Concentration in Youth Sports
When young athletes struggle with distractions, it can hurt their performance. When they can’t reach a state of flow, they make more mental errors.
Kids lose concentration a lot and it’s part of playing sports. They often think too much about things such as their stats, needing to score, or worrying about what others think, and thus they are not performing in the moment.
Instead of being distracted by irrelevant thoughts when performing, kids need to focus on small objectives that help them think about execution or moment-to-moment tasks in their game.
We call these process goals or mini goals, and using them can replace expectations about scoring and help athletes focus on their execution.
This, in turn, can help them get into those desirable flow states in which they’re completely immersed in their tasks and it feels as if time is suspended.
What process goals should your athletes set?
They are about the moment-by-moment performance, such as creating space to receive a pass. These process goals help them to stay in the moment.
Other examples include:
-Reading the defense in football
-Committing to the shot in golf
-Focusing on court awareness in basketball
Once they define the objectives to focus on during performance, the next step is to understand their most common distractions. These might include:
-Thinking ahead about results or stats
-Worrying about what teammates think
-Losing focus when upset with mistakes
-Thinking about who’s watching the game
Next, you want your athletes who start thinking about results or focusing on who is in the stands to refocus on the current play.
The mental skill of REFOCUSING is key to their performance because you don’t want distractions to lead to making mental mistakes.
Also, remember not to pick out too many objectives at one time. Instead, focus on the ones that are most important to your young athletes given their position or specific task.
Related Articles on Kids’ Mental Game:
- How Young Athletes Find Flow in Sports
- Teach Young Athletes How to Get Into the Flow
- Help Sports Kids Be Ready When They Get in the Game
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