ABSTRACT
Sport has developed its own vocabulary for when players experience either positive or negative impact on concentration. Choking is a term used to describe what happens to a player whose performance capacities have fallen away, usually in a high-pressure or critical situation: this can also be described as freezing under pressure. Sport psychologists tend to talk more about attention than concentration and focus. In sport, there have been relatively few applications of mindfulness in the literature; this is partly due to the emphasis in the sport psychology literature on more active concentration management techniques, such as the use of cue words, self-talk and pre-performance routines. In addition to developing concentration, testing the execution of skills under game-like conditions and under heavy fatigue can have a powerful positive impact on players' confidence. Coaches and teachers should become sensitized to players who tend to do this and set up drills where they have their concentration challenged.
