Attentional Focus

You're focused, but on the wrong thing.

You can hear someone talking behind you. You are calculating what a failed attempt would mean. You are monitoring every movement of your fingers, even though the next decision is about your feet.

The problem isn't necessarily a lack of effort. It may be that attention is doing a job the moment doesn't require.

Nideffer's attentional framework offers a practical way to notice this. It describes focus along two dimensions: broad or narrow, and internal or external. Each combination has a use, and each can become unhelpful.

1Broad-external: take in the situation

This is attention directed towards several features of the world around you. A climber surveys a route and the conditions. A footballer scans teammates and opponents. An expedition leader notices the group's position and the changing environment.

It is useful for gathering information and spotting options.

The difficulty comes when you try to take in everything, including what is irrelevant. Noise, spectators and other people's performances can compete with the cues you actually need.

Ask, "What information matters for the next decision?" Broad focus should help you orient, not leave you permanently scanning.

2Broad-internal: make sense of the information

Here you bring together ideas, plans and previous experience. You compare possible sequences, think through tactics, or review why an attempt didn't work.

This is valuable before performance, at suitable pauses, or when a plan genuinely needs changing.

It becomes less useful when analysis continues after the decision is clear enough. You keep rewriting the plan while the opportunity to act passes.

Ask, "Am I solving a problem, or repeatedly reconsidering a decision I've already made?"

Planning belongs in performance. It just doesn't need to occupy every moment of it.

3Narrow-internal: use one internal cue

This means focusing on a particular sensation, thought or feeling. You might notice tension, use a brief cue word, or attend to comfortable breathing while preparing.

It can support regulation or a specific piece of learning. But monitoring a racing heart can also amplify worry, and scrutinising an established movement can become distracting.

The issue isn't that internal attention is bad. It is whether that focus helps with the task you are doing now.

A cue should direct you towards something useful rather than become an invitation to check yourself endlessly.

4Narrow-external: engage with a relevant target

This is attention on a specific feature outside you: the chosen part of a hold, the intended path of a ball, or a landing target in an appropriate practice task.

It can make execution clearer. But it can also become tunnel vision if you fail to notice information that requires a change of plan.

Motor-learning research has often supported external movement-effect cues, although later analyses have challenged the size and generality of that advantage. There is no sound reason to treat external focus as universally best in every moment.

Also distinguish a movement's immediate effect from a final result. "Send the ball towards that target" is not the same as "Win the match." Process focus and useful external cues can work together.

Put the shifts into practice

At an appropriate pause, you might scan the route, make a plan, use a brief settling cue, and focus on the next relevant target. This is a practice sequence, not a rule requiring four conscious steps before every movement.

During the activity, shift again when circumstances require it. An unexpected hazard matters more than maintaining a chosen focus.

After training, review one moment when attention helped and one when it drifted. Identify the cue you needed, then practise returning to it next time.

The skill is not staying in one attentional state. It is noticing when another would serve you better.