CONCENTRATION AS THE KEY TO SUCCESS
The final between Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic at Wimbledon 2023 was an epic battle that had historic consequences for our sport. The master and maximum champion of Grand Slams, and in front, the youngest tennis player of the era to reach the top of the ladder, a titan who is already writing his own history.
There are probably several aspects to analyze, but the one that concerns us in this article escapes the tennis and statistics... it is based on one of the pillars of the psychology of sport while it is inspired by the hypothesis that there is a fundamental difference between that champion athlete (in the world of tennis, we can refer to those who have won multiple G.S) and those players who have won only once a major title or who have failed to triumph in decisive instances. The question is, what differentiates Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer or Andy Murray, or on the women's side, Serena Williams or Iga Swiatek from the rest of the players on the tour? Is talent enough to become a consistent winner?
Once the knowledge base and technical skills necessary to succeed in a highly competitive sport have been developed, what determines success or failure? Is there an ability to achieve such consistency, maintain at the top of success. The answer is believed to be simple. When an athlete has good physical preparation and his or her technical and tactical skills are good, attentional skills are vital to obtaining a good sporting performance as well as enjoying the execution of the task. The best levels of performance are achieved when athletes are in a zone of optimal energy characterized by attention being fully directed to the process of performance and nothing else.
According to the article "Building a Psychological Profile of Olympic Medalists and World Champions", what differentiates multiple winners from others is the ability to focus attention on the task at hand and not be distracted by irrelevant external or internal stimuli. This is known as concentration.
When we talk about concentration we must first talk about attention: the psychological ability that allows to focus on a stimulus that can be external (everything that happens around the athlete) or internal (thoughts and feelings of the athlete).
"I lost my concentration, and then I lost the point, then the game, then the match"
In short, concentration is the learned skill of directing and maintaining attention to the required aspect of the task at hand. It should be noted that as a skill, it can be developed and improved through practice. It is possible to learn to decrease attention to irrelevant factors or to increase it to relevant factors.
When training concentration, it is important to know what to focus on and how to control the focus. It also means being present here and now, in the present. When the mind wanders to the past or the future, we are not as effective in our performance.
To achieve success, people must be able to shift their focus of concentration along two intersecting dimensions: width (wide-narrow) and direction (external-internal).
There are certain sporting situations that require a completely broad focus of attention and others that are narrower. The amplitude refers to the extension of the attentional field, if the field is wide the athlete will be attending to a multitude of factors, on the contrary if it is narrow he will be focusing his attention on a few factors.
The type of focus depends on the sport skill and the specific demand. When they can make these changes in response to the changing demands of performance situations, they can "do it all".
However, it is not always easy for an athlete to focus on one aspect and forget about the rest. We can say that athletes are threatened by many factors that can cause them to lose concentration or prevent them from achieving it. There are three main groups of distracting factors: external factors, internal factors and the difficulty to change the way of paying attention:
External distracting factors refer to the audience, opponents, referees and are usually produced by three types of causes: Precipitation, Anger (for example a tennis player who has been harmed by a referee's decision, may manifest his anger to the point of being unable to forget that fact or even cause his caution) and Boredom (that is, low level of motivation and activation).
Internal distracting factors have their origin in the athlete's thoughts. These are usually produced by three types of thoughts: dissociative thoughts (which have nothing to do with the sporting performance being performed at that moment), overly analytical thoughts (for example, dwelling on thoughts that make it impossible to concentrate on the here and now) and weak thoughts (which may indicate lack of self-confidence or inability to achieve desired goals).
Last but not least, the inability to change in the way of attending. This refers to the difficulty in managing attentional styles, and in changing from one style to another when necessary. This difficulty can lead to the athlete's blockage, both physical and mental.
It seems important to take up the research of "Building a Psychological Profile of Olympic Medalists and World Champions" to visualize the differences between multiple winners and individual winners based on the Concentration scale. Specifically, we focus on the dissimilarities in Concentration Skills, Concentration Errors, and Impulsivity and Speed in Decision Making.
Concerning concentration skills we can say that multiple winners in comparison to the rest of the players possess significantly more developed concentration ability than awareness of the environment or analytical ability. In other words, they are more focused than conscious or analytical.
Another difference between the two athletes is that the former are significantly more likely to make errors because they are over-concentrated and under-inclusive than because they are externally distracted or internally overloaded.
It was revealed that there was no difference in the types of errors made by multiple winners compared to single winners. The former are much more likely to make errors due to being overly narrow or under-inclusive in their approach, but the latter have a tendency to make errors due to over-analysis and overload.
Regarding behavioral control and caution or speed in decision making, some people behave more impulsively, get lost in their own thoughts, and/or have less control over anger.
The more cautious and quicker the decision is made, the more the athlete is concerned about avoiding mistakes. Therefore, the person is more likely to place more importance on accuracy than speed when making decisions or taking action. The confidence of knowing what they are going to do, where and how the next shot is going to go, the right shot at the right time…
Multiple winners are more cautious and careful than impulsive, more concerned with minimizing mistakes than individual winners.
The results of the attention analysis affirm that the multiple winners were more focused than the rest of the players. Their attention to detail and willingness to repeat the same behaviors over and over again, along with their concern for avoiding mistakes and honing their skills undoubtedly contribute to their repeated success and their ability to perform under highly competitive conditions.
The fact that multiple winners make fewer mistakes by over-analyzing or over-thinking is also important. It is possible that they are simply less analytical and that their ability to concentrate helps them to quiet their minds when necessary, i.e., they are less likely to be overburdened by their own thoughts.
It could be argued that there is a champion profile. If we compare multiple winners, both single and multi-winners (and especially multi-winners), to other elite athletes and to the general population, they are much more able to narrow their focus of concentration to attend to details and develop and hone their skills and abilities. They are less likely to make mistakes of all kinds, but especially those mistakes due to external and/or internal distractions.
"Concentration is one of the most powerful tools in sports psychology. Regardless of the sport in which one competes, the ability to focus is essential to achieve success."
Written by Guadalupe Gimenez.
Sport Psychologist
