Of the many aspects of sport that people continue to misunderstand, perhaps no single focus for errors has caused more grief for sport participants than the rampant misunderstanding, incorrect advice, and misplaced blame associated with the dimension of attention. How many times have athletes been told to concentrate and just pay attention only to have their performance deteriorate as soon as they do so? How many sport failures have been attributed incorrectly to an athlete's failure to focus or having been distracted? No one can venture even a reasonable guess at the number of such occurrences because they are a ubiquitous part of the sport landscape. Who hasn't given such advice or chastised him/herself for just such failure? So many people make such mistakes because it seems intuitive and obvious that anyone trying to improve sport performance should pay more attention and concentrate harder. The problem arises because accumulating research supports a counterintuitive perspective - focusing more and concentrating harder often undermine motor performance.
To avoid a long and possibly tedious summary of psychological research in several related areas, consider a couple thought experiments in which you imagine yourself in a particular circumstance and speculate about your responses. As a golfer who has an easy, fluent swing, will you strike the ball more solidly if only you really bear down mentally, really focus on not slicing the shot, and concentrate more than usual? In fielding a sharply hit ball, will you succeed more often by focusing all your attention on watching the ball all the way into your glove? Or, consider the simple task of keeping a pendulum hanging at the end of a string as motionless as possible. Will you move it less (perform better) when instructed, without detail, simply to steady the pendulum - or when instructed specifically and vigorously to avoid, at all cost, any side-to-side movement in your attempt to keep it motionless? Recent research shows that you would make more of the specific errors you concentrated on avoiding (i.e., side-to-side movement), unless you were distracted by a competing task, when you would make fewer errors. Attention generates paradoxical effects - effects that are counterintuitive and raise serious questions about the advice athletes so often receive.
The current troubles confronting the New York Yankee's Chuck Knoblach provide a relevant sport illustration. He continues to encounter incredible difficulty completing the ridiculously easy task of throwing a baseball from second base close enough to first base that it can be caught. Is he doing better as he concentrates with all his might to perform a once-mastered task and avoid gross miscues? Is his continuing nightmare attributable to his refusal to concentrate, or his lack of desire and focus? No - but, so long as he pays more attention, he is likely to experience more difficulty, not less - just as you probably would in the aforementioned imaginary sport situations.
Hitters in baseball continue to be instructed to watch the bat hit the ball, despite physiology making it unequivocally clear that such a task is impossible. Young athletes continue to have coaches and parents encourage them to just concentrate and pay attention only to make more errors as a result of their re-doubled attention. Athletes continue to chastise themselves for making exactly the error they were focused on avoiding, whether it is a PGA golfer hitting into the only water that can cost a championship or a young tennis player double-faulting because of concentrating so hard on not double-faulting.
It would seem a safe bet that few if any athletes have avoided just such situations in their own sport experiences. However, such frustrating and counterproductive experiences need not continue just because researchers are still working on adequate explanations for sometimes puzzling experimental results in the areas of attention, concentration, and focus. Some practical, almost common sense suggestions and guidelines can be developed.
Perhaps Tiger Woods can provide a timely illustration of the power involved in this area of the paradoxical effects of concentration and attention. As he continues his conquest of professional golf, perhaps the only way his competitors can slow down or derail his domination is to devise a way to get him to really concentrate on not hitting a key shot into the water (if they can get within a stroke) or to convince him that he absolutely must focus on avoiding some error (some error, obviously, that has yet to cause him problems). If other PGA pros could convince Tiger to take this approach, they might be able to get a stroke or two closer - but, it seems that Tiger Woods understood a long time ago that he should build, and then re-build, a swing that would not require his concentration during a match. His father Earl does not stand at the side of the fairway entreating Tiger to concentrate extra hard on not slicing his next shot - maybe he never did and Tiger learned to just let your swing do its job.