Are there any sports where you don't need to concentrate?

[diggedy derek]

Once it gets to the highest level of sport, concentration is one of the most important assets a participant can have. When it comes to most team sports, it's crucial to always be aware of the shape of your team and be ready to respond to what the other team is doing. I can think of football, basketball, rugby, what have you.

With sports which require physical control in some way, concentration is equally crucial. I imagine a snooker player or a darts player or a golfer has to make sure they're concentrating on nothing but executing their shot/throw with exactly the action they want. Here, the concentration is about making sure you're concentrating on one thing and one thing only.

There's numerous other sports, of course, where a lack of concentration can immediately lead to disaster. I think of speed skating and Elise Christie, as mentioned on the Bridesmaid thread, where losing her footing has I think cost her not one but two Winter Olympics placings. Obviously, Formula One is very similar in this.

Other sports meanwhile are just plain dangerous – you don't want to stop concentrating in boxing for a moment as being out of position and within punching range can lead to immediate disaster and injury.

Then there's duration, of course, staying at the crease in cricket. And in general, it's pretty hard to think of any sport where concentration is not in at least the top three of attributes to make it to the top.

Which makes me think if there's any sports where it's not so crucial. Perhaps there are team games where flair and skill are absolutely enough to get you through. Perhaps if you're a running back or punt returner in the NFL, like Barry Sanders or Deion Sanders or Eric Metcalf, who were sensationally talented but whose job in some ways was a repeated task to get the ball and just go for it to the best of their ability. Are there many team sports where your role is isolated in this kind of way?

Or, are there sports where essentially the game is so slow that, as long as you're fairly tactically aware, the important skills are more about getting in the zone and exerting yourself and coping with the physical demands. Marathon running or maybe cycling in the Tour De France?

I exaggerate in various ways above, but I'm sure you get get my drift. Not that I'm lacking attention span these days or anything (now what was I saying?)

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Didn't Mark Williams once fall asleep in his chair during a snooker ranking event?

[San Bernardhinault]

I'd think anything time-trialling like is a bit like that. Not the team time trial in cycling, of course, which seems to need huge concentration. But something like old-school long-track speed skating, or bike time-trialling. You have to not fall over, of course, but the general assumption is that if you're at the elite levels of these sports you basically won't fall over unless conditions are abnormal. I kind of picture marathon running as being basically the same thing. Yes, you need to keep an eye on your opponents and the clock, but you can switch your brain off for a few minutes here and there (I imagine).

[Sporting]

Fielding at third man requires considerably less concentration than fielding in the slips.

[Snake Plissken]

I think also that some top level sports where the person involved might not be concentrating on the thing that they are doing - F1, a driver is constantly communicating with the pits, changing settings on the car etc etc.

Some stages in the TdF almost seem like days off brain wise for at least half of the peloton.

[Satchmo Distel]

A goalkeeper in a very dominant side.

[longeared]

At the Tour de France everyone is having to concentrate like mad on what they're doing, even on those supposedly benign days in the middle of the race where a big break is quarter of an hour up the road. The peloton is incredibly tightly packed and everyone is trying to maintain position, if someone loses concentration then there's a touch of wheels and a crash. If you or I tried to ride in the peloton we'd crash straight away. It's one of the reasons the race is so hard, because of all the mental energy that's used up. Smaller races are where the riders don't have to concentrate quite so much, at something like the Tour of Britain the field tends to stratify with the big teams at the front, the smaller teams in the middle, the British teams towards the back and it's much easier for all concerned.

[diggedy derek]

A goalkeeper in a very dominant side.

The narrative you often hear about such players is that concentration is crucial, so that if something unexpected happens they can instantly and decisively react in the right way. For instance, I would think for a keeper it's really important to have a sense of exactly where you are in the goalmouth at all times, so your footwork can be most effective. The trick I reckon is finding ways to keep aware of this and cogniscent of what's going on, even if your team is launching its 20th attack in the first half.

Longeared, That's a good point about riding in the peleton in the Tour De France, I hadn't thought of that.

I suppose there's lot of sports where you require an iron mental discipline, of course long distance running. I imagine you have to be very attuned to your body and be blocking out a lot of extraneous information, for instance pain. I'm not sure 'concentration' would be how most people would describe that, although I don't have any hard and fast definitions to offer.

