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For top athletes, it’s not just skills and athleticism that count. Very often, mind takes precedence over matter. Psychology is now seen as increasingly essential to victory. In elite sport, the difference between success and failure often lies in the smallest of margins.
The annual boat race between the universities of Oxford and Cambridge is one of the oldest and most prestigious events in the sporting calendar. For the competitors, it's 20 minutes of pure pain but also pure pressure. How rowers deal with this intense pressure can mean the difference between glory and failure.
The Cambridge women's team have won the last two races and this woman has been one of the secrets to their success. Sports psychologist Helen Davis worked on specific techniques to help the team through the most mentally taxing moments of the race. As training for the 2019 race intensifies, just trying to keep up with your teammates is mentally exhausting.
Understanding what causes athletes to cope or panic at these crucial moments is an ever-growing obsession in professional sports – it's the multi-billion dollar question that sports psychologists are constantly trying to answer. Dr Jamie Barker teaches at Loughborough, the world's leading sports science university, in Great Britain. In 2013, Jamie helped design a cardiovascular test. He compared the physiological reactions of athletes who thrive in a high-pressure situation with those who fail. A group of aspiring professional cricketers were given a specific goal. The cricketers were warned that their results would be made public and would decide who would make the team and who would not. Nearly half of the players passed the six-point test and scored points, and most of them entered what psychologists call a challenge state. More than half of the batsman found himself on a stickier wicket and failed to make the runs, they mostly entered what is called the threat state. Jamie uses a mental visualization technique that sports psychologists have used with various professional teams. Athletes are asked for a picture on a scale: on one side are their demands, the obstacles to success. They are taught to tip the balance in the other direction, toward their resources, the attributes that they possess that can help them.
Sports psychology is sometimes criticized as fake science, but many major sports teams and figures now use psychologists and it is increasingly recognized that it improves performance. In sport, as in the world beyond, a mental advantage can lead to victory.
In elite sport, the difference between winning and losing often depends on the smallest of margins. As coaches, teams and athletes work harder to achieve victory, this series reveals the latest innovative approaches they hope will keep them ahead of the curve. From data to design, science to psychology, discover what it takes to find the edge.
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