Jared Lawrence Wrestling

Focus and Flow

Focus and Flow are at the heart of Sports Psychology:

Focus is complete attention to the execution of a skill
Flow is the state of being completely engrossed in the execution of a performance to the exclusion of everything else

When you are in a state of flow, focusing intensely on the execution of skills, you will give your best performances. You enter a state of almost Zen-like meditation in which mood, distraction and different stressors simply have no place in cour consciousness. You are free to execute skills just as you have trained to execute them.

The qualities of flow are:

All your attention is focused either:

on the skills or routine being performed
or on the imput from your senses relevant to the sport

You are fully focused on the activities being performed, and are:

not aware of you own awareness, consciousness of self or ego
not evaluating the quality of execution of skills during performance
not concerned with distractions such as results, judges (coaches), audiences or other peoples expectations
not making any conscious decisions in your mind or reasoning with words - you are trusting your body to follow its training

You are in complete control of actions and reactions

You feel almost in an altered state of consciousness: achieving flow is exhilarating, and gives a powerful feeling of competence.

How Focus and Attention Work

To understand how focus and attention work, you must first understand how the brain works.

How parts of your brain work together:

The left Brain/Right Brain Model

Your left Brain performs analytical activities that are processed logically, in sequence, such as:

Logic and rational thinking
Language and verbal self-instruction
Mathmatics
Planning and Goal Setting
Analysis of a complex skill and construction of an image of how that skill should be performed

Whereas you Right Brain controls complex activities where many factors are handled together, such as:

Imagery
Coordination, and execution of complex movements in space
Integration of complex skills into flowing movement
Intuition and creativity

The Left Brain (often called the Analyzer) tends to be dominant, as skills it is responsible for are most intensively trained during education. This part of the brain analyses and understands new skills, and examines existing technique or attitudes for errors and faults. This part of the brain is highly effective during training and improving techique.

The Right Brain (called the Integrator) controls the best performance of a skill by integrating all the components of the skill into one flowing movement in which all the isolated components of the skill work together.

This is important because either your analyzer or your integrator should be dominant in different circumstances:

During much of training the Analyzer should be dominant, picking up errors, faults in technique or harmful attitudes. It will then send corrections to the Integrator to amend the complex skill. Letting the Integrator control practice can end up in empty training, in which nothing new is learned.
During performance, however, the Integrator should be in control, so that all the skills learned are performed in a completely co-coordinated, flowing way. Similarly in a sport where complex movements of other competitors have to be taken into account, the Integrator is most effective in making tactical decisions. Letting the analyzer control performance by criticizing or analyzing execution of skills distracts the integrator. Therefore your body is not just flowing and reacting.

In the sport of wrestling if you do not react right away you might and most likely will be in trouble. It is critical during practice you focus on the technique so when you perform your reactions are correct and instant.

How Your Brain Reacts to Stimuli

Your brain has evolved to protect you from danger. An important part of this is the response that draws your attention to unexpected or unusual stimuli. These might, for example, indicate that a predator is about to strike. Things that indicate danger might be:

Intense stimuli such as loud noise and flashing light
movement
Unusual stimuli - things not experienced before can be dangerous

In a natural environment, this drawing of attention is very important for survival. However, in a modern sporting environmnet these are distractions that break flow. Loud noises can come from cheering crowds. Flashes of light can come from flash photography. Movement can come from performers in unrelated events, etc. (How many times have the crowd went wild because of the match going on next to you, and you find yourself wondering what is going on in that other match that is making the crowd go wild. This is a distraction to flow. You have to train your body to focus and flow on the task at hand.)

Part of learning flow is learning to isolate the important stimuli from the irrelevant stimuli. This will invovle learning to selectively override your brains natural reaction to stimuli.

