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Your attentional skill set is one of your most valuable skills as an athlete. You need to be able to pay attention to the right thing at the right moment in order to be able to perform up to potential in a moment. If you don't you will underperform, and then your attentional skill set determines how well you can recover from mistakes and get your self back in the game.
Attention filters into so many aspects of your life and performance. Here are 3 ways your attention can impact you, and if you are not training your attention it can greatly hurt your performance.
#1 Your sense of fulfillment and accomplishment
How you feel walking away from your performance mainly comes down to your attention, and what you placed it on. If you focus on your mistakes and that the outcome wasn't to your liking you will walk away feeling one way. If you focus on what you did well, how you can improve and seeing the success within your performance you will walk away feeling differently.
I have a client who walked away from a championship soccer game, that he lost, feeling good about the game, his performance and feeling satisfied. Why? Because he could see that he did absolutely everything he could, and knows there was nothing more he could do. First, this is because he has spent time working on his mental game, but also because that is what he focused on, and didn't let the result be the only thing he saw.
#2 How Confident You Feel
What you pay attention to also impacts how confident you feel. Depending on what you pay attention to day to day will greatly impact your confidence. If you pay attention to small success you will gain confidence. If you pay attention to only the things you feel you need to do better or feel you did bad, then you will not feel confident. Your ability to place your focus on either direction is determined by how well you have trained your attention.
#3 How Steady And Calm You Are Versus Reactive
Your ability to manage your emotions also comes down to your attention. If you have the skill to be aware of your emotions as the begin to rise and observe them rather than react based on them, you have the ability to stay centered, rather than act based on emotions. The ability to have an emotion and simultaneously observe it and then make a choice in how you want to respond is a skill set that fall under attention.
Don't Forget to Train Your Attention
Your attention is trainable, and it is your choice if you do something to train it or not. By not training it you make the choice to not be your best. It filters into far too many things to not take the time to train and use it to help you perform. If you want some help to gain better attentional skills, please reach out and see how I can help you.
To your success,
Kate
About: Kate Allgood is trained in the field of applied sport psychology. She holds two Masters degrees in psychology where she graduated with distinction. She has spent the past 14 years working one on one with high school, college, Olympic, and professional athletes to help them with their mindset, mental performance and mental skills training. Kate has also been a consultant for professional teams, including the Anaheim Ducks primary minor league affiliate the San Diego Gulls, to help the team and players develop their mental game. It is important to note that while Kate has graduate school training in applied sport psychology and general psychology, she does not diagnose or treat clinical disorders, and is not a licensed psychologist.
**The information provided is not to dispense medical advice or prescribe the use of any technique, either directly or indirectly, as a form of treatment for physical, emotional, or medical problems, without the advice of a physician. The information provided is only to offer information of a general nature to help you in your quest for high performance. If you know or suspect you have a health problem, it is recommended you seek your physician's advice.