Sports Kids And The Zone Focus
Achieving a “zone focus” is key to success for sports kids.
When sports kids have a zone focus, they’re concentrating on everything they need to focus on during the performance, and feel as if time has been suspended. They’re totally into their game. They’re “on.”
In this state they’re most likely to feel the most confident and to play and perform their best.
But it’s not always easy for kids to focus their best in sports—some kids don’t even know what they should attend to–and many kids get distracted easily.
Today we’re going to talk about a few common mental game obstacles, and we’re interested in hearing whether your kids experience these challenges–or others.
When it comes to concentration, young athletes fall into a number of common traps….
Young athlete often:
- Focus too much on the score or their stats.
- Dwell on their mistakes and stay stuck in the past.
- Lose focus at critical moments during the game because they feel pressured, nervous, or worried.
- Pay too much attention to the reactions of people watching the game, such as parents.
- Allow distractions to run wild in their minds, and have no plan for getting back on track mentally.
- Become distracted by weather, negative comments from teammates or parents’ yelling.
We’re pretty sure your kids fall into these—and other—traps from time to time. Our kids certainly have.
For example, Lisa’s son, a perfectionist, sometimes starts out a game with lots of energy and focus, then, if he makes one or two mistakes, starts dwelling on his mistakes. Suddenly he’s no longer in the game; he looks as if he’s wandering around the court with no plan or focus. It gets worse after that. He starts beating himself up mentally for playing badly, and his confidence sinks.
We can help with challenges like this.
Kids wouldn’t spiral down this negative path so easily if they understood what was going on.
In Lisa’s son’s case, the negative spiral is set off by a mistake that he dwells on. Kids like him–perfectionists–need to be super aware of their tendency to focus too much on mistakes.
Athletes need to learn concrete mental game strategies for re-focusing when they’re distracted. In future emails, we’ll tell you more about those strategies.
Okay, we’ve confessed. Now it’s your turn! Please tell us what makes your kids lose focus, become distracted, or get yanked out of the zone….
Do they commit the common mental-game no-nos outlined above? Or do they have their own unique distractions? When they lose focus, what happens to their performance?
Your kids’ challenges in sports help us understand what’s important for us to focus on; each and every story you share gives us new perspectives on how we can help your kids. They also help us tailor our tips to meet your needs.
We’re interested in any thoughts you have about your sports kids’ focus. Do you think you contribute in any way to their focusing troubles? If so, please tell us! Do you have any “secret” tips that have helped your kids focus their best?
Please post your comments below!
Related Articles on Youth Sports:
- How Young Athletes Can Win Close Games
- Tips for Sports Kids With Focusing Challenges like ADHD
- Help Kids Focus on Being in the Moment, Not on Mistakes
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Help Your Young Athletes Improve Focus In Sports!
Are your young athletes easily distracted by people shouting on the sidelines? Do they obsess over their mistakes? Do they worry about what people think of them?
These issues will cause their concentration and performance to suffer!The Focused Sports Kid helps kids overcome distractions that can hurt their performance in sports.
The Focused Sports Kid program is actually two programs: one for sports parents/coaches that provides mental game tips especially designed for parents and coaches, and for young athletes, ages 8 to 12, that will walk them through 7 simple lessons in mental focus in sports.
It may be more useful to characterize it no so much as lost focus as “misdirected focus.”
I find the more difficult think is teaching the priorities of the game and who/what to focus on. This is particularly difficult when a key skill is to maintain awareness all around “Survey the scene” or “Head on a swivel.” If there is too much happening too quickly, it is easy to get paralyzed. I find my son gets quickly absorbed in puck (hockey) or ball (soccer) movement and moves toward the attacker (even if a team mate already has him marked) while forgetting to look around and behind him for the open player. The same thing happens in attacking when the player passes the ball and then stops moving as if there job is done instead of immediately seeking another open space for the return pass.
