“I want to feel more confident when I step onto the court.”
“I want to manage my nerves better.”
“I want to enjoy my time on the court and not feel so stressed and anxious when I’m out there.”
These are the kinds of things that I hear from athletes almost on the daily.
And while they’re useful and helpful and things that a sport psychology professional would help someone with, they’re not exactly what is the most helpful when it comes to performance and competing your best when it counts.
What is it then?
Your attention.
Your attention is your most valuable resource.
Let me explain.
When the Rubber Hits the Road
You may now be thinking that I’ve gone kooky bananas. That I’ve lost the plot. That reading non-stop sport psychology research has fried my brain, and that I’m unable to think straight.
Or, perhaps if you know a little bit more about psychology, you may think, “Oh this guy has gone completely into the 3rd-wave deep end. He’s drank the kool-aid.”
“What about all that stuff on stress, anxiety management, routines, threat vs. challenge, goal-setting, imagery, cognitive distortions, self-talk, and focus of attention that you spoke about? Is it all useless?”
The answer is no—in that it’s not all useless.
These skills actually tie into attention management in interesting ways.
Ways that I’ll explain to you now.
Come with me here on this example. Let’s say it’s 4–4 and 30–30 all when you step up to the line to serve. Win this point and you get a game point to go up 5–4, lose it and you have to defend a break point.
In that moment, do you want to feel confident? The answer is probably yes. Do you want to be able to manage your performance anxiety? Maybe it’s manifesting as a knot of tension and tightness in your arms and hands. Perhaps it’s jitters and shaking. The answer is probably yes.
Stay with me here.
What does feeling confident in that moment allow you to do? What does managing your performance anxiety allow you to do?
It actually allows you to properly use your attentional systems.
So when the rubber hits the road, and when you’re in a moment that really counts, you can direct your attention toward what truly counts.
Task-related thoughts.
Where you’re placing your serve, where the first ball goes, managing and understanding and playing out the point to the best of your abilities.
That’s what mental skills are for.
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The Floodlight, The Spotlight, The Juggler (You Should Understand This)
Jha (2021) breaks down our attentional systems into three main categories:
The floodlight: the general awareness you have of internal and external environments and thoughts
The spotlight: the specific areas and tasks that you focus in on during moments in time. (Notice, here, that not being able to use the spotlight properly will probably lead to suboptimal performance on the court, field, pitch, etc.)
The juggler: your working memory that balances both of those systems along with integrating new thoughts and emotions and sensations into the mix. It has the hardest job.
Why is it so important for you to be able to understand this as an athlete?
Because when it comes down to it, stress, threat-interpretations, and poor mood degrade our attentional systems.
They become less flexible.
The floodlight illuminates too much. You’re suddenly aware of everything: the score, the opponent, what people will think if you lose the match, how your ranking will plummet, the crowd, the tension you feel in your body. There’s too much going on.
When the floodlight is illuminating everything, it’s difficult for the spotlight to be task-relevant and focus on execution of motor skills i.e. your serve, tracking the ball, where you’ll place your next shot.
Why is that?
Because your juggler is overloaded! There’s too much information being taken in by the floodlight. Basically, your working memory is hyper-taxed, and you’ll struggle to prioritize what matters most in the moment.
This is where athletes complain about being frozen, poor shot selection, and feeling off. Everything feels fucked. Execution feels harder than it should be.
Feeling confident when that moment arrives will basically just stop the degradation of your attentional systems so that your spotlight and floodlight can effectively manage your juggler (your working memory).
Learning to manage performance anxiety will basically just stop the degradation of your attentional systems so that your spotlight and floodlight can effectively manage your juggler (your working memory).
In other words, mental skills will allow you to actually turn your mind’s eye—your attention—on things that will help you to perform and execute better.
You Don’t Need to Feel Certain Ways…
You don’t need to feel confident all the time!
Some athletes really want to feel certain ways when they go into competition.
Bringing this to a close, I started with a phrase I’ve heard athletes say, which is, “I want to feel confident when I’m competing.
But regardless of how you feel in that moment, your attention can be directed toward task-relevant cues—even when you’re feeling nervous.
It doesn’t matter if you’re experiencing performance anxiety—if you know how to react well to the sensations in your body and racing thoughts, you can still direct your attention toward what’s important:
Staying task-relevant.
Being present in your match.
Tracking the ball.
Making the right decision.
And this is where attentional control training enters the picture.
There are, broadly speaking, two ways to skin the cat.
We can either use mental skills to regulate and manage ourselves pre and during performance so that you can use your attentional systems at their fuller capacity.
Or, you can actually train your attentional systems so that they’ll perform better in times of stress, threat, and poor mood.
In my humble opinion, to become the best mental competitor that you can, you need to address both.
A little more psychology oriented this week, I know. But I trust it will be helpful.
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References
Jha, A. P. (2021). Peak mind: Find your focus, own your attention, invest 12 minutes a day. HarperOne.
Disclaimer: I am not a licensed psychologist, mental health counselor, PsyD, or clinical PhD. I am currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology and am a sport psychology practitioner-in-training, working toward the Certified Mental Performance Consultant® (CMPC®) credential provided by the Association for Applied Sport Psychology (AASP). My work focuses on applied, non-clinical mental performance consulting, using evidence-based techniques grounded in psychology, sport science, and applied sport psychology to help athletes enhance focus, manage pressure, build confidence, and improve performance. I do not provide mental health counseling or clinical therapy. When needed, I will always refer clients to licensed mental health professionals for concerns beyond the scope of performance consulting. I have over 20 years of experience in tennis, including as a player, collegiate and professional coach, and director of programs. I am certified by the Professional Tennis Registry and am a member of Tennis Australia. My goal is to bring athletes the best research-backed insights to support long-term development and performance. If you are a researcher or practitioner and feel I’ve misunderstood or misrepresented any concept, I welcome you to reach out, and I will gladly review and issue corrections if appropriate.