  That ability to clear your head and play in the moment makes a great player.  You often hear about players having short memories, and Longoria is the perfect example of this.  He plays the game from pitch to pitch, playing in the moment.  All of these techniques have lead to Longoria becoming a superstar in Major League Baseball.  The video continues on to discuss Longoria’s visualization techniques as well as how his almost zen like attitude has made him one of the best to play the game.

Batting .347 with an On Base Percentage of .407 and Slugging .621 it seems that Longoria is continuing to impact the league on what many view to be the best team in the league right now.

E:60 Evan Longoria from E60 on Vimeo.