Attentional Control in Sport Performance

Definition

Attentional control refers to an individual’s capacity to choose what they pay attention to and what they ignore.
It’s a critical skill in sport, impacting the athlete’s ability to focus their cognitive resources on relevant information while dismissing irrelevant distractions.

Selective attention is the process of focussing on one specific task or stimulus while ignoring other distractions.
Athletes demonstrating good selective attention can concentrate on relevant game stimuli (like a moving ball) while ignoring irrelevant stimuli (like crowd noise).
Divided attention refers to the ability to process two or more responses or react to two or more different demands simultaneously.
In sport, athletes often need to split their attention across various tasks (like running, maintaining balance and strategising) at the same time.

Broad attentional focus is useful when assessing the overall game situation or strategy, where focus is on a wide range of stimuli.
Narrow attentional focus is utilised when an athlete needs to focus on a specific task or point, such as when aiming in archery.
Athletes must be able to shift between broad and narrow focus, and between external (e.g., tracking an opponent’s moves) and internal (e.g., controlling breathing) focus.

Mental rehearsal can help in improving attentional control. It involves visualising the performance or event, helping athletes prepare and focus.
Mindfulness and relaxation techniques can improve attentional control by reducing mental clutter and improving focus.
Practise under game-like conditions increases familiarity with potential distractions and boosts capacity to maintain attention on task-relevant factors.

Effective attentional control can enhance sport performance by improving decision making, reaction time, and technique execution.
Conversely, poor attentional control can lead to performance errors, slower reactions and increased susceptibility to pressure.
Therefore, improving attentional control can provide a significant performance edge for athletes in their chosen sport.