If you are an Olympic athlete, there is one thing you will know for sure going into the event. “Since the event is only held once every four years, every other athlete attending the Games will be extremely well prepared, just like yourself,” explains Van de Pol. Which is why, he says, psychological factors are increasingly important. “Basically all sports are quaternities, consisting of a technical aspect, a tactical aspect, a physiological aspect and a psychological aspect. All four are important, and they all have to be aligned. Because many athletes will already be at the peak of their technical, tactical and physiological ability, it is precisely the psychological aspect that may be the deciding factor. Because during the match or competition, your mental state will affect your technical execution, the tactical choices you make and your body’s physiological response to things such as the pressure inherent in a competition.”
Different types of focus
When it comes to that psychological aspect, athletes and coaches will often use the term ‘focus’. But what exactly IS focus? “Focus is the ability to direct your mental effort at the action that is most important in a particular situation,” says Van de Pol. “High-performance sport is about applying your skills when they matter. However, the smallest disruption may negatively, and potentially even disastrously, affect a performance. But when everything does go well, focus may well be the key to success.”
Van de Pol distinguishes between several different types of focus. “First of all, there is the distinction between broad and narrow focus. A broad focus allows one to experience multiple events simultaneously. Take, for instance, a footballer dribbling down the pitch with a ball close to his foot, while simultaneously screening the various ways in which he can pass the ball. When the footballer has a narrow focus, he will focus more on the dribble and won’t see the possible passing options. Furthermore, there is the distinction between external and internal focus. If your focus is external, you will be focused on external factors, such as the ball and the opponent. And if your focus is internal, the emphasis will be more on the feelings and thoughts you will experience while playing your sport.”
According to Van de Pol, the ideal type of focus depends on the situation. “Take archers, for instance. They are often able to shift their focus gradually. For example, they will often start with a broad-external focus: they will focus on the weather conditions, such as the wind that might affect the course of the arrow. Then they will shift their focus to a narrow-internal focus: they will regulate their breathing, draw their bowstring and release the arrow. The trick is to be able to apply that focus shift even under pressure.”
Functional alertness
Van de Pol agrees that pressure can be an important factor in focus. “But this does involve the athlete’s own perception of pressure,” he emphasises. “In addition to the pressure put on them by fans, family and the media, many athletes also set the bar high for themselves. The latter doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad thing: it is often precisely because of this high bar that they’ve made it this far. Every athlete has a functional physiological alertness, also known as ‘arousal’. If they become more alert, it may benefit their performance. But if, on the other hand, the pressure increases and turns into performance anxiety, on top of excessive arousal, an athlete may ‘choke’, and will then no longer be able to perform as well as they would like to. This may trigger physiological stress responses, such as an increased heart rate and excessive perspiration, but may also result in tunnel vision.”
The latter can have two effects that may distract the athlete. “For instance, first of all, there is a risk that, during a match or competition, an athlete will worry too much about the outcome and consequences of the result, instead of focusing on how to perform the task at hand. Basically, you are then wasting your limited attention capacity on task-irrelevant aspects.It may also have another effect, which is that the athlete will actually focus too much on the motor skills involved in the performance of the task at hand. Take, for instance, a tennis player who overthinks his technique during the match, for instance when swinging his racket backward, thus disrupting the auto-pilot quality and possibly also the timing and execution of the stroke.”
Attention circles
So while there will always be distractions, Van de Pol says there are also ways in which athletes can train their focus and learn to retain it, especially in the face of high pressure and tension. “One way to do that is with the so-called attention circles, an auxiliary model developed by German sports psychologist Hans Eberspächer,” he explains. “Visualise a dartboard, consisting of six concentric circles. The smallest circle in the middle, the bullseye, is circle 1 and forms the core: ‘Me and my task’. This is the most important circle, as focus on the proper performance of your task is crucial. The further you allow your attention to veer from the central circle, the more likely you are to see your performance deteriorate. For instance, in circle 2, your attention will have shifted to distracting environmental factors, such as the crowd, the referee and your opponent. In circle 3 you will be too preoccupied with how things should be going, in circle 4 you will no longer be focusing on the process but rather on the potential result, in circle 5 you will be focusing on the consequences of that potential result, and in circle 6 you will have completely lost focus and ask yourself: “What am I doing here, anyway?”
Van de Pol refers to techniques such as ‘self-talk’, which you can use to direct your thoughts back to the smallest circle. “In such cases you will tell yourself that your greatest priority is to focus on the main task at hand. You will do so by using short cue words, such as ‘Focus on the ball’. Once you’re back in the smallest circle, you can gradually broaden your focus and also start focusing on tactical aspects, among other things. Ideally, you will then end up in a flow: your ability and the nature of the challenge will be completely balanced, everything will seem to happen of its own accord, and you’ll feel like you’re completely in control of your task. Take Epke Zonderland’s gymnastics routine at the 2012 Olympics, for instance. It was the perfect amalgamation of all types of aspects: technical, tactical, physiological and psychological. Focus played a vital part in this.” What will Van de Pol focus on during this year’s Olympics? “You can see it in all sports, but in athletics, among other sports, I always find it fascinating to see that before the start of the 100-metre sprint, athletes will first give a showy wave to the crowd, and then immediately regain their focus. It’s as if they flip an imaginary switch to ‘Me and my task’, but as noted, it’s not as simple as that.”
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