Concentration in Older Age Part 2: Finding Focus
The search for gritty agile zen is a twisty path…
My quest to get better at tennis is bumping up against a big obstacle: my brain. During matches, when I need focused neural pathways, I get random neurons firing. My opponents focus like sharks; I focus like a squirrel (see Part 1 here).
The question is what I can do, if anything, to improve my concentration at the times I need it most. I’m trying stuff. Here are three promising ideas I’ve tried out so far:
Idea #1: Quieting the mind: I recently picked up and reread one of my childhood inspirational books, The Inner Game of Tennis (see this earlier post). Its key concentration lesson is how critically important it is to leave behind the past and the future to dwell in the present (this is the same point focus guru Christina Bengtsson makes in her talks: “We need to find our inner power by focusing on what we are best at at any given moment.”). If I can stop thinking about what just happened and worrying about what might happen, maybe I can fully concentrate on what is happening right now. That should improve my concentration, right?
Verdict: Solves an important, but slightly different, problem. In the weeks since I reread the book I’ve been happier than ever playing tennis. I’ve loved moving around the court and have enjoyed the camaraderie of being in a tight match. But when push comes to shove, I haven’t been able to convince myself that winning matters. I find myself enjoying the flow too much to win the match.
Idea #2: Building up my “neuroplasticity”: If the Inner Game is from Venus; “Combat Brain Training” is from Mars. The training program was developed in 2007 by a guy named John Kennedy to improve the combat performance of Marines. His research shows it is possible to increase the speed of the brain’s mental processing at any age, giving you greater “neuroplasticity.” Over time the training has spread to a broader audience, including Navy SEALs, high-performing business people who want to improve their ability to focus for longer periods of time, people suffering from depression, PTSD, learning disabilities and professional athletes.
Brain prep using Combat Brain Training…
I asked John for a trial. He ran me through a fascinating and challenging series of exercises, which involve training your brain to more quickly identify, react to and anticipate a series of directional shapes and colors, tapping my fingers while saying (outloud) directions, colors and fruit names with increasing speed. The exercises, he says, build new neural pathways, and he’s promised that with daily practice that will help me get better at keeping my mind on the tennis match and anticipating which shots will come next. By improving the efficiency of my brain’s neural networks, I should be able to see shots coming more quickly and be able to react sooner. Does this work? According to Kim Willment, a neuropsychologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, yes. “There is evidence,” she says about programs like this, “that a person’s ability to pay attention can be improved by progressively pushing the person to higher levels of performance. So if you can reach a certain level of sustained attention, pushing it to the next level can help improve it, and this may translate to everyday life.”
Verdict: Temporarily effective. Doing the exercises for five minutes before I start a match leaves me dialed in mentally at a high level, an advantage I can clearly recognize. About thirty minutes later, though, I appear to lose that advantage. John’s suggestion: I need to do the exercises on game changeovers during the match. But that feels pretty goofy – so far I’ve sweated all over my training sheet and my opponents think I’m trying to hypnotize myself. The real solution: doing the advanced course, that apparently can start to rewire the brain in a more permanent sort of way.
Idea #3: Developing an on-court “coach”: You can’t argue with the success that Mark Vines has had in tennis over the years. A former touring pro, he’s also won more than 25 national championships in different age groups and has been ranked #1 in the world. In the past he’s coached touring pros, but these days he is arguably the GOAT of geezer tennis coaching, focusing on improving the performance of senior players.
Geezer GOAT Mark Vines
I went to visit Mark recently for a series of lessons, during which he fixed at least ten technical problems I had, then drilled down on what it would take to improve my mental focus during matches. It starts, he says, with planning before the match: I need a Plan A (an initial strategy for the particular opponent I’m facing), a Plan B (for when Plan A blows up) and a Plan C (to be tried after Plans A and B implode) for every opponent.
With game plans in place, you have a clear set of things to think about and analyze between points. The challenge is that it is tough for us to be objective in our self-assessments, and we don’t always take our own advice seriously. His approach: we should create a character called “the coach” who talks to us between points. After each point, the coach makes a quick observation about what just happened, then lays out a strategy for the next point. The coach is tough, but inspiring, and because he is talking to you, out loud, as your coach, you are not just thinking, but hearing, bringing another sense into the equation. That means you pay better attention.
Verdict: Work in progress. Doing Mark’s careful prematch planning has been really helpful to me already. When boxer Mike Tyson’s mantra holds true (“Everybody’s got a plan till they get punched in the mouth.”) and Plan A blows up, having well-thought-through alternatives helps me avoid freaking out. During points, I feel better able to be proactive rather than reactive, and between points I have a benchmark to consistently come back to, which limits my mind’s wanderings. Activating the on-court “coach” has been a different challenge. Since reading The Inner Game, I’ve gotten accustomed to being relatively silent on the court, so talking outloud to myself is taking some getting used to.
So where do I go from here? At this point in my life, there is a limited upside to my physical skills – I was never all that and a bag of chips, and now my body just can’t do some of the things it used to. By contrast, there seems to be a lot of room for improvement on the mental side – that’s my opportunity. Just imagine a player with Inner Game zen, Combat Training agility and Vinesian grit (can you have gritty agile zen?). That person might get to 90% concentration on 90% of the points. I’m on the path: fellow geezers beware!
-Leslie
Questions: Which parts of this resonate with you? What have you discovered that meaningfully improves your concentration in competitive work or play? Can you teach me?
References:
Concentration in old age: https://www.health.harvard.edu/mind-and-mood/tips-to-improve-concentration
Christina Bengtsson on focus: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xF80HzqvAoA
Combat brain training: www.mentalperformanceinstitute.org
Senior Excellence Tennis with Mark Vines: https://www.facebook.com/SETcamps/
That Mike Tyson quote and its lineage: https://quoteinvestigator.com/2021/08/25/plans-hit/