You’re at the line, a 7th of a second left, down by 2, hearts racing, crowds booing, and the game’s outcome lies in your hands. What do you do? Attempt to make both shots, pushing the game into overtime. Or attempt to make the first, then purposefully miss the second, allowing for a potential 3pt opportunity through an offensive rebound, putting your team ahead. This was the exact situation for the well-known professional basketball player, Andre Iguodala. With him in this position, the result was an overtime quarter that would lead to his team’s victory. Though he was able to operate optimally, for some individuals the factors present can impair their ability to achieve certain tasks. Thus setting the stage for the conversation of attentional focus within athletes and whether it serves a significant role in one’s performance.

Attentional focus refers to the allocation of an individual’s mental resources toward a specific task. In a basketball player, it could be expressed as focusing on the flick of the wrist during a shot. Or the pounding of the ball while dribbling. No matter what the task at hand is, the presence of complete focus is needed to perform exceptionally, thus making it a vital component in any individual’s athletic success.

An experiment was run on female basketball players to investigate the influence of attentional focus on skilled motor performance. To launch the study each participant filled out a questionnaire assessing their ideal focus conditions when performing free throw shots. From there each participant executed a series of free-throw shots under the conditions of (skill-internal/familiar, skill-internal/unfamiliar, environmental-external/familiar, and environmental-external/unfamiliar). The internal conditions focused on the actual shooting technique, while the external conditions focused more on the basket. It was discovered that participants performed better in both the skill-internal/familiar and external/familiar conditions than in both of the unfamiliar settings. When comparing internal and external conditions, players performed better when focusing on their shooting craft. Thus proving that an individual’s attentional focus is crucial to their overall success in the completion of specific tasks.

Another study was conducted to examine choking under pressure and the appearance of self-awareness within it. To do this subjects were to play the “roll-up” game, a game involving two rods connected to a vertical board with a ball resting on top of the rods. Players are prompted to move the ball from the starting point to holes on the bottom platform through the horizontal movement of the rods. To establish rigorous results, each subject was given a 5-minute practice of the task. To begin the experiment half of the subjects were told to be mindful of their hands, while the other half were told to be mindful of the ball. It was predicted that increased attention to hand condition would lead to a poorer performance than an increased attention to the ball condition, which was supported by the findings. Moreover, it was concluded that skill performance is disrupted with the presence of heightened awareness of an individual’s movements and efforts. This attentional shift is apparent in basketball players in high-pressure situations, thus introducing the topic of ego depletion in players. The ego-depletion effect is a phenomenon in which early self-control (e.g. emotion regulation, persistence) exertion reduces subsequent self-control performance. Therefore, making one’s frame of mind a big factor when it comes to their competence during demanding situations.

 Additionally, an exercise was performed to analyze individuals’ ability to focus their attention on particular assignments. Before the experiment, participants were required to take various tests to ensure accurate results. The evaluations assessed players’ sports anxiety, self-control strength, and level of depletion. To begin, the experiment consisted of 31 experienced basketball players who were randomly split into two groups: Depletion or Non-Depletion. Each participant took 30 free-throw shots while listening to audio that imposed worrisome thoughts. Though participants were instructed to neglect the audio and focus on the task at hand, it was found that the depleted group had paid more attention to the thoughts. Leading to a worse shooting in the depleted group. This proves that a person in an ego-depletion state is unable to perform to their highest capability. 

 In addition, another study that was carried out examines the effects of ego depletion on basketball players’ decision-making skills. The experiment consisted of 40 seasoned basketball players who were also split into depletion and non-depletion groups. From there each participant went through a computer-based decision-making task involving stills from televised basketball games. Moreover, each picture included a player holding the ball faced with various decisional options like shoot, cut/dribble, or pass. It was the participants’ job to quickly choose the most appropriate action by pressing the corresponding keys. During this, participants were presented with distracting audio through headphones. Upon completion, it was found that those of the depletion group performed worse than those of the non-depletion group, all in all concluding that one’s ability to make accurate decisions is reliant on their availability of self-control strength. 

One’s attention is inevitably a deciding factor in determining the completion of a certain task. Take me for example. While writing this paper numerous outside elements could cause a shift in my attention: notifications on my phone, my roommate snoring, the temperature of the room. The difference between me and an athlete in a similar situation is that I can alter these things. I can turn off my phone, move to a study room, grab a blanket. An athlete cannot, which is why the attentional focus must be researched within athletes so that solutions can be found. 

References

Baumeister, Roy F.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology Vol. 46, Iss. 3,  (Mar 1984): 610-620. DOI:10.1037/0022-3514.46.3.610

Maurer, H., & Munzert, J. (2013). Influence of attentional focus on skilled motor performance: Performance decrement under unfamiliar focus conditions. Human Movement Science, 32(4), 730-740. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.humov.2013.02.001

Furley, P., Bertrams, A., Englert, C., & Delphia, A. (2013). Ego depletion, attentional control, and decision making in sport. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 14(6), 900-904. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2013.08.006

Englert, C., Bertrams, A., Furley, P., & Oudejans, R. R. D. (2015). Is ego depletion associated with increased distractibility? Results from a basketball free throw task. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 18, 26-31. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2014.12.001