The Art Of Focus

Science-Based Techniques To Help Your Child Improve Concentration On The Court And In The Classroom

“You guys need to focus.”

This sentence will be said probably 100,000+ times today by different teachers, coaches, parents, bosses, etc. Every day, all around the world, people struggle to get (and keep) those around them focused.

Focus is essential for success. If a group of people cannot focus on the task at hand, they cannot complete that task. The more focused a person is, the more quickly they’ll be able to identify and solve problems, learn new skills, get work done, etc. On the basketball court, just like in the rest of our lives, focus is the key to faster progress.

But focus is hard – especially for younger players. We all have different attention spans, and sometimes, our brains just refuse to cooperate with us. It isn’t that we don’t want to focus; it’s that we can’t focus. Our coaches and teachers act as if we’re showing up to practice thinking, “Yeah, I’m not going to listen today,” but that’s not true. We want to listen, and we want to learn, but… Wait, what was I going to say? Something distracted me, and I lost my train of thought.

Yeah. Focus is hard. So let’s talk about it and learn a couple of ways that we can improve our ability to concentrate and, by doing so, improve our game too.