Attentional Focus

Attentional focus is a cognitive skill that supports motor skills in sport

e.g.

-Football players must understand their assignments and then go make a play

-Baseball players will make more errors on the field if they do not have the ability to maintain attentional focus

Attentional focus needs to last throughout the entirety of a game

-Needs to be practiced and built up the same way you would periodize a conditioning program for a sport like football

-This is done through consistently challenging the cognitive side of the game during practices

Conditioning and attentional focus also work hand in hand

Coaches love the “can’t think when we’re tired” and those coaches are correct

Attentional focus and conditioning both cause nervous system fatigue in their own way

If the athlete is physically tired, they will allocate most of their resources to the body leaving little for the mental side of the game

This is especially important in sports like football and basketball where they are doing a lot of running and also needs to think

That being said, attentional focus is still important in sports like baseball.

An outfielder may lose focus if the ball isn’t getting hit to them, especially kids

Find ways to keep them locked into the game and train this skill during team practice