10/09/2022
Her var et innlegg som fikk meg til å tenke og reflektere. Hvordan formulerer du deg overfor spillerne dine? Kanskje dette var en tanke verdt? 😉👍
“I must play perfectly this weekend...we must win and I must perform at my best to make it happen. It’s such a big game and it will be a disaster if we’re not successful...”
Or...
“I’d like to play well this weekend...it’s an important game for us and an opportunity to test ourselves and put into practice what we’ve been working on in training. We’ll strive to perform well as individuals and as team mates, and it will be great if we win, but it won’t be the end of the world if we don’t win...”
The first statement feels so right for elite sport doesn’t it. That passion! That desire! That urge to put it all on the line.
It feels like competitiveness should live at the end traits...at the extremities of language...within a bubble of physiological intensity that can only be accessed with an all-or-nothing gung ho attitude.
And for some perhaps it does. Perhaps, for a few, this type of extreme language works to heighten performance arousal and to deliver a sense of performance readiness.
For a few...
But for many, occupying this extreme position simply de-serves their capacity to high perform consistently under pressure. It simply de-serves their capacity to go and execute what they’ve been working so hard on in their training and practice.
And I’d also like to pose...is it the safest? Is it the healthiest? And does everyone HAVE to put themselves into some warrior-like trance to compete...to high perform under pressure?
I don’t think so...and I’m not so sure!
I’d like to propose that the second statement at the top of the page may hold the power. It may hold the kind of language that entices the type of mental flexibility required for the demands of competitive sport.
It’s not a soft statement...it’s not a soft approach...it’s an intelligent, sophisticated approach that helps players meet the challenges awaiting them on the pitch, the field, the court or the course.
-it can help tone down the volume of anxiety going into a game of significance
-it can evoke a challenge state rather than threat state (an opportunity, not a threat!)
-it can encourage approach behaviour rather than avoidant behaviour as a consequence of a less fearful narrative
-it lays down a narrative that can help a player play with greater mental flexibility during the game itself - rather than being embroiled in ‘must-win’, a ‘strive-to-win’ philosophy can promote maintenance of high performance behaviour “even if we’re losing and look like we will lose!”
-it can offer an emotional insurance policy post game. An extreme ‘win-at-all-cost” approach can invoke strong negative emotions experienced after the game that are hard to shift. A less extreme, flexible narrative can dampen negative emotion and may even serve to heighten positive emotion (maybe!)
It’s scary though, right? It goes against, perhaps, what feels like over a century of ‘how we do sports performance’...’how we do competitiveness’.
Be brave with your players. Try this out. Abolish extreme language!