16 Week Face of America Training Plan & Guide | Page 12

Focus (Attentional Focus)

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Attentional Focus is an athlete’s ability to “listen” or
pay attention to varying internal and external cues or
stimuli during exercise. Simply put, it is critical that an
athlete learn to focus on important relevant cues and
ignore irrelevant cues in order to optimize
performance potential. Paying excess attention to
spectators is an irrelevant external cue athletes need
to learn to ignore, while picking up on a tactical move
from a competitor is a relevant external cue that
needs attending to. Teaching points:

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Teach yourself/your athletes about internal and
external stimuli and cues, which originate
internally (within themselves) and externally
(within their environment).
Through observations and dialog, coaches can
determine where an athlete’s Attentional Focus is
concentrating during various conditions or stages.
Athletes must learn that they are in control of
their thoughts, and can learn to focus their
attention on performance related relevant cues,
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