The Mental Aspect Of Sports Performance Essay - 1338 Words

For many years, the mental aspect of sports performance has received considerable attention in sports psychology. The cognitive processes in elite and less skilled athletes have been studied extensively, in an attempt to shed light on the variables arbitrating task execution during performances (Beilock, Carr, Machon Starkes, 2002). This essay investigates how cognition differs in elite and less skilled athletes. Firstly, it considers elite-novice- differences in attentional focus; which suggests that where athletes direct their attention while performing differs across skills. Moreover, the essay closely examines the difference in elite and novice athletes ability to make effective decisions during performances (Milazzo, Farrow, Ruffault Fournier, 2016). One aspect of cognition that differs in elite and less skilled athletes is an attentional focus. Numerous studies have demonstrated that during a performance, skilled players direct their attention on their movements’ outcomes ( an external focus of attention) whereas less skilled players orient their attention on their body movements ( an internal focus of attention). This differing role of attention in athletes is explained within the automatization thesis (Bernstein, 1996), according to which experts have highly automatic motor skills due to continuous practice, thus focusing on the movements’ outcomes promotes a more automatic control which leads to efficient movements and high performance. Conversely, the motorShow MoreRelated Sports medicine Essay example1620 Words   |  7 PagesSports medicine Today in sports athletes endure many mental and physical obstacles from there competitive environment. Many of todays best athletes work with sports psychologists to help them handle the pressures found in this competitive atmosphere. 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