sports coach UK Research Summary 3
© Alan Edwards
Applied Attention-related
Strategies for Coaches
How can attention help players improve their sporting performance? It may seem obvious to say that a player
who pays more attention to what they are doing on the playing field will produce a higher level of performance
than a player paying less attention.
But how can a player consciously develop how they use their attention to help them gain a competitive edge? Coaches can
play a crucial role in this process by helping their players understand how to develop and use their attention to improve key
aspects of their performance.
This summary presents four attention-related strategies that have been prominent in attention-related research for many
years. Each strategy is explained in a sporting context, including an example that aims to show coaches how these methods
can be applied within their coaching.
The researchers used examples of traditional American sports (ie baseball and American football) in the original journal
article. For this summary, the examples have been rewritten using sports more familiar to UK coaches.
sports coach UK Research Summary 3 – Applied Attention-related Strategies for Coaches
3 KEY LEARNING POINTS
3 Attention can have positive and negative impacts on
sporting performance.
3 Coaches can use attention-related strategies to help
their players focus their attention more wisely, on the
most important information at the most important
times.
3 These attention-related strategies can help players
perfect their skills and techniques while preparing
them to perform in a game situation.
3 Coaches in any sport can analyse these techniques
and apply the principles to their coaching.
Attentional focus
The researchers explain attentional focus as the idea of
players only focusing their attention on the sources of
information that are critical to the skill they are carrying out.
Previous research found players focus too much attention on
negative thoughts, distractions and irrelevant information.
Learning to ignore these and focus attention on only the
most important information will help players achieve higher
levels of performance.
Research suggests, in any sport, it is important for players to
consider both internal and external sources of information.
Internal sources can include specific movements and tactics to
be carried out, while external sources can include objects
such as a ball or the opposing team’s tactics.
Coaches can help players focus their attention on the most
important sources of information at specific times, thus
helping them to perform as effectively as possible.
Example – A goalkeeper practising penalties
Firstly, the coach simplifies the task by helping the goalkeeper
decide the most important internal and external information
to focus on during the penalty kick. As the ball is placed on
the spot, the coach may instruct the goalkeeper to focus their
attention on their position on the goal line (internal
information) and the run-up of the penalty taker (external
information).
The coach will then help the goalkeeper focus their attention
on the information that is most important during the next
phase of play – as the penalty kick is taken. This could include
the direction of their dive (internal information) or the ball as
it is kicked (external information).
When observing the task, the coach may identify errors in
the goalkeeper’s performance and choose to focus more
attention on these in subsequent practice. For example, if
the goalkeeper paid too much attention to the opponent’s
run-up and this resulted in an incorrect position on the goal
line, the coach could instruct the player to focus more
attention on this element of their game.
sports coach UK Research Summary 3 – Applied Attention-related Strategies for Coaches
Referred to as ‘arousal’ by the researchers, this refers
to how players’ sporting performance can be affected
as a result of how stimulated they are.
Players become stimulated by their perception of the
situation they are playing in. However, as individuals,
all players will be affected differently by these
situations, so it is vital for coaches to understand the
level that produces their players’ most effective
performance.
In a game situation, players are stimulated
psychologically (becoming excited or nervous) and
physiologically (developing a slow or fast heart rate).
Research suggests anxious players may be unaware of
important information they should be paying
attention to, while excitement can lead players to
narrow their focus and miss important information.
Example – A wheelchair basketball
team practising defensive plays
Coaches can determine the level of stimulation that
produces their players’ best performance by
reproducing some of the situations they will come
across during a game. This can include helping players
effectively deal with loud and distracting noises.
A crowd, teammates and opponents are all sources
of loud and potentially distracting noises. Players can
find it difficult to pay attention to what is important if
they are unnerved or distracted. Coaches therefore
need to ensure their players do not become
overwhelmed by noisy situations, but instead learn to
embrace them.
To do this, a wheelchair basketball coach can play the
sound of a noisy crowd through speakers when the
team is practising defensive plays. The coach can then
monitor the players’ chair and ball control and their
ability to communicate and carry out the plays in the
noisy situation.
If some players appear more focused, the coach may
decide these are the players to run the plays in a
game situation.