It seems that we need to find ways of teaching a kind of “big picture” focus that can quickly attend to the individual priorities of the situation such as the open man (defending) or the open space (attacking) they need to go to to create a passing opportunity for a team mate under pressure. Its almost like teaching them them camera skills (“pan the wide angle” then “zoom” to the most threatening attacker (usually the open player and NOT the one with the puck) or best scoring/passing opportunity, then “pan back out again to the wide angle”).
Memes can help: “Loom, Zoom and Vroom!”
In hockey we say three areas of your body are vital – 1. active head (eyes and mind), 2. active hands/stick, and 3. active feet (keep moving). Go to the opportunities (and take them away while defending or cash in on them while attacking). Keep checking in on all three areas to see that they are on task.
It seems to be related to learning the value of playing WITHOUT the ball (or puck) in both defending and in attacking.
My son is an 11 year old basketball player. He has great shooting skills and is a proficient ball handler and passer in practice. In games he doesn’t attempt to use these skills as he is playing not to fail. Even his physical movement, running and jumping to the ball is restricted.
The primary reason is that he doesn’t want to disappoint me.
To John: Yes, I often use the term “misplaced focus” when athletes focus on the wrong cues. I think what you struggle with is separating the “learning” focus of attention from the “performing”. Kids need the details to learn, but you have to make it easy or simplify what they focus on when they perform so they don’t get lost in too many details and then forget something that’s critical. Maybe we’ll address this in another post or email.
To Dad-Coach: Yes, playing not to fail will cause your son to focus on the wrong performance cues. He needs to overcome the fear of failure (disappointing you) first in order to free his mind to focus on what’s important–his performance.
Your kids’ concentration does not exist in a vacuum. Other factors will cause kids to focus on the wrong stuff, such as fear of failure, worry about embarrassment, or trying to impress teammates. So you have to look at the entire picture to help kids improve focus and perform better.
There are times My 12 yr old is on top of his game. Hitting the baseball well and fielding with aggresion and precision. Then there are times he seems dis-engaged and not giving it his all. It is very frustrating to watch. We have had several conversations about going 100% with him but it seems to come up time and time again. He is very athletic and tells me he loves the game but at times it seems he is not giving it his all and doesnt realize how good he can be. What sugestions do you have?
To Gary: This issue is very common for athletes. They can focus well when they are up or pumped up. They can’t focus well when not fully into the practice or game and thus performance suffers. My daughter dropped two games of the first set of a match because she was “sleeping” on the way to the match and not warmed up property to focus her best, which led to losing the first set. The key is to find something that your kid will get excited about so he can focus better.
I coach an U13 soccer team. My boys are doing very well and after six games we are unbeaten. We have score 44 goals and only conceded one goal. This is a good position to be in, but, it is also a problem. The problems are:
1. The boys are starting to disrespect the opposition,
2. The are not focused on improving their performance as individuals or as a team, and
3. They tend to show-boat during the game.
I have taken a hard line towards this change in behavior but I am not sure if this is right. I need to get the boys back into the “zone”. We have some tough matches coming up and I need them at their best. I need some help here.
You want your team to have a mindset of being cocky, but still be good sports. You also want them to continue to have fun. If they are playing well in games, they should be allowed to have fun and not have to be more serious in practice. If the show-boating is a reflection of their true earned confidence and does not hurt their performance, then cut them some slack.
I am a coach of a 12U girls travel softball team. These girls for the most part have been together for 3 years. It seems that almost every tournament we enter, they get into a laxadaysical funk. Making silly errors or just playing uninspired/half-speed. I asked my niece what she thought the problem is, and her response was, If one person does good, we all do good..if one person does bad, so do the rest of us. I understand the concept of them being reactionary, but I think it goes deeper than that. I feel they are feeding somehow off of the social/game interactions of the parents. The player parents are social, and I think many of them are in it for the social aspect. I think our players get distracted from how parents yell out and coach during a game..to how they talk about who’s playing where and why (as in they are doing poorly) Our girls get into these funks and it is like throwing gasoline on a fire. Whe they are “on” they are unbeatable. The only team that seems to beat them is themselves. If we were to take out all of the “un-earned” runs out of the scorebook, we would be very close to be undefeated. Their faux pas are not limited to fielding either, we are known for our hitting, but when the whell fall off the wagon, our bats disappear as well. I am a sports psych major and I am frustrated, maybe I am too close to the problem.
