In the high-stakes arena of sport, where split-second decisions can determine victory or defeat, focus reigns supreme. It's the mental muscle that keeps student-athletes sharp, alert, and fully engaged in competition.
"If you ask a student-athlete [what went wrong] after a mistake or a bad performance, one of the top answers you're going to get is ‘I just wasn't focused' or ‘I couldn't focus today.' It's something that student-athletes have a lot of trouble with, especially where there is competition and so much going on in their lives outside of their sport, " says Kirstie Alvarez, a Mental Performance Coach at IMG Academy.
Alvarez works with student-athletes in the classroom, in one-on-one sessions, and in live coaching environments to train their ability to focus, just as they're training their physical skills.
"You have to be aware of the situation, " she says. "You can't be worried about what's going on in the stands or about some of the pressures that you might be experiencing, because those things can circle in your head. And if you're focused on the wrong thing in performance, then you're not able to execute and do what your body is trained to do."
How Drills Can Build Focus in Sport
Drills are the building blocks of athletic performance, serving to develop and enhance physical skills and refine technique. They're also potent tools for sharpening focus. By repeatedly practicing focus, athletes train their minds to tune out distractions and stay locked in on the task at hand.
Alvarez has her student-athletes practice focus drills so they can call on the techniques when they need them during competition. "Focus is something that we can train, " she says. "No matter what sport you're in, you're going to have some level of focus that you need in order to perform to your best."
Here are three drills to help you build focus in sport.
Sport Focus Drill #1: Mindfulness
By integrating mindfulness drills into training, student-athletes can learn to quiet the noise of external distractions and self-doubt, anchoring their focus in the present.
First, Alvarez says, become aware of what distracts you. "Some student-athletes get really distracted when their parents show up, " she says. "Are you distracted by your own teammates? By your opponents? By your own internal thoughts? Are you distracted by the nerves that you're feeling in your body?"
Then, use your senses to train yourself to maintain your focus. A good drill for this is spending a few minutes focusing on three things that use your senses. For example, Alvarez tells her student-athletes in the baseball program to direct their attention to how their hands feel inside their gloves.
"If you get distracted, bring it back, and don't judge yourself for having other thoughts going on, " she says.
With practice, these mindfulness skills can translate into competition: Student-athletes on the field know that they can bring their attention back to that feeling, Alvarez says, and it doesn't matter if they have homework to do later — they can be present in the moment.
Sport Focus Drill #2: Purposeful Breathing
Breathing is elemental, yet it's a potent tool for harnessing focus. Breathing drills also have a physiological effect, delivering more oxygen to your blood and lowering your heart rate in pressure situations.
"When we talk about breathing with student-athletes, we want it to be purposeful, " Alvarez says. "One technique I like to use with my athletes is slow breathing."
She starts by having student-athletes breathe normally for a minute and count how many breaths they take. Then, she directs them to breathe in slowly but out even more slowly for another minute to see if they can take fewer breaths than they took during the first minute. "For example, you'd breathe in for a four count and then breathe out for a six count, " she says.
"That breathing is so simple, and it can help a lot of things going on in our body, " Alvarez adds. "When we're purposely focusing on the count, then we're in control of our focus rather than letting the lack of focus control us."
Sport Focus Drill #3: Focus Cues
In the heat of competition, the mind can easily wander, leading to costly errors and missed opportunities. That's where focus cues come into play.
Focus cues can be visual, such as looking at a certain object on the field or court; verbal, such as something you say to yourself; or physical, such as snapping a rubber band or hair tie on your wrist. Alvarez says baseball players will draw something in the dirt or stare at a spot on the bat before stepping into the batter's box.
"The thing with the cue is not to do it just to do it. It should have meaning behind it, " she says. "When we put meaning to the cue, then it allows us to direct our focus where we want."
Student-athletes can use cues to draw their focus to a specific moment or to move on from one that didn't go so well.
"I have one student-athlete who gets really frustrated after a mistake or a bad at-bat, " Alvarez explains. "We've worked on different types of cues to help him direct his focus to the learnings that can happen within that mistake instead of to the emotions that he's feeling.
"So, he grabs a cup of water in the dugout, and he allows himself to be upset, " she continues. "But while he's drinking the water, he's thinking about what's going on, what happened at that at-bat. And when he's finished with that water, he crushes the cup, and that's his cue to focus back into the game: ‘I'm going to go cheer on my teammates and not worry about what happened in the past, because it's over. I've learned from it, and I need to move forward.'"
It's a sort of mental checkpoint that can help student-athletes get past mistakes and keep them grounded, focused, and ready to perform at their best when the game is on the line.
Want to master focus? Take IMG Academy's on-demand focus course.
