“Focus” is one of the most common instructions in sport, and one of the least effective. Athletes rarely underperform because they are not trying hard enough to pay attention. More often, performance breaks down because attention is misdirected, overloaded, or poorly regulated under pressure. Telling an athlete to “focus harder” assumes that attention is simply a matter of effort. It is not. Attention is directional, trainable, and highly sensitive to stress. To improve it, we need to understand how it actually functions in competition.
Nideffer’s model of attention provides a useful framework for understanding this. Attention varies along two dimensions: width and direction. Width ranges from broad to narrow, while direction ranges from internal to external. This creates four distinct attentional styles. At times, athletes must adopt a broad external focus to read the field or anticipate movement. At other moments, they must narrow their focus externally to a single target, such as the rim, the ball, or the bar. There are also situations that require an internal focus, either broad, such as reflecting on strategy, or narrow, such as using a specific cue or feeling a movement pattern. High-level performers are not defined by constant focus, but by their ability to shift attention to the appropriate type at the appropriate time. Many performance errors occur not because attention is lost, but because it is applied in the wrong way for the demands of the moment.
The challenge becomes more pronounced under pressure. The relationship between arousal and performance is often described by the inverted-U principle, first outlined by Yerkes and Dodson (1908). As arousal increases, performance tends to improve up to an optimal point. Beyond that point, further increases in arousal begin to impair performance. One of the primary mechanisms behind this decline is the effect of arousal on attention. As arousal rises too high, attention tends to narrow excessively. This is consistent with Easterbrook’s cue utilization theory, which suggests that heightened arousal reduces the range of cues an individual can process (Easterbrook, 1959). In practice, this means that athletes under pressure may lock onto a single cue while missing other critical information, or become overly internal, focusing on mechanics that would normally be automatic. The issue is not effort. It is that the attentional system is being constrained by stress.
This is why the instruction to “focus harder” can actually make performance worse. Increasing effort often increases arousal, which further narrows attention and reduces flexibility. Instead of trying to intensify focus, athletes need to regulate it. Effective performance requires the ability to maintain an optimal level of arousal while directing attention toward the most relevant cues for the task. This is a skill that can be trained, just like any physical component of performance.
In practical terms, this means helping athletes develop simple, consistent cues that guide attention under pressure. These cues should be external when possible, as research has consistently shown that an external focus of attention tends to produce more efficient and automatic movement patterns (Wulf, 2013). It also means designing training environments that require athletes to shift their attention in ways that mirror competition demands. Rather than practicing in stable and predictable conditions, athletes should be exposed to variability, time pressure, and decision-making constraints that challenge their attentional control. Over time, this builds the ability to adapt attention rather than simply sustain it.
For coaches and support staff, this requires a shift in language and emphasis. Instead of telling athletes to “focus,” it is more effective to direct them toward what to focus on. Instead of increasing intensity indiscriminately, it is more effective to help athletes find and maintain their optimal level of activation. Attention is not a single switch that can be turned on with more effort. It is a system that must be aligned with both the demands of the task and the state of the athlete.
At the highest levels of sport, performance is rarely limited by physical preparation alone. It is often determined by how well an athlete can process information, adapt to changing conditions, and execute under pressure. Those abilities are rooted in attentional control. Athletes do not need to focus harder. They need to increase their self-awareness of what they are paying attention to, and learn to focus more effectively.
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