Do you think they are afraid to make errors and play tentatively? And the problem may be related to how they interact with each other when playing in games. Do they depend on one or two girls to carry the team?
It’s more like they just play in a fog…way below their abilities. They are 11 stong, very talented girls. An example was last weekend, we went out and beat 4 good teams. Then lost to a team we beat handily (luckily it was a double-elimination) and mercied the same team for our championship. this weekend we went to a tournament and lost 3 strait games to teams we should have beat, making mistakes on throws and fielding, base-running and poor hitting. I even had one coach come up to me prior to a game telling me he had never seen a team that hit like us…..he saw us play a few weeks back. We have girls cry if they get moved down in the order, cry if they do not pitch a perfect game..we tell them “flush it” and go forward..if they strike out, we tell them, get em next time..but like I said..as a team, the react..be it negatively or positively..I am wondering about possibly an ego goal orientation, but I truly think it is more reactionary..these girls have a HUGE upside if they just realized their potential.
Sounds as if they are playing down to the competition, which means they are sometimes over-confident based on their opponents. My suggestion in this case is to give them specific mini-goals to focus on during the game to help them feel challenged, such as to see the ball well every pitch or another performance goal.
U r right on the money. My kid has all these challenges. Just not sure how to handle them.
It sounds like the problem IS the parental interaction/interruption. You need to take control as a coach and seperate the parents from this debilitating behavior. Let me guess, they sit right on the baseline or right behind home plate and chirp all game, right? Tell them to shut up, or walk! They are the problem. I coach a U10 girls soccer team as well as U10 softball for my daughter. I had parents complaining about me even keeping stats because it “upset” their child/player. If they want to help, don’t talk the talk, walk the walk. Help your kid improve, that is how their stats improve. Give you players individual goals, let them take ownership of the game. Sometimes it is as simple as them not knowing what is expected of them. Have a parents meeting and tell them to be quiet, they are doing more harm than good. It helps. Good luck Coach!
It sounds like my old team. Parents think they are helping, but they are just a distraction. I started wearing earplugs in my U14 seasons and asked my dad not to come if he could not be quiet. My coaches went on visual signals anyhow. Parents need to just watch….quietly. Also, they need to know if they are there to socialize or compete….if it is to socialize go to a picnic, if it is to compete, be quiet and let the coaches coach, on and off the field, trust your coaches.
I’m trying (as a parent) to follow this routine;
– during a game … sit quiet and eventually clap on good moves, regardless who makes them
– right after the game … congratulate my kid on 2-3 things he did good, as no matter how bad the game was for his team and him – there were few things he did right (at least he packed his shirts and towel alone before the game0
– at practice that I do with him (apart from his team-practice where I follow ‘game regime’)…I start with things he did good during the game, then spend major part of the session doing things that were not good and need improvement, followed by the closure of the session where we do things that he does well and feel confident about
– right before game … I try to emphasize good things that he did during the last game and practice + briefly mention 1-2 things he would need to improve or stay focused on
I have been following this for the last 6 months and feel that my son responds positively. The most difficult part is to organize the practice the way I explained, as he sometimes needs a lot of time to rise his interest in disciplined training. Hopefully with age (he’s 9yrs old now), this would improve.
As I’m going to be assistant coach in his U10 soccer team from now on, do you think it would be good to gradually teach/direct parents to follow this scheme?
Thanks!
My son loves playing baseball and is above avg in most baseball skills for being 9. The issue at hand is he will hit off a machine, soft toss and with myself pitching to him with great mechanics and confidence. When another coach or different kid pitcher(avg to above avg skill) comes in to throw everything goes out the window. He will flinch before he swings and drop the bat low which causes either bouncers in front of the plate or swing and a miss. Whenever I bring it up to him that he is a much better hitter than what he is showing the reply is “I’m trying”. When he is being told that he is not playing because of his hitting performance that still does not motivate him. I’m completely lost on what to do next. He is being invited to play on other teams because of pitching ability but I’m almost to the point of not allowing it only to have him pitch and be a sub due to his hang ups in the box .
