The Role of Focus and Confidence in High-level Athletic Performances

Despite the ability for past studies to link various psychological factors to optimal athletic performances, the roles of specific factors have yet to be fully discerned. Using a phenomenological-constructionist approach, the present study aims to gather a sharpened understanding of the roles that confidence and focus have on elite sport performances. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 12 Canadian and Norwegian high-level athletes originating from various sporting backgrounds. The athletes were interrogated about their general perspectives towards confidence and focus, inquired about the nature of their focus with regards to different game situations and asked to revisit their best and worst performances with the emphasis put on their confidence level and focus. The analysis of the interviews was inductive and followed Giorgi’s (1985) phenomenological methodology. Results suggested that an optimal focus is very often, if not always, present in best performances and largely absent during worst performances, thus suggesting that focus indeed plays a direct role on sporting exploits. Furthermore, confidence appears to serve as a powerful facilitator for the occurrence of optimal focus, leading to suggest that its relationship with performance might be more indirect. The increased understanding of the roles that both confidence and focus have on athletic performance that is enlightened by this study can serve as basis for practitioners in the development of performance enhancement programs in addition to stimulate future research on the possible relationship between confidence, focus and performance. Role of Focus and Confidence iii Acknowledgement This project would not have been possible without the help and support of many wonderful people. I would like to personally thank them: -Mes parents, pour ne pas seulement m’avoir aidé à réaliser ce projet, mais surtout pour m’avoir donné les outils, le support et l’amour pendant si longtemps à fin que j’ai l’opportunité d’entreprendre de si grands projets. -Ma petite soeur, pour toujours m’encourager et me donner la motivation nécessaire pour continuer à travailler vers mes objectifs. -Julie et Éric, pour avoir été présent quand j’en ai eu vraiment besoin. -My supervisor, Dr. Terry Orlick, for his unmatchable positivity and his help through out the last two years. -Dr. Pierre Trudel, for his more than generous help and his great advises. -Dr. François Gravel, for his great support, understanding and flexibility. -Dr. Michelle Fortier, for her generosity, the many interesting discussions we had and the many laughs we shared. -Dr. Pierre-Nicolas Lemyre and his amazing family, for making me feel like home even when home was far away. -Those who helped me with the recruitment of the participants: Bruno, Anne-Sophie, Chad, Richard, Jamie, Jeremy, Marc-Alexandre and Christian. -All my friends that were able to cheer me up when times were tough. Special thanks to Alice, Kristi and Eric for their generous help. -All the great friends I made in Norway. Special thanks to Gro and Kristin for helping me so many times in this new environment. -Kylie, for being so generous and kind and for helping me so many times at the office. -The University of Ottawa and the Norges Idrettshøgskole for the support and the great opportunities. -And finally, but probably most importantly, all the athletes that have participated in this study. This project would not have been possible if you had not so generously take the time to share your great experiences. I sincerely wish you all the best. Thank you so much, tusen takk, merci beaucoup! Alexis Gagnon-Dolbec Role of Focus and Confidence iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract . ii Acknowledgements . iii Chapter I: Introduction.1 Chapter II: Literature Review . 3 Confidence. 3 Focus.7 Qualitative Methodology . 11 Chapter III: Methodology . 14 Epistemology . 14 Participants. 17 Data Collection . 19 Procedure.20 Analysis. 23 Trustworthiness . 24 Chapter IV: Results . 25 Confidence in General. 25 View of confidence. 25 Sources of confidence. 27 General influence of confidence. 28 Focus. 31 View of focus. 31 Characteristics of focus. 32 Role of Focus and Confidence v Focus operation. 34 General factors influencing focus. 38 General influence of focus. 40 Specific focus at different times. 41 Focus Before the Event. 42 Focus Moments before the event.43 Focusing during performances. 44 Focus during breaks. 46 Performing in front of a favourable crowd. 49 Performing in front of a hostile crowd. 51 Focus with High Pressure. 51 Focus after a mistake. 53 Focus during fatigue or pain. 55 Focus when facing injustice. 57 Comparison of Performances. 59 Behaviours. 59 Looking for perfection. 59 Loud vs. Quiet. 65 Patient and calm vs. hesitant and tense. 67 Emotions. 69 Pleasant and Fun vs. Bad feelings . 69 Excitement . 70 Degree of nervousness and stress. 72 Confidence during performances. 74 Role of Focus and Confidence vi Factors influencing confidence during performances. 75 Evolution. 77 Influence during the performances. 79 Focus during performances. 84 Positive vs. Negative. 84 Object of focus. 86 Spectrum of focus.