[Janik]

I think the examples given so far, such as a goalkeeper in a dominant side, are 180 degrees wrong. These situations, where action might spring suddenly with long periods of inactivity, are where concentration is the most important, not the least. Competitors in such situations have to stay focused on the situation so they are ready to perform at sudden notice. This is a really hard skill to develop, particularly if one is actually fairly poor at the activity... which is why you got stuck at Deep Backward Square Leg in the first place.

For me the ones requiring the least concentration is anything that involves constant, instinctive action. Ones where the situation happens quicker than thought and response can possibly analysis, where instead the reactions are based on reflexes trained by years of practice (the kinesthetic sense). This can be very physical, but it isn't all that mental - the kinesthetic sense happens without sensory or mental input. It is a 'sixth sense' in that regard. So anything that involves lots of sudden incredibly sharp movements, such as being an Ice Hockey or Handball goalkeeper, could fit.

[Janik]

Didn't Mark Williams once fall asleep in his chair during a snooker ranking event?

That was down to the after-effects of COVID, though. Rather than it being something that doesn't hinder a snooker players performance. He was very embarrassed about it, as well.

[Janik]

Golf might be an example where it is not concentration or focus but something else instead. It is more about highly accurately repeating movement sequences, and that is where the mind is potentially a hindrance rather than a help.
Zen states, where the body is allowed to do it's own learned thing. Achieving a Zen state involves a lot of concentration, but concentration specifically directed away from the activity to be undertaken when that state is reached.

[Hot Pepsi]

Hockey requires intense concentration in short bursts. The shifts last just 30-40 seconds.

The goalie has to stay somewhat focused the whole game, but mostly just tracking the puck. As mentioned above, the rest is just technique and instinct. But honing all that skill requires a lot of focus in practice.

And, as in football, some goalies play worse when they don’t face a lot of shots.

Baseball batters only need to stay focused for a few minutes at a time.

[diggedy derek]

This is a really hard skill to develop, particularly if one is actually fairly poor at the activity... which is why you got stuck at Deep Backward Square Leg in the first place.

I think one of the most striking things about watching cricket live is just how disciplined and focused teams are in the field. For each ball they need to be ready not just to catch but to save runs and minimise the chances of fumbles or drops, thinking about at what angle to sprint to cut off the ball best, so they're living every ball as it comes out of the bowler's hand.

Ultimately, that's probably a better way to play the game for their own benefit too, a way of breaking down hours into the field into discrete chunks that they can apply themselves to and tick off.

[elguapo4]

In a cycle race,if you're in a breakaway, and get told by your team not to help with it,I suppose you can drift along a bit.

Otherwise, Paul Pogba's Manchester United career is the answer to this question.

[hobbes]

The narrative you often hear about such players is that concentration is crucial, so that if something unexpected happens they can instantly and decisively react in the right way. For instance, I would think for a keeper it's really important to have a sense of exactly where you are in the goalmouth at all times, so your footwork can be most effective. The trick I reckon is finding ways to keep aware of this and cogniscent of what's going on, even if your team is launching its 20th attack in the first half

I wonder if that's why Liverpool spend a lot of time when they're on the ball, passing it around the keeper, centre back, defensive midfielder. They're the 4 players that need to be most alert and comfortable in the event of a sudden change of direction, so keeping them "in the game" as it were, might help concentration levels. One of those marginal gains types of thing.

[Mumpo]

It's not really a sport, but darts, surely. Most of the time you're flinging your arrows at the same spot and you've got plenty of time to do any complicated maths. You don't need to be tactically aware - there's never a choice of shots to be made that's dependent on what your opponent has just done, unlike other turn-based sports such as bowls or snooker. You're never going to miss a trick.

[Simon G]

Knowing what you're on at all times is extremely important though.

For example, just now I was on 207 and hit a S1 and S20. Instinct is to throw for a T20, but as I was aware of what I was on after hitting those two I threw for a T18 and hit a S18. This left me 170 which is a finish. Had I thrown for a T20 and hit a S20 then I would have been left on 168 which is not a 3 dart finish.

As it happened, I missed the 170 finish, but I at least had the opportunity.

[1974ddr]

I think the examples given so far, such as a goalkeeper in a dominant side, are 180 degrees wrong. These situations, where action might spring suddenly with long periods of inactivity, are where concentration is the most important, not the least. Competitors in such situations have to stay focused on the situation so they are ready to perform at sudden notice...