Yes, if you find the routine is working for you, you should teach it to other parents.
John: The machine is predictable for him and easy to hit — much different than live pitching. I suggest you only do live pitching with him so he can learn to adapt to different pitchers. The machine is fine for mechanics, but does little to transfer to game situations.
My son can get distracted from parent politics in competitive hockey. What’s not fair is all too common a situation that he is understanding as common, and works through the distraction and uses his highly tuned natural skills to dominate. He is learning to use his “kevlar shield” to unwanted comments or situations, with positive results; no one, but himself can stop him from putting out his best effort. Adversity is making him a stronger and focused athlete. Politics are a strong influence, not easily overcome without letting them go; which he is learning, and making me very proud.
to John about hitting off machine.vs.pitcher: Problem may be in predictable pitching, but it may be also in his inner talk that hurts him. He sets high expectations to himself as he knows he can hit great (using machine) and when other pitcher throws him a ball and he misses, he engages in negative self talk and worries more about what the pitcher/coach thinks of him than to stay calm and executes automatically. I see that as a great problem of all sports where players have a lot of time on their hands (golf, baseball, tennis serve, basketball free-throw…). Players distroy themselves with too much thinking about irrelevant things (how will they look in eyes of others) and at best try to fix it by thinking too much about their mechanics (which is also wrong as thinking about mechanics will only make it worse). “Inner Game of Tennis” is the book that I recommend to those that spot that problem within themselves, their players and kids.
to John about hitting off machine.vs.pitcher:
I’d suggest you to try this;
1) Reinforce your son’s confidence by emphasizing that he is already great hitter
– do not mention “…great with machine” but great in general in any situation
– he has great mechanics that is already built in his muscle memory, so your task is to allow him to use that memory automatically and not to interfere with it
2) Instead of making him think, teach him NOT TO THINK when he is on the plate
– this is one of the most difficult things to learn … how to quiet the bigger interferer of our mind – the mind itself!
– for older players Yoga teaches that idle state of mind perfectly
– for kids … try to make him focus on some sensation on his body (like pressure of his toes on the ground) and then just focus on the ball and execute…no thinking about mechanics during the swing
– his mechanics are just like a computer program…already loaded in a laptop … you do not debug and play the video game at the same time (sorry for software lingo here)
3) Help him understand that nobody hits 100% of the time and that misses, sometimes horrible ones, are normal part of the game
– there are some great topics on this site about perfectinists and how they set unreasonable expectations to their performance
4) Try to teach him to stay in NOW moment
– after good and bad hit … he has to follow the same routine and try to quiet his mind by focusing on something that will keep him in NOW moment…thinking about reaction of the crowd/coach/parent/teammates or/and mechanics is NOT going to do it … he needs to think about something that’s happening now … ball flying, bird singing, feet pressing the ground, air breeze…
– my guess is that your son shows great happiness after good hits…right? On the other extreme, he feels great deal of guilt and dissatisfaction when he does it poor… once he takes both as the part of the same game and does not judge his performance as good or bad as he plays … that’s when he will become great player
My daughter plays U11 soccer at the select level. She is a good and aggressive player in practice but often during the games she seems like she’s not mentally in the game. She waits for the ball to come to her and then kicks it away and doesn’t follow it at all. She has so much potential and could be the best player on her team if she was really “in” the game but she seems unfocused on the game and easily distracted. How can I help her?
He focus problem is more related to fear of failure or tentative play that a lack of concentration. It may appear as if she lacks focus, but I think she does not want to make mistakes or let others down. Can you discuss this will her and get back with us?
