In this ultra competitive, topsy-turvy BCS system, one of the more important psychological phenomenons within the world of sports was highlighted during the 2007 Football season: Playing Not to Lose. What often seems like a safe and sound way to prepare a team for success is more often a recipe for disastrous disappointment. And here's why...
When athletes play NOT TO LOSE there is an underlying fear of that potential loss. In order to battle through and conquer this fear, athletes and teams often turn to thoughts of what they will not do as they prepare for a big game. The NOT TO LOSE strategy often sounds something like this: "DON'T FUMBLE," "DON'T THROW AN INT," "DON'T MISS A TACKLE," and most critical to the strategy, "JUST DON'T LOSE!" How could such preparation become a recipe for a loss?
Simply put, the brain doesn't process the words Do Not in the way that we would like. What happens when I suggest, "Do not think about a Purple Elephant with Black Pokka dots." I said DON'T think about that elephant! What happened was your brain's way of thinking about don't. Your brain pulled up a memory of an elephant, manipulated the color, added the Pokka dots, and finally reminded you NOT to think about that again. The same thing happens when an athlete has thoughts of DON'T LOSE. Their brain creates an image of that loss and then plans not to think about that again. To make matters worse, those thoughts become a form of mental imagery. The result is a week of visualizing JUST (DON'T) LOSE, and who would choose to intentionally practice that?
The impact that this preparation has during the game is a self-fulfilling prophecy of the loss. Athletes who have been practicing thoughts of what they won't do are often on the look out for those plays or problems. Because they have actually been seeing the fumble, interception, or missed tackle in their mental imagery throughout the week they are now more likely to perform to that mistake during the game. Once the error has occurred, that's all the team needs to fulfill the rest of the prophecy... the loss. The spiral downward begins and all the don'ts they have been practicing begin to unravel.
On the other side of the field, the team who has been preparing for NOTHING TO LOSE begins to see the evidence they have been visualizing. They see the fumble, interception, or missed tackle as proof that an upset is in the air. The spiral upward begins and the rest is BCS history.
- Dr. Casey Cooper, Sport Psychologist
www.drcaseycooper.com
