MAINTAINING COMPETITIVE FOCUS, Part 2

Managing Distractions

Jay, a senior who was captain of his college team, came to see me because he felt that his confidence was subject to negative swings. He mentioned, for example, that because of his leadership position he felt that each time he made a mistake during competition it reflected badly on him and he feared losing the respect of the younger players. When he made a mistake, he let it affect his confidence (which, of course, made it more likely for him to commit another mistake).

   Another factor was the presence of his coach on the sideline, yelling instructions to him during games.  Paying attention to the coach’s comments caused him at times to over think the moment, and instead of staying in the flow of the game, the briefest of pauses or hesitations would make the difference between a well-executed play and a mis-step or turnover.

   Added to this was the other team’s coach who, having watched tapes of Jay’s team, would yell to his own players how Jay was likely to play the ball so that they could stop him. Jay reported that this, too, resulted in some lost confidence as he became focused in the moment on rethinking his tactics to match wits with the other team’s coach.

   Finally, Jay mentioned the presence at games of pro team scouts in the stands.  As a senior with hopes of playing professionally after graduation, it was very important to Jay that he make a good showing to impress the scouts, and conversely, the thought of making mistakes that they would witness was a source of great concern.

   Without a doubt, any athlete who is being scrutinized by scouts (or by college coaches if he is a high school player) wants to play at his best.  The paradox is that this desire often turns into the kind of pressure a player starts to feel that gets in the way of the very thing he wants to do, i.e., play his best.

   Some years ago the Golden State Warriors drafted international player Jiri Welsch, a talented swingman. One night in his rookie year, Welsch went 0-for-10 against Orlando.  Afterwards I asked him about it.  “I just kept thinking about how I needed to show my coach that I deserved to be out on the floor,” he said. The pressure he felt from that concern clearly got in the way of his playing in such a way as to show his coach that he had the goods.

   On top of everything else, Jay was still coming back from a pre-season injury, so he wasn’t in his best shape when his team recently played the no. 1 ranked team in the country, adding to his frustration and further chipping away at his confidence.

   What all of the above-mentioned factors have in common is that they are all distractions from the thing that is most likely to help Jay play his best and let his talents shine. 

   The thing that is going to help Jay the most is his focusing on the game as it is being played, scanning continually to alert himself to the location of the ball, his teammates, the opposing team’s players, etc, and staying sufficiently relaxed – both physically and mentally – to make the best decisions with – and without – the ball, and executing those decisions skillfully.

   Anything that detracts from his giving his full attention to these factors becomes a distraction.

   The goal is to stay on task – and that means having strategies to keep from getting derailed when other factors become distractions.

   With regard to the comments that his own coach and the opposing coach were yelling from the sidelines, it was important for Jay to find a way to limit the ways in which those comments might affect him.  Of course, his own coach’s comments could be particularly useful in helping him with the game’s tactical play.  He needed a way to take those comments in with that in mind – while at the same time not allowing these comments to take him out of his rhythm or to affect his confidence. 

   For that purpose, I took Jay through a series of visualization exercises that would help him become more proficient at doing this – along with the directive that he begin to anticipate these comments so that when they did come he would not become fazed as he had in the past.  The same thing applied to the comments from opposing coaches.

   With regard to the presence of scouts in the stands, that too presented a potential distraction. Playing his best depended on Jay staying focused on what was occurring in the game, not what might be going through the minds of some individuals in the stands.  Again, paradoxically, to have the best chance of impressing the scouts he needed to find strategies to prevent his focus from veering in the direction of those very scouts.

   The matter of Jay’s status as team captain and leader presents a similar situation.  His determination to be a good leader is admirable.  Like most of us, Jay is sensitive to how falling short or making mistakes would affect his perception and esteem in the eyes of his younger teammates – and this has added to the pressure he feels. 

   I asked Jay what he says to the underclassmen on the team when they make mistakes.  “I tell them to keep their head up and don’t let it bother them,” he told me.  But somehow, if he imagined them saying the same thing to him, it didn’t seem to do the trick.  However, if he thought about certain professional players who might make such a comment to him, it felt more authentic and served to convincingly remind him that everyone makes mistakes – no one is perfect.

   Along similar lines, British soccer star John Salako noted that “When you’re confident, you’re not afraid to make mistakes.”  In other words, as noted in Part 1, there are certain situations or states of mind where athletes aren’t bothered by making mistakes. Reflecting on this also helped Jay to develop a greater ability to stay on task.

   One final point worth noting is that most athletes give only part of their focus over to tasks of proper execution – while part of their focus is tied to matters of self-esteem and ego.

   In any task, part of our motivation is task-oriented and part of us is ego-oriented. Athletes who are more task-oriented athletes pay attention to matters of effort, execution and improvement, and view success in those matters as more important than the opinions of others or a game’s outcome.

   On the other hand, the more ego-oriented we are, the more likely we are to pay attention to what other people think of us and our performance… and when things aren’t going well we may focus more on trying to maintain and preserve a sense of emotional well-being. When an athlete is overly concerned about the opinions or reactions of coaches, teammates, family or friends, it is likely due to those motivations which are ego-based. While this is understandable – we sometimes need to step back and shift our priorities to insure focusing on the things that can most make a difference in our performance AT THE MOMENT.

   Elite athletes are often found to be high in both ego and task orientation.  They appreciate that it is not always possible to win or have a satisfying outcome, but at the same time they are highly motivated to win and outperform the competition.  For these athletes, a strong awareness of their motivation helps them to remain focused and stay on task. Developing specific strategies for managing distractions that inevitably arise makes these athletes mentally tough competitors who are equipped to play their best when the stakes are high.

© 2009 by Dr. Mitchell Smith.  All Rights Reserved.