Kids lose focus for a variety of reasons but probably at the top would be that there are to many”Coaches” meaning at home, and on the sidelines. My son is a 10 year old AAA hockey player and I have him coached for many years, unfortunately at home and behind the bench. I do not coach him anymore. I also try to encourage and support him before a game in the car and say very little . His coach has a game plan and he needs to focus on that. We all need to trust our coaches. Although they may not coach the way we think they should our main focus is teaching our kids that the coach is the coach and support the coach in his decisions. Yelling at a player son/daughter on the sidelines does nothing productive other then lose the focus of the child
my son plays baseball and is very good. he has expressed to me that sometimes our presence makes him a little nervous. when we are at his games, i make sure i’m not sitting in his vision and i don’t speak to him until the game is over. we were at a tournament this summer and he didn’t hit a home-run and the day i had to leave, i got a phone call that he hit a big one. i think for all kids, in any sport, parents presence is big pressure for these kids and we should sit back and be quiet and let them play. there is a parent on our team that stresses her son everytime he’s pitching. she stands behind homeplate and yells at him. she hasn’t figured out why he walks so many players. hopefully, this season the coach will tell her to sit down and be quiet!
I have a 10 y.o. baseball player. He loves the game and excited to take the field before each game. He rotates between playing 1st, 3rd and pitcher. He does great at all 3 but struggles on the mound when he has walked a player or two. He totally breaks down and loses all composure and has a hard time regaining his ability to continue. I am looking for some advise on what conversation should look like with him before, during and after the games. We always try to focus on the positives but I am beginning to think that just fuels the image of being perfect to him. He will pitch 2 perfect innings on Saturday and fall apart on Sunday. How can I help him to help himself out there? Thanks for any input!
This is more of a composure issue than a focus issue. He loses focus because of the frustration he feels after walking a batter. I would ask him what he says to himself after the walk and “what’s so awful about giving up a walk.”
I could have written this post below (from Gary above) myself, but changed the age. My son is in the middle of hockey try outs. He went out his first 2 sessions and did great. The third session, he went out with one hand on his stick, looking around, reacting too late to the play, and just looked like he was asleep and lazy. This wouldn’t be so frustrating if I didn’t know how he ‘normally’ plays! I asked him what was wrong, and he said “I dunno”. How can I ‘wake’ him up and get him to focus?
“There are times My 12 yr old is on top of his game. Hitting the baseball well and fielding with aggresion and precision. Then there are times he seems dis-engaged and not giving it his all. It is very frustrating to watch. We have had several conversations about going 100% with him but it seems to come up time and time again. He is very athletic and tells me he loves the game but at times it seems he is not giving it his all and doesnt realize how good he can be. What sugestions do you have”
Cindy:
You can’t expect kids to be at the top of their focus every performance. However, you can help them prepare their best to focus well. One thing you want to do is help them get up for the game…. This mean athletes intensity mimics their focus. The more up physically they are, the better athletes perform. In addition, outside influence or distractions can also have an affect on your athlete’s focus.
Great comments!
It’s always helpful to see what works for others when dealing with young athletes.
I coach a 6th & 7th grade football team (10-12 yr. olds). The Middle School years are the best time to teach them about working together as a team. They need to feel like their an important part of something bigger.
Our pre-practice and pre-game rituals are always the same. They loosen up casually by just throwing the ball around and chatting, then when the whistle blows they put their helmets on and run through their regular stretching & agility program together.
Once they’re warmed up the coaches and I will review our last game with them and talk about what we want to accomplish that week to prepare for the next game. We always accentuate the positives and comment on what we can do to get better as a team. I encourage the boys to speak up and tell us what they’re seeing or feeling on field. Our drills start with small groups skill specific then we bring them together to work on the same things but as a team. Even though we’re 6-0 on the season, I don’t use that as a measuring stick for success. I continually preach that every member (19) has an important role and they need to believe that what they’re doing on the field is the reason the team is succeeding. The boys are having a ton of fun and I look forward to watching them when they get to high school!
My son is 5 years old and plays soccer. He loses focus easily. He gets distracted. During the game he twirls, jumps around, plays with grass..I am concerned because no other players in team do this.. Should I be concerned? At school he has greatgrades and even tested for GATE.
