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Self-discipline and impulse control may be dispositional characteristics associated with how athletes engage in practice and avert conditions that threaten their sport commitment. SC dispositions may relate to practice amounts differently in juniors and seniors, depending on the requirements for self-regulation in a practice context.

The purpose of this study was to qualitatively explore the attentional focus experienced by elite soccer players in different soccer positions and performance tasks of both closed and open skills. No previous studies have explored elite soccer players' attentional skills from a naturalistic and qualitative perspective in such detail. Data collection consisted of individual semistructured interviews with eight highly elite Brazilian soccer players from five main soccer positions, namely goalkeeper, defender, wing, midfielder, and forward. Important themes were positive thinking, performing on autopilot, and relying on peripheral vision. For example, thematic analysis indicated that in tasks where there may be an advantage in disguising one's intentions (e.g., penalty kick), relying on peripheral vision was essential. Early mistakes were among the main sources of distractions; thus, players reported beginning with easy plays as a strategy to prevent distractions. Implications for applied sport psychology were drawn and future studies recommended.

Two hallmark criteria are commonly used to determine whether a variable of interest has an impact on sport expertise development: (a) discrimination of performance or skill levels and (b) association with time spent in deliberate practice activities. Our opinion is that there has been warranted criticism of the deliberate practice framework and greater methodological rigour will invigorate survey research in this area. In this paper, we aimed to provide critical perspectives on self-report methods previously used to assess group discrimination and to measure deliberate practice in survey-based work in the context of sport expertise as well as to illustrate steps that could be taken to improve confidence in the validity and reliability of these measures. First, we focus on challenges discriminating between multiple, progressively skilled groups of athletes and outline two strategies: one aimed at improving the validity of skill grouping using standardized performance measures, and another illustrating how researchers can assess variability within skill levels. Second, we highlight challenges in measuring deliberate practice activities and propose a funnel method of narrowing athletes’ estimates from general sport activity to highly individualized, purposeful practice. We argue more attention is needed on the development of self-report methods and measurements to reliably and validly assess sport expertise development.