There are several aspects that we need to consider when it comes to working together with athletes on their attention. First, we should work with athletes to help them understand WHY it is important to improve their ability to focus and concentrate. In such psycho-educational conversations, we can, for example, discuss how attention focus serves as the gateway to information processing and action. Where an athlete directs their attention greatly influences their perception, decision-making, execution of skills, and emotional regulation during performance. By focusing attention on relevant cues and blocking out distractions, athletes can enhance their performance outcomes, achieving greater performance consistency and reliability. Athletes who can sustain attention over extended periods are more likely to perform at their best consistently across different contexts and conditions – and which athlete does not want to show their best performance possible?

So, by emphasizing the importance of attention as the currency for performance, athletes can understand the critical role it plays in optimizing their performance outcomes and develop strategies to enhance their attentional control, focus, and concentration during training and competition. These strategies include attentional cueing, visualization and mental rehearsal, attentional control strategies, feedback and monitoring, goal setting, positive reinforcement, and mindfulness training.

One of the main strategies I personally use most often in different ways is mindfulness training combined with attentional control strategies. When using these approaches, I have a favorite approach and I am going to share that with you today.

When we start working on attention and being in the present moment, I always talk with clients about where their attention is during training or competition. To illustrate this, I always draw the simple image below. The arrow resembles the time, and the X stands for the present moment.

Then I ask them where their attention usually is when they lose their focus. In almost all cases, they describe something that is in the past (like “Why did I make this mistake?”, “Why did I make this decision?”, “If the referee wouldn’t have made this call, then…” etc.) or that is in the future (like “If I win this match, I will proceed to the next round”, “If I lose this match, I will lose my position in the world ranking” etc.). Once they answer the question and we collect some aspects, I draw the next two arrows that go from the present moment somewhere to the past and to the future, because this is where their attention wanders. I then ask them where their attention is NOT – and they all answer: “In the present moment – my attention is not here, and not now.” Exactly – and that is the first psycho-educational step I take together with them, to help them understand that their attention is everywhere, but not in the present moment. That is where they win and lose their competitions – in this very moment. Not in the past and not in the future.

In the next step, I ask them if they would be open to trying a very brief, very simple breathing exercise. If they agree, I ask them to start breathing through their nose. No specific rhythm, no specific pace, no specific task. Simply breathing in their rhythm. Inhaling through their nose, exhaling through their mouth. After a few breathing cycles, I then ask them to try and identify the spot inside their nose where they can feel the cold air touch their body for the first time. I let them stay with that spot for a few moments and invite them back to talk with me. I ask them how that felt, what they thought, and they almost always say something like calm, and they only thought about where the air touched their nose. Then they realize that they were only in the very moment, not thinking about past or future.

We use this mindfulness activity then, to think about how this simple breathing exercise can be applied in various situations in training or competition.

…and then we add another step – a simple attentional control strategy using self-talk. If you are following VirtualSportPsych for a while already, you might have heard that self-talk sentence before. My personal go-to sentence when it comes to attention is What’s Important Now?. This sentence has been used and shared by Michael Phelps as one of his main attentional control strategies and I LOVE THIS SENTENCE! This sentence contains everything that is important in that situation and I discuss that sentence together with athletes then. The question helps shift the attention to the present moment and the answer will always be what is truly important in that situation. …plus, we can even create an acronym from the question by taking only the first three letters of the words. I always ask the athletes to take a pen and a piece of paper and write down the first three letters next to each other – and once they see the word they just wrote they start smiling: WIN. It’s a word no athlete ever forgets because that is their ultimate goal. But I always tell them that to me it is not about winning the competition (well, yes it is, but it ‘s not the dominant goal). To me it’s important to win the moment, win any moment. …and if we win every moment, we are focused on the present moment and thus increase the probability of also winning the competition. It might be that the opponent is better today and we might even lose the match, but at least we can reflect after the match and say, that we gave it our all and were always focused on what was important: Here. Now.

At the end, we then think about how they can remember to breathe and ask themselves the WIN question. I always give them a silicone wristband I designed some years ago so they can use this as an anchor that reminds them of the question. Every time they take a look at the wristband – if by accident or on purpose – they see the wristband and the question and it then can help them come back to the present moment. Over the past years, I have worked with a number of clients in different domains and I am always happy to see them wear the wristband (for example on pictures) although we haven’t talked in a while.

This is my strategy in which I combine psycho-education, mindfulness training and attentional control strategies. Now, I am curious about how you work with your clients to help them focus their attention on the present moment. What is your strategy? What is your approach? Simply hit reply to this email and share your story! I am more than eager to learn from you!