For me the ones requiring the least concentration is anything that involves constant, instinctive action. Ones where the situation happens quicker than thought and response can possibly analysis, where instead the reactions are based on reflexes trained by years of practice (the kinesthetic sense). This can be very physical, but it isn't all that mental - the kinesthetic sense happens without sensory or mental input.

Brings to mind the celebrated England - Poland match in 1973: Shilton, with almost nothing to do through the match, dives over practically the only shot he has to save, while Tomaszewski saves, blocks, or is struck by shot after shot at the other end and only concedes from a penalty.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

On golf, in the 2000s decade there was a sudden explosion of South African players winning big events out of nowhere, and it turned out a lot of them had been coached by a particular sports psychologist. The advice he'd given them almost seemed like hypnotism - I think it was Louis Oosthuizen who said that his 'trick' was to focus on absolutely nothing but a little red dot he'd drawn on the back of his left wrist, and just complete his swing thinking about nothing else, and trust the ball would go where it should as he'd practised his swing 10,000 times. I don't know if that counts as "not concentrating", or in fact the complete opposite.

[Janik]

It is concentrating. Highly focus concentrating. But it is not concentrating on what you are doing. It is completely distracting yourself from that.

One thing that sports people who get "in the zone" say is that this can be an out-of-body experience. They are almost floating above their own heads, observing what they are doing rather than controlling their actions. But to get in the zone is something that only comes with immense focus and concentration... then you go so far that you have almost come out the other side. To my knowledge I've only experienced it once - the deciding game of a Squash match game whilst I was at Uni. Afterwards (when I had won) my teammates were saying it was by far the best they had ever seen me play. I couldn't remember a bloody thing about it - my mind was anything but present for the duration of that.

[diggedy derek]

In a cycle race,if you're in a breakaway, and get told by your team not to help with it,I suppose you can drift along a bit.

I wonder if those cyclists need to dig deep into their experiences of being on work experience as a 16 year old, or temping on their university holidays, to really nail that lackadaisical state of providing no meaningful assistance whatsoever.

[diggedy derek]

It is concentrating. Highly focus concentrating. But it is not concentrating on what you are doing. It is completely distracting yourself from that.

One thing that sports people who get "in the zone" say is that this can be an out-of-body experience. They are almost floating above their own heads, observing what they are doing rather than controlling their actions. But to get in the zone is something that only comes with immense focus and concentration... then you go so far that you have almost come out the other side. To my knowledge I've only experienced it once - the deciding game of a Squash match game whilst I was at Uni. Afterwards (when I had won) my teammates were saying it was by far the best they had ever seen me play. I couldn't remember a bloody thing about it - my mind was anything but present for the duration of that.

I did one time I'm sure read something interesting about Steph Curry's training regime, which used some series of lights or something like that, so that the process of shooting (I think) became entirely automatic.

[Kevin S]

Knowing what you're on at all times is extremely important though.

For example, just now I was on 207 and hit a S1 and S20. Instinct is to throw for a T20, but as I was aware of what I was on after hitting those two I threw for a T18 and hit a S18. This left me 170 which is a finish. Had I thrown for a T20 and hit a S20 then I would have been left on 168 which is not a 3 dart finish.

As it happened, I missed the 170 finish, but I at least had the opportunity.

Interestingly, going for the 20s when you are on 186 is the given example on this page of bogey numbers (though it advises you switch to 19s rather than 18s )
https://dartscheckoutassistant.com/2...bogey-numbers/

Edit - oh hang on, you were on 188! So 19s would have left you on a bogey number too. As you were.

[Kevin S]

Actually that page is really interesting and does show the amount of thinking that some darts players must do. I particularly like this passage (and I bet Janik appreciates this thinking too):

So, am I really saying you shouldn’t throw at treble 20 with one dart in hand and 369 remaining? I am. Throw at treble 19. If you hit treble 20 you return to 309. If you hit treble 19 you return to 312. (I think 312 is a better number anyway, but either way it will take you at least six more darts to finish.) If, however, you hit a single 20 you will return to a score of 349, which can’t be taken out in two visits. Hitting a single 19 with that last dart has you returning to 350 which can be taken out with rounds of 180 and 170. Are you going to hit it? Probably not. But the chance of you taking out 349 with six darts is exactly zero. Leave yourself the possibility of something great happening.

[Mumpo]

Impressive as it is, I would in no way say that the arithmetic which needs to be performed during a game of darts requires concentration. You can do it while the other player's up, while you're mooching around at the side enjoying your pint. And besides, a top-level darts pro must know all the permutations by heart.