Concentration
Introduction
Peak performance is all about your ability to focus your
concentration on the important things within sport. If you have put
in the hard work, the training, worked on your skills and done the
homework, then often success on the day depends upon how well you can
focus your concentration. Focusing your concentration is a skill that
you can work on and control. Consistent performance in sport is all
about being in control of yourself. You need to acknowledge that
there will be things that happen on the day outside of your control,
people around you, the environment / venue – they can all
potentially upset your performance, however, you can use these as
triggers to increase your concentration. If something happens that is
unexpected, you need to be able to react to it in a positive way to
get the best out of that situation, which is a key skill of focusing
– not to have your concentration and focus distracted.
Improving
Your Focus
One of the most important aspects of being able to improve focusing
your concentration is to practice by simulating game situations. What
are the different types and times of concentration required in
cricket umpiring? Things like:
-
The start of the match or a session
-
When an error or a mistake is made
-
When you are distracted by something outside the game or ground
-
Starting a new over from your end
-
After a wicket has fallen
-
After a break in play – interruption, ball change, batsman injured
Match
Simulation Exercises
Yes, visualisation is an important component here, but more work can
be done when you attend practice sessions in the nets for example, so
pretend that events in front of you are happening in a match. If that
did happen in a match, what
would I do?
Put yourself under some pressure at training to be able to make
training as close as possible to match conditions, that way you’ll
find that your performance in a match will come automatically,
because a match to you is nothing different from what you have done
at practice.
-
How can you work with your coach to make the events at practice more
like a match experience?
-
How can we make more decision making exercises more match simulated?
Perhaps
get the bowlers to appeal like it’s the last hour of the match with
three wickets to get. Perhaps create a scenario where the batting
side require 30 runs in the last 20 mins and the fielding side
require two wickets – put your decisions and concentration under
pressure and practice focusing your concentration. The key here is to
answer appeals and make decisions as you would in a game – the same
goes for how you talk to players and respond to appeals.
How
can you work with your coach to put your knowledge of playing
conditions and Laws to the test under match simulated conditions?
Most of us attend practice sessions at major cricket grounds –
perhaps you could create a match situation from a domestic one day
game where there was a rain interruption and you left the field with
your partner and entered the room and had to recalculate the match
parameters under a possible start in 30 minutes?
What
about practicing the judgement and procedure of offering the batsmen
the light as your training session comes to a close around sunset?
Get a light meter and have the coach play the role of the fielding
captain who doesn’t want to come off?
Practice
working with your partner and drawing out your knowledge of Laws and
playing conditions under simulated pressure so that doing it in a
real game comes automatically.
In
doing these exercises, don’t be afraid to make mistakes. In fact,
it is probably a good thing that you do make plenty of mistakes at
practice – this is precisely the place to make them. What you will
find is that you learn more from making mistakes and that once that
bad emotion of making a mistake is realised, you’ll never forget
what the right answer or course of action was. As cricket umpires, we
can all remember our major mistakes in terms of decisions, Laws or
playing conditions.
-
Why do we remember these events so vividly and why do we know that
we’ll get it right
next
time that same situation happens?
-
Because emotion is the key to memory – good and bad emotions. So,
by putting ourselves under pressure at training and making a mistake
at training is a good thing as we’ll remember our errors and
ensures that we get the right answer when it is really important…in
a game.
Routines
Another way to improve focusing is through routines – pre match
routines and routines during the match. One of the keys to being able
to perform and focus your concentration under pressure is to know
exactly what you are going to do and exactly how you are going to
handle certain events. So, think about what your pre match routines
are and whether they are putting you in the right frame of mind to be
able to focus your concentration – use your coach to test your
theories. Remember that routines give you a structure or framework
with which to work when you are under pressure which is important.
Preparation
Are your concentration efforts and performances in matches
consistent? Is the level of your concentration consistent for all
types and levels of cricket that you umpire – 1st grade to 1st
class?
If
not, then think about your preparation for these games. Are your
preparation routines consistent? If your preparation routine is not
consistent, then chances are, your concentration and performances are
not. Part of the preparation for cricket umpiring needs to include
planning for “what ifs” or having “plan B’s”:
-
What happens if I make a mistake early in the game – what am I
going to do to get my focus and concentration back?
-
What if it rains – do I know how to confidently recalculate the
match parameters?
-
What if I get stuck in traffic – is there enough time to still get
to the ground and prepare?
-
What if that captain or player gives me a hard time – how will I
react and what will I do? All these things allow you to have a chance
at being mentally “right” before the game.
Conclusion
The
key to being able to properly focus your concentration is to be able
to control your own reactions to your environment (the things around
you). It’s got a lot to do with the plans that you have for
controlling the environment, how you are going to react to situations
that occur, how you segment up your performance, what goals that you
set and it’s got a lot to do with what your concentration is like
at training.
Practice
does not make perfect. Practice makes permanent. Perfect practice
makes perfect.
If you really want to change, you have to practice perfectly – that
is, with attention and intention. Attention is keeping your mind on
what you are doing while you are doing it, and intention is having a
definite purpose that will give meaning to all your effort.
Acknowledgement–
This information for cricket umpires was put together with material
sourced
from
the South Australian Institute of Sport.
No comments:
Post a Comment