How Can A.J. Storr Have a Breakout Season? An Analysis of Attention and Concentration in Sport
By Jessica Maes
The 2023-24 college basketball season begins on November 6. In the meantime, many programs conduct an intersquad scrimmage to serve as a practice in front of an audience for players, an affordable and family friendly activity for fans, and a sneak peek for fans, media, and opponents alike. The University of Wisconsin Men’s basketball program’s annual Red-White Scrimmage took place last week and while veteran players like Tyler Wahl, Chucky Hepburn, and Conner Essegian did not disappoint, they also didn’t provide any surprises. Instead, it was sophomore A.J. Storr who stood out in unexpected ways. On a team of 18 highly recruited, high performing athletes, what determines who may be the breakout star of the season? An analysis of attention and concentration may begin to suggest ways that Storr and his teammates can continue to excel under pressure.
Attention and Concentration in Sport
Storr is an underclassman collegiate athlete so while he currently credits his success to confidence almost exclusively, his coach, Greg Gard is quick to mention that Storr still has a lot to learn to become a consistent and well-rounded player and possibly make his way to the starting lineup this season (Worgull, 2023). One of the things the coaching staff at the University of Wisconsin will no doubt work with Storr on this season and beyond is attention control training.
Whether Storr realizes it or not, the pace and level of competition of Division 1 basketball will be faster and higher than he’s accustomed to. While selective attention – the ability to block out distractions – is important on the basketball court, attentional narrowing – the ability to quickly change focus from narrow to broad over and over to effectively act and react in a situation – will be equally as important (Cox, 2012). If Storr hasn’t been overly challenged at lower levels of competition (high school and collegiate practice squad), his attentional focus also likely hasn’t been challenged much, allowing him to increase and rely on his confidence.
One way that the program could help Storr grow as an athlete would be to administer Nideffer’s Test of Attentional and Interpersonal Style (TAIS). Nideffer’s TAIS is a widely accepted model for measuring attention and concentration (Cox, 2012). The model illustrates four quadrants of the width and direction of attentional focus: broad/external, broad/internal, narrow/external, and narrow/internal. While Storr’s performance on the court has been seemingly exclusively external/narrow – he’s already a fierce defender and takes and makes shots from just about anywhere on the court – the assessment tool would identify if heavy reliance on one quadrant is in fact the case and offer a baseline so that Storr and the coaching staff can work together to train for the ability to shift from quadrant to quadrant throughout a game as needed and when appropriate.
A Study of Attention and Concentration
Interestingly, a study was conducted in 1990 to potentially create a basketball-specific version of Nideffer’s TAIS called the Basketball Concentration Survey (BCS). One critique of Nideffer’s TAIS from Van Schoyck & Grasha (1981, as cited in Bergandi, Shryock, & Titus, 1990) is that although it can discriminate between broad and narrow attentional ability, it cannot discriminate along the internal-external dimension. A sport-specific version of TAIS already existed for golf and tennis, and the researchers wanted to see if the same could be true for basketball. Forty-three male and female collegiate basketball players participated in an assessment similar to TAIS (less questions and minor changes to wording to make questions basketball-specific). Overall, the researchers felt the BCS did a better job at accounting for the internal-external dimension and could offer coaches and trainers more practical data to work with as they helped their athlete’s train to move through the quadrants.
Conclusion
This path is still unwritten for A.J. Storr’s collegiate basketball career, but he is already displaying signs that the future is bright for both him and the entire men’s basketball program at the University of Wisconsin. The fact that coach Gard recognizes not only Storr’s talent in the here and now but also the room for improvement is an indicator that Storr is in an environment where he can continue to move in the right direction for his development as a high performing athlete in the basketball domain.
References
Bergandi, T. A., Shryock, M. G., & Titus, T. G. (1990). The Basketball Concentration Survey: Preliminary Development and Validation. The Sport Psychologist. https://ezproxy.uwgb.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,uid&db=psyh&AN=1990-29820-001&site=ehost-live&scope=site
Cox, R. H. (2012). Sport Psychology Concepts and Applications (7th ed.). McGraw-Hill.
Worgull, B. (2023, October 15). A.J. Storr Shows He Could Be Wisconsin’s Missing Piece. Rivals. Retrieved October 16, 2023, from https://wisconsin.rivals.com/news/a-j-storr-shows-he-could-be-wisconsin-s-missing-piece
Jessica is a first-year master’s student in the Sport, Exercise, & Performance Psychology program at the University of Wisconsin – Green Bay. She earned a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Wisconsin – Parkside and is currently a Writing Tutor at The Learning Center at UWGB. She is also certified as a grant writer from the University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire and from Learn Grant Writing. Connect with Jessica on LinkedIn.