No, he’s still very young. Just make it fun for him.
Similar to nancy our 7 year old gets distracted when playing basketball. He plays well on defense. On offense has a harder time. When he has the ball he seems overwhelmed with who to pass to etc. he eventually passes but takes a longer time. He is hesitant to get in the action with both basketball and soccer. At times he will be distracted, looks around,plays with his hands etc. he gets bored because other kids do not pass to him that much. with cues from the coach or my husband he engages. Most importantly he likes playing and is learning the game. Just want to know what you can do to help a child stay focused. We realize he is young. He is not athletically as strong as his peers at this point so want him to be putting his best foot forward and I feel improving the focus would help him a lot,
You want to help define what he should focus on and at the same time, what’s a distraction for him.
Hi Patrick,
Excellent post, thank you. I am having a hard time figuring out what is going on with my daughter. I want to help her because she loves soccer and is a talented soccer player on a U10 select team. When she is “on focus/motivated” she can literally control a game but sometimes she plays slow and timid and just gets beat to the ball the whole game. For the past couple of weeks she’s been off but before that she was on for months. Is that normal for a 10 year old athlete? What can I ask her to help uncover the issues? How can I help her get motivated for every game? She seems to lose confidence sometimes and doesn’t try as hard. It’s hard for the coach because she is a captain and the inconsistency is challenging as you can imagine.
In an earlier post you posted this to Gary “The key is to find something that your kid will get excited about so he can focus better.” Can you provide an example and are you talking abour pre-game and during the game?
Thank you!
I have a daughter that plays basketball. In every game she seems confused and she misses plays that they work on in practice. She been playing basketball for 7 yrs now, since 6th grade now a senior playing varsity. Her stats were off the chart last yr (junior yr in highschool) and now she right back playing unfocused. I thought she may need medication to stay focused. Colleges are looking at her b/c of her stats last but she is playing like she was when she started varsity as a freshman.
My 12-year-old struggles to focus during soccer and lacrosse games, and often the coaches have said to us \”Sean needs to work on one thing: FOCUS!\” Sean usually plays soccer striker or defense. Can you give some particular things he should be saying to himself during the game to focus – for example in soccer \”look to find space to get open for a pass\” or in lacrosse \”keep your feet moving\”. Also – I would also like to know what you meant about getting him \”excited before the game.\”?
thank you!
My son is 5 years old. He enjoys playing soccer but if someone claps, he stops playing and starts crying, looks for one of his parents and just would not continue at all. It happened again when he was at a swimming course and they were giving out participation certificates, when they clapped (before anyone got his certificate) he immediately froze, started crying and would not move or get his certificate.
My son is 10 years old heplay hockey and always got distracted in the games and practice, when I ask him what he was thinking his answers is always the same I don’t know, it’s really frustrates for me I don’t know how to help him to be focus when he is on the ice.
Kids are sometimes unaware of their mental game. And sometimes they don’t want to let parents know what they are thinking when playing in games.
We’ve tried multiple sports that my 6yr old son has expressed interest in. He claims to like playing and like the sport, but he is almost always the one kid who’s picking flowers or just all over the place and not focused. We practice at home and at the park with him. I ask him if he wants to stop playing sports and he says no. I feel stuck. I want to figure it out with him. Is this common for a 6yr old? I see almost all his teammates doing well and staying focused.
What should I do?
Allow him to have fun at this age. When he turns 10, then I would start wot work on the focus.
My 14 yr old son plays soccer and dreams of playing professionally. He is on the starting line up on his team playing a winger. He normally plays great games but the last 5 games appears lazy and not as aggressive on the pitch. I don’t care if the team loses but I am concerned he doesn’t look like he’s trying hard. I’ve asked him countless times if he enjoys to play soccer professionally and he continues to say yes. He is always training and any opportunity he gets to play he takes it. I just don’t understand why he is appearing lazy and not as aggressive at games.
Sometimes it appears–to parents–as if he’s lazy or not aggressive, but many times this can be more about playing safely or tentatively for fear of making mistakes.