Attention is the ability of an athlete to keep on task. It is often also called focus or concentration. Attention involves focusing mental effort on relevant environmental cues, and maintaining that attention. In sport settings people like to use the term concentration. (more…)
The Inverted U Hypothesis suggests that optimal performance occurs at an intermediate level of arousal while both low and high levels of arousal will result in impaired performance. (more…)
The most popular account for the relationship between arousal and performance is the model of Individual Zones of Optimal Functioning (Hanin, 1997, 2000). IZOF proposes that there are individual differences in the way people react to anxiety. Some tend to succeed when anxiety is low while others tend to succeed when anxiety is high. (more…)
The Drive Reduction Theory was created by behaviorist Clark Hull (1943). Hull believed that behavior was one of the ways that an organism maintains this balance. His term drive refers to a state of tension or arousal caused by biological or physiological needs. (more…)