Madehi Ramlee PS ( S6 )

Concentration and Attention

What is Concentration / Attention ?
Concentration in sport and exercise setting typically contains 4 parts:
a)

Focusing on the relevant cues in the environment

( selective attention ).

b) Maintaining that attentional focus over time.

c)

Having awareness of the situation.

d) Shifting attentional focus when necessary.

Type of Attentional Focus ?

Attentional focus is divided into 2 dimensions :
a)
b)

Width ( Broad or Narrow )

Direction ( Internal or External )

A broad attentional focus

Allow a person to perceive several occurrences simultaneously.
Athlete have to aware of and sensitive to rapidly changing environment
( eg. They must respond to multiple cues ).
A narrow attentional focus
Occur when athlete respond to only one or two cues, as when a baseball
batter prepares to swing at a pitch or a golfer line up a putt.

SPORTS PSYCHOLOGY UNIT, ISN/MSN 2004

Madehi Ramlee PS ( S6 )

An external attentional focus

Directs attention outward to an object such as a ball in baseball or a puck
in hokey or to an opponents movements, such as in a doubles match in
tennis.
An internal attentional focus
Directed inward to thoughts and feeling, as when a coach analyzes plays
without having to perform, high jumper prepares to star her run-up, or a
bowler readies his approach.
(1) Broad internal focus
This involves thinking, planning and analyzing. This happens when your
studying signs or opposing teams. You are focused on making sense out of a lot of
information and besides that try to developing game plan or strategy.
(2) Broad external focus
This happens when you have to look out at what is going on around you or
rapidly assess a situation of game. For example, when you come up to bat and
see how the infield is positioned, who is on base, what signals are being flashed.
(3) Narrow internal focus
This means rehearsing a performance before we do it or control an
emotion state. For example, mentally rehearse how to do tennis swing or taking
breath to relax.
(4) Narrow external focus
This is about reacting or performing with focus exclusively on one or two
external cues. For example, the pitch is on the way to the plate. The ball has just
been hit toward you. You can often see this narrowing of attention if you watch a
good hitters eyes just before he hits the ball.

SPORTS PSYCHOLOGY UNIT, ISN/MSN 2004

Madehi Ramlee PS ( S6 )

Attentional Problems
1.

Internal Distracters
Some distractions come from within ourselves our thought, worries, and
concerns. Jackson ( 1995 ) has shown through interviews with athletes that
worries and irrelevant thoughts can cause performers to lose concentration
and develop an appropriate focus of attention.
a) Attending to Past Events.
b) Attending to Future Events.
c) Choking Under Pressure.
d) Overanalyzing Body Mechanics.
e) Fatigue.
f) Inadequate Motivation.

2.

External Distracters
Define as stimuli from the environment that divert peoples attention from
the cues relevant to their performance. Unfortunately for performers, a
variety of potential distractions exist.
a) Visual Distracters.
b) Auditory Distracters.
c) Gamesmanship.

SPORTS PSYCHOLOGY UNIT, ISN/MSN 2004

Madehi Ramlee PS ( S6 )

Tip for improving Concentration on site

a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
f)
g)

Establish Routine
Develop Competition Plans
Used Cue Words
Employ Non judgmental thinking
Practice eye control
Stay focused in the present
Over learn skills

Exercise for improving Concentration

1. Learning to Shift Attention
2. Parking Thoughts
3. Learning to Maintain Focus
4. Searching for Relevant Cues
5. Rehearsing Game Concentration

SPORTS PSYCHOLOGY UNIT, ISN/MSN 2004

Madehi Ramlee PS ( S6 )

Attitude Control
Attitude is a combination of thoughts, sensations of feelings and action
( Behavior from inside and outside )
Attitude control all aspect of life and all the results we get are reflection of our
attitude.
A good attitude will always generate good results and a bad attitude will always
generate bad results.
It is possible to develop a strong positive attitude. However, it is important to
respect your past, your current conditions and be willing to systematically,
rationally and persistently work on improving your mental, emotional and
physical skill towards the achievement of your goals. Regardless of your skills or
goal you want to improve or achieve some combination of the following
developmental steps :

Step 1
Verbalize a positive goal that attracts you rather than acts as a negative
motivator.
Step 2
Develop a multi-sensory image ( as VIVID as possible ) of what it will look,
sound, taste, smell, feel like and the emotion that you will experience upon it
achievement.
Step 3
Write down your goals ( ensure that no interference exist between personal and
professional goal ).
Step 4
Apply your signature to the goal listing, make a contract with yourself.
SPORTS PSYCHOLOGY UNIT, ISN/MSN 2004

Madehi Ramlee PS ( S6 )

Step 5
List or write completion date in your agenda.
Step 6
Make your contract known to a significant other, let him or her sign it as a
witness.
Step 7
Play at it ( act as ) until you make it.

Attitude Control
1) I am a positive thinker during competition.
2) My self-talk during competition is negative.
3) I give 100% best effort during play, no matter what.
4) I can change my negative moods into positive ones by controlling my

thinking.
5) My coaches would say I have a good attitude.
6) I can turn crisis into opportunity.

