Concentration is a Trainable Skill — SS #49

If there’s one myth that I’d like to consistently bust, it’s that mental skills—skills like confidence, managing anxiety, goal-setting, and concentration are fixed and that some people are just born with the “killer instinct” or “x-factor.”

Sports science and sports psychology disagree.

Interventions consistently show that these are mental skills and can be improved if you know how to train them. This is the work that sports psychology professionals do.

So in today’s newsletter, I’m going to take you through an abridged, 4-week version of an intervention that has been proven to improve concentration and athletes’ connection to states of flow.

But first, let’s define what I mean by concentration; it’s the ability to consistently come back to the present moment and pay attention to task-relevant stimuli. Your thoughts are not lost in the anxiety of the future, the consequences of winning and losing, or anger and frustration about past opportunities gone by.

You are living in the present moment and dedicate your current focus to the task at hand. And all of this can be achieved via attentional focus training through improving your mindfulness skills.

To take you through this process, we are going to use a customized version of Kaufman et al.’s (2018) Mindful Sport Enhancement (MSPE). MSPE is a mindfulness-based intervention designed to take athletes and performers through core tenets of mindfulness such as diaphragmatic breathing, body scans, etc., and then transition those skills onto the court.

It’s not some “woo woo” stuff, but has been shown to help athletes improve their attention, concentration, enter states of flow, and also let go of negative experiences, and refocus faster.

That being said, it’s not magic. It’s a mental skill. And you have to build and learn it.

Week 1: Mindfulness

Being able to concentrate and stay present means that thoughts about what happened and thoughts about what might happen don’t distract you from paying attention to your task-relevant stimuli.

For us tennis players, those are things like tracking the incoming ball, noticing how tight our shoulders are after the end of the point, or even noticing that our opponent is starting to breathe harder and harder. We can start to work on this by paying attention to the present moment. How?

Set a 10-minute timer. Sit in a quiet place.

Close your eyes. And start to focus on your breathing.

If you’re a normal human being, you’ll notice that your thoughts will wander.

No problem.

Come back to your breathing again and again without judgment or harshness. Your goal?

Week 2: Diaphragmatic Breathing and Body Scans

You’re beginning to learn how to direct your attention.

The body scan teaches attentional flexibility—how to shift your focus intentionally, rather than being pulled around by emotions or thoughts. How do you do a body scan? Set a timer for 10 to 15 minutes. And gradually shift your attention from body part to body part. Starting with the individual toes or fingers and working your way around your entire body.

Get lost in thought? Again, not a problem. No harshness—just return to where you were.

The breath, on the other hand, serves as a reliable anchor. These are foundational for handling distractions and returning to the present moment after a double fault, missed call, or opponent’s net cord winner.

Diaphragmatic breathing ensures that you’re fully exhaling… and inhaling properly from the base of your diaphragm. Imagine that your belly button is traveling towards your spine on your exhales.

Continually refocus on your breathing.

Week 3: Walking Meditation and Tennis-Specific Cues Transition

While this skill can be practiced while you are still and sitting and making your way through daily life, we want to transition you towards activity and your sport. On this front, we mix in walking meditations and tennis-specific cues where you can practice this new skill.

Walking meditation: set a timer for 10 minutes and walk around, preferably in public, noticing the sensations that your body is giving you. Notice how seeing a person evokes a moment of judgment, how this concept of “you” is moving towards them while you walk. Continually bring your attention back to the present moment and all the richness it has to offer.

Mindful tennis: Now we transition these skills toward the court. Your goal when you step onto the court is to have internal and external cues that you can rely on that will bring you back to the present moment.

You should be continually trying to return to the present moment and turn your attention towards it. If you’re playing baseline points or a match, note your incessant internal chatter, acknowledge it without judgment, and then come back to the present moment. Either by focusing on the ball, the moment your opponent strikes the ball, or even sensations closer to your body like the racket in your hands or what your body is experiencing. 

Week 4: Synthesis of Skills and Tennis-Specific Cues

Over the last three weeks, you’ve trained your attention like a muscle. You’ve sat with your breath, scanned through your body, walked through distractions, and even practiced noticing the internal noise while playing tennis.

Now, it’s time to bring it all together. This final week is about putting it all together and the goal is to make this stuff automatic and normal for you. We want the skill of returning to the present moment to show up when the pressure does.

So here’s what I’d like you to do: take these skills with you onto the tennis court.

• Notice the tightness and tension you might feel before the match. Set a 5-minute timer and do some diaphragmatic breathing to refocus your attention.

• Notice how your thoughts have tendency to fly all over the place in your matches. ‘If I win this game I’ll be able to close out the set, ‘Why didn’t you go to the net when you had a chance? Now you have to save a breakpoint.’ Remember, performance anxiety lives generally in the future and anger and sadness mostly in the past. Use your new skills through body scans and breathing to come back to the present moment.

• Turn all your attentional resources on when the point is on towards task-focused cues. Tracking the ball, noting your opponent’s patterns, being target-oriented, etc.

• Paraphrasing Jon Kabat-Zinn (one of the OGs of bringing mindfulness into the Western world): Mindfulness is the skill of paying attention to both internal and external cues without judgment.

• We want you to reap all the benefits of the hard work that you’ve been putting in!

We’re not aiming for perfection; we’re aiming for consistency.

Remember, concentration and attentional control can be upskilled through mindfulness.

I hope this was helpful!

Let me know if you have any questions or other thoughts by leaving a comment.

Disclaimer: I am not an Association of Applied Sports Psychology CMPC, certified sports psychology practitioner, nor am I a licensed mental health counselor, PsyD, or clinical PhD. I am pursuing a master’s in sports, exercise, and performance psychology, and I am a sports psychology practitioner-in-training. I have over 20 years of experience in tennis, including playing, coaching collegiately and with professional players, along with club management experience as a director of programs. I am certified by the Professional Tennis Registry and am a member of Tennis Australia. My aim is to bring the best information to tennis players around the world so that you can apply it for long-term improvement—but sometimes I will make mistakes. If this is your area of research or expertise, and you feel I’ve misunderstood something, please get in touch with me and if required I will happily issue a correction.