Sport And Exercise Psychology: A Critical Introduction

Can self-talk improve athletes’ concentration? Unfortunately, no published research
on this question could be located. However, it is possible that positive and/or
instructional self-statements could enhance attentional skills by reminding athletes about
what to focus on in a given situation. For example, novice golfers may miss the ball
completely on the fairway in the early stages of learning to swing the club properly. In an
effort to overcome this problem, golf instructors may advise learners to concentrate on
sweeping the grass rather than hitting the ball. This trigger phrase ensures that learners
stay “down” on the ball instead of looking up to see where it went. In general, trigger
words must be short, vivid and positively phrased to yield maximum benefits. They
should also emphasise positive targets (what to aim for) rather than negative ones (what
to avoid).

Mental practice

As we shall explain in Chapter 5, the term mental practice (MP) or “visualisation” refers
to the systematic use of mental imagery in order to rehearse physical actions. It involves
“seeing” and “feeling” a skill in one’s imagination before actually executing it (Moran,
2002a). Although there is considerable empirical evidence that MP facilitates skill-
learning and performance (see Chapter 5), its status as a concentration technique remains
uncertain. Anecdotally, however, mental imagery is used widely by athletes for the
purpose of focusing. Thus Mike Atherton, the former England cricket captain, used to
prepare mentally for test matches by actually going to the match venue and visualising
“who’s going to bowl, how they are going to bowl...so that nothing can come as a
surprise” (cited in Selvey, 1998, p. 2). From this quote, it seems that imagery helps
performers to prepare for various hypothetical scenarios, thereby ensuring that they will
not be distracted by unexpected events. However, this hypothesis has not been tested
empirically to date. Therefore, despite the fact that mental imagery is known to improve
athletic performance, its status as a concentration technique is uncertain.
In summary, we have reviewed four psychological techniques that are used regularly
in an effort to improve athletes’ concentration skills. Unfortunately, few studies have
evaluated the efficacy of these techniques in enhancing concentration skills. Despite the
absence of such evidence, these four concentration techniques appear to be both plausible
and useful in sport settings.

Old problems and new directions in research on concentration in

athletes

Despite a considerable amount of research on attentional processes in athletes, some old
problems remain. The purpose of this section of the chapter is to identify these
unresolved issues and to sketch some potentially fruitful new directions for research in
this field.
To begin with, as is evident from the insights of Garry Sobers, Darren Clarke and
Stephen Hendry earlier in this chapter, further research is required on the “meta-
attentional” processes of athletes or their intuitive theories about how their own
concentration systems work. Interestingly, it could be argued that concentration skills

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