Advertisers often make creative use of imagery to get the points across about their products. Currently there is one where two guys are playing table tennis with giant bats, and there are a group of men playing golf and one either a) uses a giant club so he cannot miss and also hit his drive a long way or b) the hole on the putting green is enormous so, again, he cannot miss.

Needless to say this is purely a metaphor regarding seeing the ball – focus – extra awareness as the ball looms large in his visual field.
It pays no attention to the actual quality of whatever shot is played per se, as anyone who has ever hit a football with a cricket bat surely knows.

I’ve written on many occasions about the level of focussed attention players bring to the area of the visual field in their particular sports. I’ve always held the view that whether striking an object, catching an object, and aiming or throwing at a target, there is always the need for the best quality of visual data gathering for the player to achieve optimal execution of the task. I also believe that the visual focus is very much enhanced by turning down the attention input of data gathered from other senses, and also by players muting or silencing their internal dialogue. Without distractive ‘interference’ a player perceives a clearer vision and a better awareness.

I ran an experiment a few years ago, with players each throwing a ball at a target with their eyes shut, after first committing the target to visual memory, and then visualising hitting the target with their throw.
Now here you might consider – on the face of it – that I was perhaps looking to debunk my own quality data theory, in the moment!
“Eyes shut eh, Pete – so where’s the data then?”  – I can hear you ask.

The players imagined throwing a ball at the target – and they were also asked to notice, to feel, the movements of their bodies as they threw. What they felt as kinaesthetic feedback from the visualisation was also important data.

Incidentally, one other ‘angle’ about the Eyes-Shut throwing at targets experiment – what also lies behind it – is that the players’ assembly and delivery of good technical skills, beyond conscious attention and interference, was of a remarkably high quality. But I digress!

Now, in terms of conscious – and eyes open – visual data gathering by players, I’ve always been at pains to point out certain enhancements
that they can bring to this focussing process. It isn’t so much about what they are watching, but is more about how they are watching and for how long.
For instance, with an approaching ball in flight which they are judging when and how to strike or catch, it is vital they watch the ball ALL THE WAY to the moment of striking or catching. The last couple of metres are crucial, and yet most of us commit this bit to guesswork!
If we compare this bit of concentration technique with seeing it as big as a football, my next questions are, “How are you seeing that football? Does it grow in perceived size as it gets nearer, or is it just big all through the flight path? And is there anything else about that
football?”
Delving behind the football metaphor really then starts to open up the HOW of watching the ball, or the target, or indeed anything upon which our attentive focus is laid.

My friend James Tripp has recently introduced me to the book “The Open Focus Brain” by Dr Les Fehmi and Jim Robbins. It was whilst reading this fascinating study on the nature of narrow focussed attention and Open-Focussed attention, a number of connective light bulbs went on for me.

It might also be said that closely watching an approaching ball (say) is the same as taking dead-aim at a moving target.

Now I don’t mean here what is particularly going on with atmospheric conditions such as wind and humidity, the height above sea level, etc., or the physical attributes (spin, rotation etc) of the projectile as it travels through the atmosphere – important as  these all might be when factored into the decision-making process!
I am talking with particular regard to the spatial dimensions of the medium, our perceptions of those dimensions, AND (now I have read Les Fehmi’s work) how we can alter the nature of our perceptions through the type of focus we are applying at any one time.

Part of the process of Proof Reading involves changing our focus. We require our R.A.S (reticular activating system; the brain’s perceptive filter) to shift focus from the inherent meaning of the text to typographical correctness, or to syntax, etc.

Wine tasters actually go through a process of Proof Tasting – where the process of drinking wine changes focus in a sampling way. Tasters who fail to properly step into the ‘Proof Frame’ and all that entails, tend to end up regularly inebriated!

We all tend to focus and concentrate primarily in the visual field. Paying attention in this field is about noticing as much as we can in a narrow focus perspective. I believe that when we set out to try and up the ante, concentrate better, or  ocus more, that we are – as a rule – not pointing ourselves in the right direction. The way we usually set out to do the process continues to be from a conscious, narrow-focussed perspective – where “Pay more attention,” simply gets translated as do more detailed data gathering.

Plus
– something else interesting will be going on for us – we will have stopped trying. And, amazingly, one of the by-products of stopping our trying will be a reduction of tension, a relaxing, a feeling of being more grounded, a more stable equilibrium between unconscious skills and conscious decision making.

So what brings about someone’s occasional capability to see the ball as big as a football? It might seem they have just casually  stumbled across some magical facility or attribute – but there are a number of factors that have come into conjunction or alignment for that person to have such an experience.

Your emotional equilibrium, and the nature of your focus, will certainly be reflected in the frequency of your brainwaves. Your performance, the balance of your skills, decision making and tactics, will be better enabled by all three.

Certainly, without emotional equilibrium the odds will be considerably lengthened. You may have struck a run of good form, but form is elusive at best without emotional equilibrium.

But, my friend, since we are just talking here about the seeing of the metaphorical football, then changing the nature of your focus is a very good way of narrowing the odds.

I’ve talked many times about the importance of The Breath in the performance of our lives – and how we can unlearn the bad breathing habits we have become very familiar with as we have grown up. Good breathing, habitually breathing well, gives us many wellbeing benefits including a number already mentioned in this article!
Similarly with our Focus, we can unlearn the perpetual gravitation towards running our lives in the one-track habit of narrow focus. Once we broaden our perspective on everything, things begin to shift on many levels both on the
outside AND on the inside. There are times when a narrow focus is totally appropriate of course, but running a broader and more open focus as a default setting is certainly going to enhance the wellbeing our lives.

Conclusion

I also suggest you see what differences you notice
when you use the graphic in the way I have described. Give yourself about a
week of twice daily use to allow changes to start to integrate, and just notice
what is becoming different for you.