A few weeks ago, my daughter, a competitive tennis player, was having a bad tournament. What made it worse is that in almost all of her matches, she was strongly ahead but then let go of the advantage she had built. This pattern of play happened again more recently, albeit in a less competitive setting. My wife asked me if anything could be done to improve her focus. I initially dismissed the question, thinking it was an emotional assessment of our daughter’s slump. Win some, lose some. But then I also spoke to my teenage son, who is also a tennis player. He said that sometimes he’d be winning, and then he completely loses focus. “What do you mean, lose focus?" I asked. I wasn’t sure how you could lose focus when competing. He explained that it’s a real thing - losing focus. Your mind starts to wander. You can’t concentrate. You’re not present, and you even feel it - not being present.
This made me want to look deeper into the topic of focus. I never lack focus in running but my struggles are in a different realm. There are professional endeavors or personal chores where I struggle to focus. There are sometimes entire days when for many hours I experience “brain fog”. Procrastination is one of the outcomes of poor focus.
This topic can be researched from many angles - mental and physical. I decided to look into one specific area - supplements. I compiled the results in this table: