Wait…WHAT was I just thinking?? | 4 types of Focus | Tomas Adalsteinsson

August 1, 2011 By
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We loved what he said about failure so much that we had him back to talk about focus!  Meet Tomas Adalsteinsson, the founder of TheSportBrain.com.

Tomas joins us to talk about his graduate work on sustained attention for athletes.  You WILL lose your focus in competition, as the research shows that optimal focus only exists for 1-4 seconds.  We fluctuate in various degrees of focus throughout all of our activity.

Your focus moves and switches all the time between the following four types of focus:

1.)  Attentional Orienting – Where am I generally looking?

2.)  Selective Attention –  I’m going to choose to direct my attention towards in that environment or direction?

3.)  Divided Attention – I’m focused on a couple of things…

4.)  Sustained Attention – How long can I maintain my gaze, or attention to that (or those) things?

He works as a Sport Psychology Consultant and College coach in Minnesota, having recently relocated. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from the University of Iceland (2007) and is a candidate for a Master’s degree in Sport Psychology from John F. Kennedy University (April, 2011). He helps teams and individuals develop a strong performance plan.

Tomas is a member of the Association of Applied Sport Psychology (AASP). He has experience working with athletes in sports such as golf, tennis, softball, and soccer, and has also taught life skills to incarcerated young men. He is a certified youth soccer coach from the Football Association of Iceland, and has coached golf at the beginner, intermediate, and junior levels.

Follow Tomas on Twitter

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If your goal is to win, you probably already lost. | Dr. Rob Bell

June 12, 2011 By
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Wait!  Why would you set a goal to not win?  The short answer is that’s what is called an outcome goal.  There are many things that can keep you from achieving your goal that are outside your control.  The best kind of goals are performance, and process goals, but I’ll let Sport Psychology Pro Dr Rob Bell tell you about that…

Dr. Bell is a professor, and the sport psychology consultant for Ball State University, and has credentials on the PGA tour. He assists numerous athletes at the professional, collegiate, and amateur levels and serves as a caddy on professional golf tours.

Last November, at the Association of Applied Sport Psychology Conference, Athlete’s Audio was fortunate enough to interview Dr. Bell.  We spoke on the topic of his (then) new book, Mental Toughness Training for Golf.  In that tome, Rob talks extensively abut practicing with the same intensity, and pressure that you’ll face when you’re competing (among other things).

Dr. Bell’s research include the “Yips” in golf, applied golf and baseball research in mental training, athletic identity, and streaks. He has been published in the Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, Journal of Athletic Insight, Journal of Sport Behavior, and the Encyclopedia of Sports. He also writes on the mental game and has been noted in Runner’s World, NY Times, Stack magazine, and numerous additional websites. He presents for numerous teams, schools, and organizations.

 

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Goal Setting vs. Goal Doing

March 19, 2010 By

I went to a seminar once where a guy who had written a best-selling book conducted a really insightful experiment with the crowd. There were about 800 people in the room. He asked everyone who had heard of his book to stand up.

Of course, the whole place was on their feet…

Then he asked the people who had bought his book to remain standing.

Half the crowd sat down.

“Remain standing if you read even one chapter of my book”

Half of those standing sat down.

“….if you read the whole book”

Half again

“Now remain standing if you tried any of the suggestions in my book.

Two people were left.

Two out of 800.

I was reminded of this from a tweet by Shawn Fairweather (@mindofchampions):

“Goal Setting is Overrated”… “what makes the biggest difference is what you do AFTER the goals are set”

Don Shula…you know, the winningest coach in NFL history…That Don Shula said that. Shawn’s tweet linked to that same story, and he has a good 4 part riff on goals here.

So what are you DOING?? Are you just ‘buying the book’?…or are you taking some action?

Are you writing down your goals?? Putting them on the calendar?? Creating a visualization recording to help you use imagery? Actually dedicating 15 minutes a day to visualize them?

….Going to a workshop to clarify your goals??

If you’re in the Bay Area (Berkeley to be specific) on the 30th, Sports Psychology Consultant Paige Dunn (@paigedunn, @XcelSports) is hosting a goal setting workshop.

It’s a step.

I heard once that people fail for only two reasons. A lack of knowledge, or a lack of action.

I’ll bet you already had the knowledge before you read this post.

Just do it.

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