Abstract
Attentional skills are essential for athletic performance (Abernethy, 2001; Orlick, 2008). Nevertheless, little research has been done on the attentional focus of elite soccer players from a naturalistic and qualitative perspective. Therefore, the purposes of this study were to investigate elite soccer players' attentional focus during their best performances, better understand the strategies they use to enter or re-enter optimal attentional states, and explore potential attentional differences according to soccer positions, performance tasks, and game situations. The growing interest in soccer among Canadians provided further justification for this study. Data collection consisted of individual semi-structured interviews with eight elite soccer players from five main soccer positions, namely goalkeeper, defender, wing, midfielder, and forward. Cross-case thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006) indicated positive thinking and pre-performance routines as important sources of optimal focus. Making mistakes and feinting were important perceived causes of distraction. Attentional demands differed according to soccer positions, performance tasks, and game situations. For instance, while self-paced skills (e.g., penalty kick) required focused attention to relatively little stimuli from the kick taker (e.g., on the ball or on the corner of the goal), controlling the ball involved a much complex set of attentional skills with the player needing to quickly scan the field to know the available space and make a decision about the next play considering the teammates and the opponents' positioning. Information processing, sport expertise and attentional systems theoretical frameworks broadly informed the discussion of results. Applied and theoretical implications were drawn and future studies were recommended.Acknowledgments: This work was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) through the Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship (766-2012-0656).