If other players are distracted and confused, the
coach can find ways to simplify the plays by changing
communication signals or breaking the play down
into smaller segments to help these players handle
their increasing stimulation.
Self-talk
The researchers describe self-talk as words, phrases or
cues that players understand as instructions or actions.
Research has found it can have a positive impact on
both elite players and beginners, helping them to focus
their attention before, during and after carrying out a
specific skill.
The researchers give the example of ‘push, point, hit’ as
a verbal self-talk cue that helps tennis players’ practise
their serve. By reciting the words during the serve,
players know what they need to do and when. ‘Push’
instructs the player to release the ball into the air, ‘point’
encourages them to point at the ball and fully extend
their arm, while ‘hit’ is said at the point of contact to
ensure the player keeps their eye on the ball at the
crucial moment.
Example – Designing self-talk cues
in golf
Coaches can help their players by designing cues that
relate specifically to a skill or technique. The first step is
to identify the different components that the player will
perform.
The coach could identify four components of a golf
swing – addressing the ball, ensuring a full backswing,
maintaining the correct position through impact and
following through efficiently. The coach could then
simplify the technique by giving each component a
single cue word – ‘address’, ‘backswing’, ‘impact’ and
‘follow-through’.
The coach would explain to the player what each cue
word involves and where to focus their attention. For
example, ‘address’ could include teeing the ball and
positioning the feet and body correctly before starting
the backswing. ‘Backswing’ could include the takeaway,
moving the hips and body, keeping the head still and
bringing the club head down towards the ball on the
correct plane.
© Paul Childs/Action Images Limited
Stimulation
sports coach UK Research Summary 3 – Applied Attention-related Strategies for Coaches
Learning from the Research
Although sport-specific examples have been used to
bring each of the four attention-related strategies to
life, coaches in all sports can consider using them to
help their players achieve optimum performance.
Some of the questions coaches should ask themselves
when thinking about which strategy to use include:
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Range-of-motion restriction
The researchers define range-of-motion restriction
(RMR) as players limiting the attention they give to
specific parts of a skill in order to devote more
attention to other parts. By practising the different
parts individually, RMR allows players to perfect them
before integrating them all into the entire skill.
Example – RMR in the pool
Swimming coaches can provide swimmers with a
kickboard to enable them to focus their attention on
their kick while their upper body is supported and
floating in the water. Similarly, a coach can give
swimmers pull buoys to allow them to focus on the
upper-body portion of their stroke while still floating in
the water.
RMR can also be useful for diving coaches. By using a
harness with their diver, a coach can eliminate the
need for the diver to finish and enter the water,
thereby enabling them to focus their attention on the
other parts of the dive routine. In addition, the coach
can use the harness to help the diver perfect their
finish and entry into the water, removing the need for
the diver to practise the rest of the routine leading up
to this point.
Which of the four strategies could apply to my
sport and my coaching?
What skills are my players trying to develop, and in
what areas could they improve if they focused
more attention on them?
How can the skills we are trying to develop be
broken down?
What is the most important information for my
players to focus on when performing specific skills?
How can I work with my players to develop new
training drills and terminology for the chosen
strategy?
By helping players focus their attention on the most
important things, at the most important times, coaches
can enhance both their players’ enjoyment and
sporting performance.
References
This summary is based on the article below, which you
can read if you are interested in finding out more about
this area:
Cutton, D.M. and Hearon, C.M. (2013) ‘Applied
attention-related strategies for coaches’, Journal of Sport
Psychology in Action, 4 (1): 5–13.
Other more general reading includes:
Tod, D., Hardy, J. and Oliver, E. (2011) ‘Effects of self-talk:
A systematic review’, Journal of Sport & Exercise
Psychology, 33: 666–687.
Wulf, G., McConnel, N., Gartner, M. and Schwarz, A.
(2002) ‘Enhancing the learning of sport skills through
external-focus feedback’, Journal of Motor Behavior, 34:
171–182.
Nideffer, R.M. (1993) ‘Attention control training’, in
Singer, R.N., Murphey, M. and Tennant, L.K. (eds)
Handbook of Research on Sport Psychology. New York,
NY: Macmillan. ISBN: 978-0-028971-95-7. pp. 542–556.
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