Johnson, the multiple Olympic gold-medallist, attributed much of his athletic success to
an extraordinary skill in selective attention which enabled him to block out potential
distractions on the track. Secondly, descriptive studies in the form of athlete surveys
indicate the importance of concentration to sport performance. For example, Durand-
Bush, Salmela and Green-Demers (2001) discovered that focusing skills were regarded as
crucial to success by a large sample (n=335) of athletes in their study. Unfortunately, this
survey did not explore in depth what the term “focusing” meant to athletes. Therefore we
cannot be sure that athletes and researchers were referring to the same cognitive construct
in this study. Another source of descriptive evidence on the value of concentration in
sport comes from studies of “flow” states or “peak performance” experience of athletes.
These experiences refer to coveted yet elusive occasions during which the physical,
technical, tactical and psychological components of sporting performance (see Figure
1.2) intertwine perfectly for the athlete in question. Given the importance of such
experiences to athletes, it is not surprising that they have attracted considerable research
interest from psychologists (see Carr, 2004; Jackson, 1996; Kimiecik and Jackson, 2002;
Nakamura and Csikszentmihalyi, 2002). Interestingly, a key finding from such research is
that flow experiences emanate mainly from a cognitive source—namely, a heightened
state of concentration. Indeed, Jackson, Thomas, Marsh and Smethurst (2001) defined
Figure 4.1 In the zone... Darren
Clarke is totally focused on the task at
hand Source: courtesy of Inpho
Photography
Staying focused in sport: concentration in sport performers 99