SPORTS PSYCHOLOGY UNIT, ISN/MSN 2004

Madehi Ramlee PS ( S6 )

Attitude Qualities
1) Positive Self-Expectancy
The most readily identifiable quality of a total winner is overall attitude of
personal optimism and enthusiasm. Winner understands the psychosomatic
relationship-psyche and some; mind and body- that the body expresses what
the mind is concerned with. They know that life is a self-fulfilling prophecy
that a person usually gets what her or she actively expects.
2) Positive Self- Image
Winners are especially aware of the tremendous importance of their selfimage and of the role of their imagination can play in the creation and
upgrading of the self-image. They know the self-image acts as a subconscious
life-governing device that if in your self-image you cant possibly see yourself
doing something achieving something, you literally cannot do it. They also
know the self-image can be change since the subconscious is again vividly
and full detail.
3) Positive Control
The positive self-control of total winner is acceptance of one hundred percent
responsibility for causing the effect in his or her life. Winners realize they
personally have the power to take control of many more aspect of their lives,
both mental and physical and then were heretofore thought possible. They
know that barring organic damage or congenital faults, self-control is the key
to both mental and physical health.
4) Positive Self-Esteem
Winners have a deep-down feeling of their own worth. They know that
contrary to popular belief, this feeling of self-acceptance and deserving is not
necessary a legacy from wise and loving parents-history is full of saints who
rose from the gutters and literal monsters who grew up a loving families.
Winners are not outer-directed. Recognizing their uniqueness they develop
and their own high standards.

SPORTS PSYCHOLOGY UNIT, ISN/MSN 2004

Madehi Ramlee PS ( S6 )

5) Positive Self-Awareness
Winners know who they are, what they believe, the role in life they are
recently filling, their great personal potential and the future roles and goals,
which will mark fulfillment of that potential. They have learned these things
and are constantly adding to their knowledge, through experience, insight
feedback and judgment. As a results they not only play from strength but also
avoid errors and correct weaknesses. Their judgments are characterized by
extreme honesty. They dont kid other and they dont kid themselves.

SPORTS PSYCHOLOGY UNIT, ISN/MSN 2004

Madehi Ramlee PS ( S6 )

Coping Strategies in Sport

Coping has been define by Lazarus and Folkman (1984) as
Constantly changing cognitive and behavioral effort to manage specific
external and / or internal demands thats are appraised as taking or exceeding
the resources of the person
Lazarus and Folkman (1984) indicated that Coping Strategies are of 2 types :
1. Problem focused Coping Strategies
Centre on alleviating the environmental stimulus that is causing the stress
response.
Eg. If a right handed baseball player is very anxious when batting against
left handed pitchers, an appropriate problem-focused coping strategy
might be to get during practice. Other common names for problem focus
coping include the term
a) Task-focused coping or
b) Action-focused coping
and two of this thing are all considered to be synonymous terms.
2. Emotion focused Coping Strategies
Seek to regulate emotions in order to reduce or manage cognitive distress.
Eg. The batter would focus his coping on controlling his emotion through
anxiety reduction technique. Instead of attacking the source of the
problem, through problem focus coping, the athlete seeks to reduce or
eliminate the symptoms associated with the stress.

SPORTS PSYCHOLOGY UNIT, ISN/MSN 2004

Madehi Ramlee PS ( S6 )

Two Types of Coping Styles are:

1. The approach style
Involves addressing the stressful situation directly.
2. The avoidance style
Involves avoiding or repressing the stressful situation. It is also referred to
as repression, disengagement or rejection.
Anshel et al.s ( 1997 ) two dimensional Coping Conceptual framework for
studying :
a) Coping Styles
b) Coping Strategies
The 4 different coping strategies include
c)
d)
e)
f)

Approach / problem-focused coping

Approach / emotion-focused coping
Avoidance / problem-focused coping
Avoidance / emotion-focused coping

Conceptual framework for studying coping styles and strategies

SPORTS PSYCHOLOGY UNIT, ISN/MSN 2004

Madehi Ramlee PS ( S6 )

Smith ( 1999 ) identified five different factors that can facilitate the generalizability of coping skills to other situations. These factors are as follows:
1. Recognition of stimulus generality.
Many stressful life situations are very similar to athletic situations.
Recognizing the similarity and recalling the specific coping strategy that
was effective in the athletic situation will facilitate transfer of coping skill
to another situation.
2. Broad application of coping skill.
Some coping skills are very specific to a specific athletic situation, but
others are very broad. Progressive relaxation, for example, is a broad
coping skill that should generalize to numerous sport and nonsport
situations.
3. Personal significance of coping application.
A coping skill that was effective in reducing stress related to an issue of
great personal significance will be remembered. Coping skills that have
proven to be personally important will generalize to other situations.
4. Internal locus of control of coping skill.
When an athlete claims ownership of a coping skill it is more easily
transferred to other situations.
5. Learned resourcefulness.
Learning specific coping skill to address a specific life stress is effective,
but it is narrow-minded. The resourceful individual looks for broader
application of all coping skills and learning experiences.
Coping Strategies Used by Elite Athletes
a) Thought control strategies ( eg. Self talk, positive thinking, though
control )
b) Attentional focus strategies ( eg. Concentration control, tunnel vision )
c) Emotional control strategies (eg. Arousal control, relaxation,visualization )
d) Behavioral strategies ( eg. Set routines, rest, control of the environment )

SPORTS PSYCHOLOGY UNIT, ISN/MSN 2004