How does an athlete develop concentration? The psychotechnical game "The idler and the worker".

Psychotechnical games and exercises.

Play, as part of a child's healthy development, helps them loosen up and gradually deal with difficulties that seem insurmountable to them at the time (playing at competing, for example). Using psychotechnical games and exercises appropriate to the athletes' age satisfies their need to play and, at the same time, serves to activate and develop the relevant mental functions, to adjust their psychological state, and to build and maintain relationships within the group — while also being a means of pursuing a dual career.

"Psychotechnical games" sounds like "games not to be taken seriously", and points to a limited application — "in sport"; while "self-regulation" suggests the familiar, permitted forms — a kind of psychotherapy with a muzzle on.)

In fact these exercises were devised, tested, applied and described in a variety of settings: in psychotherapy with neurotic patients, in work with elite athletes, in personal growth groups — everywhere a good psychologist's foot could tread, and everywhere it was then thought it could not.

The book "PSYCHOTRAINING: GAMES AND EXERCISES" (by Nikolai Tszen and Yuri Pakhomov), on which this article is based, is full of episodes of practice, of the joy and discovery of meeting what is human in yourself, of a growing interest in our capacity simply to be — alone with ourselves and together with others.

Why play psychotechnical games with athletes?

Every coach feels the need to lift a young athlete after a poor performance, or to help them handle the nerves before a start, or to say something bracingly sharp that lets the athlete pull themselves together. Over long months and years of intensive work together, a coach inevitably finds an approach to each athlete. Day after day, working against the resistance of the "human material", the coach becomes more perceptive and wiser. He comes to know his students' minds and characters in fine detail. He knows who to say what to, and when. To get inside each of their inner lives he acquires a whole set of psychological keys and lockpicks.

In most cases the coach solves all the practical questions usually assigned to psychology perfectly well himself. He solves them better than a psychologist with a diploma would. But a coach's intuition and experience are not all-powerful. And not every coach can boast of them. So alongside a masterly command of practical psychology, coaching also shows us the exact opposite.

Psychotechnical games and exercises are a universal psychological tool for a coach working with athletes of primary school, adolescent and youth age, because:

1. Applied systematically, they can develop the core cognitive processes, the ability to self-regulate unhelpful mental states, and the building, maintenance and repair of relationships within a team or training group.
2. They can reduce the subjective sense of fatigue and build and sustain athletes' motivation.

The exercise "Fingers", for developing concentration (a preliminary to the main game, "The idler and the worker")

How it works:

1. The group settles comfortably into armchairs or on chairs, forming a circle.
2. Interlace the fingers of your hands resting on your knees, leaving the thumbs free.
3. On the command "Begin!", slowly rotate the thumbs around one another at a constant speed and in one direction, making sure they don't touch. Concentrate your attention on that movement.
4. On the command "Stop!", end the exercise. Duration — 5-15 minutes.

Because rotating your thumbs is meaningless, the exercise lets you observe attention at work in its pure form. For many people the task turns out to be difficult because the object of concentration is so unusual.

• If a participant falls asleep quickly during the exercise (on no account disturb them or let others disturb them!), then in future this technique can be used for calming down.
• Some participants will have unusual sensations: their fingers seeming larger or detached, an apparent change in the direction of movement. They are probablysusceptible to autosuggestion.
• Some will feel strong irritation or unease. Try to understand the reason for it. Almost always it lies outside the session.
• If a participant finds it very funny and can't work properly, let them laugh as much as they like: laughter is a defence against anxiety.

The exercise "The idler and the worker"

How it works:

1. Participants settle comfortably into armchairs.
2. Relax the muscles of the forehead, the eyebrows and the lips, and open the mouth slightly. Relax the facial muscles until the face has a sleepy, tipsy expression.
3. On the command "Begin!", participants start one of the attention exercises ("Fingers" and "Focusing" work best),keeping the facial muscles relaxed throughout. The work continues until the command "Stop!".
4. Then the exercise is repeated, this time after frowning, pressing the lips together firmly and clenching the jaw. Keep the face tense for the whole period of work.
5. Make sure the relaxation and the tension of the face are maintained throughout.

In the discussion, invite participants to compare the two ways of concentrating — relaxed and tense.

Don't impose your own idea of which is better: a free discussion creates the opportunity to compare and choose, whereas suggesting the view you hold makes the athlete's conclusions hasty and immature.

• The aim of the game is to broaden the athlete's sense of the ways concentration is possible.

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