Achieving Flow

Flow is easiest to achieve when:

You perceive that your skills are good enough to match the perceived difficulty of the contest. (confidence)
The competition is not so easy that you become bored and do not concentrate.
You have distraction under control
You are paying full attention to the performance, with no analysis of errors or technique.
You are relaxed and alert. (They say a quick muscle is a relaxed muscle.)
You are thinking positively, and have eliminated all negative thoughts.
It is allowed to develop, and not forced
You have practiced and trained attention

The Zen Approach

Perhaps the most systematic approach to achieving focus and flow so far is that used in martial arts. These adopt a Zen approach to conctration where the fighter is in a state of almost pure flow.

In these sports the competitor seeks to lose all distractions of ego, analysis and surrounding, immersing him or herself completely within the activity.

The following things in particular are avoided:

Wanting to win (which is extremely hard, but try not make that the center of your focus.)
Showing off
Wanting to frighten or terrify the opponent
The desire to be reactive and not take the initiative
Trying so hard to achieve the correct state of mind that you distract yourself.

Training to Improve Focus

You can improve focus by practice and training, much like any other skill. You can practice it at its simplest almost as a form of meditation - Firstly study an object for some time: get completely invovled with it, in its shape, color, texture, smell, etc. Then practice switching the focus to different object, being completely involved in this, and nothing else.

This concentrated attention helps you to feel what sporting focus feels like. The rapid switching to another thing practices your ability to switch focus. (In a match something might not go your way, a bad call from a ref or judge, a mistake, etc. Changing your focus away from these distractions can become a great advantage).

In normal training, visualize the performance or a skill using imagery, then focus on its execution as you actually perform it. Practice doing the skill without any analysis. Experience the feeling of flow.

One thing to watch out for as you get better at a sport is loss of focus. As your reactions become automatic they hold you attention less. Keep focusing on the technique during practice even if it seems automatic.

Mood Control

Bad moods damage your motivation to succeed in training or competition. they make you more prone to negative thinking, and cause distraction, often as you trigger bad moods in other people. Bad moods emerge as bad temper, unhappiness, lethargy, and sluggishness.

Your mood is completely under your control - bad moods are an indulgence you cannot afford. You can improve your mood in the following ways:

Through positive thinking and suggestion - say to yourself 'I feel good' or 'I can feel energy pouring into my limbs'.
By treating each element of a performance individually - when you make a mistake, refocus and concentrate on the next seperate element of the performance.
By using imagery - imagine a scene or a time when you were performing very well and feeling good. Alternatively, imagine feeling good directly.
By reviewing you goals to re-motivate yourself.
By smiling - Forcing a smile onto your face for more than just a few seconds. (nobody else has to see you smile just yourself).

Distraction Management

Distraction is damaging to your performance beause it interferes with your ability to focus and disrupts flow. It interferes with the attention that you need to apply to maintain good technique. This causes stress and consumes mental energy that can be better placed elsewhere.

Sources of distraction can be both internal and external, such as:

The presence of loved ones you want to impress
Family or relationship problems
Media
Teammates and other competitors
Coaches
Underperformance
Frustration at mistakes
Unjust criticism
Poor refereeing decisions
Changes in familiar patterns

You can prepare for and deal with all of these sources of distractions.

Coping with Distractions

Coping with distractions and minor irritations is mainly amatter of atitude - you can either dwell on them or blow them up out of all proportion, or you can accept them and bypass them. If you waste mental energy fretting over a trivial problem, then this is energy that cannot be spent maintaining good technique.

When you distracted, lose concentration, or make a mistake, remember you have not lost your skills. All you have lost is your focus.

The following may help you deal with distractions

Remember that although events may be beyond your control, your reactions to events are entirely controlled by you.
Think positively - recognize petty irritations as such, and let them go.
Know you can perform well despite distractions
Prepare for and expect more distractions at bigger events.
Develop a refocusing plan and practice using it when you are distracted.
Learn how to change bad moods to good moods
Sleep and rest more before big events so that you have more mental energy to devote to distraction, mood and stress control.

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