Expectations of success
“When warming up for a competition I often catch myself looking at my opponents, noticing how confident and relaxed they are. I know they are good and start wondering whether I belong here."
Does the above quote resonate with you? It is fairly common for an athlete to experience feelings of intimidation at some stage throughout their career. It’s perhaps more likely to occur earlier in ones career or when progressing to higher levels of competition, but it can happen at anytime.
We evaluate our opponents
As human beings, we have a natural tendency to compare ourselves to others in social situations. In sport, this is evident when we 'eye up' the opposition, but in doing so, we can at times become intimidated by our opponent/s. Seeing your opponent/s display positive body language, can make you feel small, inferior, and defeated before you even start.
There is a considerable amount of evidence that shows a competitor's body language will influence how you perceive them, and conversely your body language will influence how your competitor perceives you. This interaction is super important within a sporting context as it could have an impact on the outcome of an event.
Studies conducted in sports such as tennis, table-tennis, baseball, and football have established the body language displayed by an athlete before a match can influence your ratings of their ability and expectations of success. Athletes who display positive body language are perceived as more assertive, aggressive, competitive, experienced, confident, positive, and relaxed compared to athletes who display negative body language.
What you wear is important too!
A study completed by Buscombe, Greenlees, Holder, Thelwell, and Rimmer (2006) asked participants (who were experienced tennis players) to view video recordings of tennis players warming up before a match. The video footage included the player entering the court, walking to his seat, getting his racket out of his bag, going to the back of the court to do some stretching, and then removing his tracksuit before playing seven rallies. The researchers created four different combinations of warm-up footage, where the tennis player exhibited one of the following:
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positive body language wearing tennis style clothing
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positive body language wearing general sportswear
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negative body language wearing tennis style clothing
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negative body language wearing general sportswear
The same player and playing footage was used in each video (e.g. the rallies included the same number of winning shots and unforced errors). The only difference was in the preparation (warm-up) footage of the player.
Participants were asked what they thought of the players ability (e.g., technique, speed, movement, and power), and whether they thought they would be able to beat them. Any difference in the participants ratings would be a result of the tennis player's display of body language and attire.
The results showed that participants rated the ability of tennis players higher when they were:
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wearing general sportswear and displaying positive body language, compared to when displaying negative body language wearing tennis style or general sportswear.
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wearing tennis style clothing and displaying positive body language, compared to when displaying negative body language and wearing general sportswear.
The participants also reported that they felt more confident of defeating a player who displayed negative body language compared to when they displayed positive body language.
The moral of the story
As soon as you set foot on competition soil, you have the ability to alter the expectations of your opponents, and potentially alter the outcome of the event. The game starts before the ‘whistle’ is even blown.
Your expectations can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. I.e., the expectancy that your competitor is better than you, can lead you to think and behave in a way that means they will in fact perform better than you. Therefore, it would be wise to utilise any psychological advantage you have on offer, and in this instance, choosing to display positive body language from the outset of an event may give you a competitive edge!
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