Psychology is an increasingly important part of elite sport. Winning at the highest levels can depend as much on peak-fitness of the mind as the body. Film supported by @DXCTechnology
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for top-level sports people it’s not just skill and athleticism they count. So often, it’s mind over matter. Psychology is now seen as increasingly vital to winning. In elite sport the difference between success and failure is often the finest of margins.
The annual boat race between Oxford and Cambridge universities 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 the rowers cope with that intense pressure can make 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 of their success. Sports psychologist Helen Davis has worked on specific techniques to help the team at the most mentally testing moments in the race. As training for the 2019 race intensifies, just trying to keep up with teammates is mentally grueling.
Understanding what makes athletes cope or panic at those crucial moments is an ever-growing obsession in professional sport – it’s the multi-billion dollar question that sports psychologists are constantly trying to answer. Dr Jamie Barker lectures at the world’s leading sports science university Loughborough in Britain. In 2013 Jamie helped devise a cardiovascular test. It compared the physiological reactions of athletes who thrive in a high-pressure situation with those who flop. A group of aspiring professional cricketers were set a specific target. The cricketers were warned that their results would be made public and would decide who makes the team and who doesn’t. Nearly half the players hit the test for six and scored the runs and most of them went into what psychologists call a challenge state. Over half the batsman found themselves on a stickier wicket and failed to make the runs they mostly entered the so-called threat state. Jamie employs a mental visualization technique that sports psychologists have used with a variety of professional teams. Athletes are asked a picture a set of scales – on one side are their demands, the obstacles to success. They’re taught to tip the balance the other way towards their resources, the attributes they possess that can help them.
Sports psychology is sometimes criticized as a phony science but many major sports teams and personalities now use psychologists and there’s a growing acceptance that this boosts performances. In sports, as in the world beyond, a mental edge can bring a winning one.
In elite sport the difference between winning and losing often hangs on the smallest of margins. As coaches, teams and athletes press ever harder in pursuit of victory, this series reveals the latest innovative approaches they hope will keep them ahead. From data to design, science to psychology, discover what it takes to find the winning edge.
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Video Rating: / 5
I went through a 2nd day in 2 weeks where my eyes would fly in and out with spatial problems. Had a relative that said if I hallucinate enjoy it. Was not hallucinating. Enjoying eyes flying in and out with the spatial problems enjoying it seems to fix the stress. Typically, I would sleep it off. Decided to stay up. Worked alright.
Hup
Today pv shindhu loss match due to confidence and pressure
This is why competition isn't always a great thing.
This is cool – more of these please Economist!
this explains Breshit so much!
Thank you🙏
In japan, challenge status is called zoom zero.
Hello there,, I'm not a native speaker of English,, so could anybody please explain what the meaning of "edge" here is as in the phrase of "winning edge"
Kinda missing the meaning of it
Thx..
Adds up when one is focused on improving one's ability rather than looking over the shoulder
In team sports there is a ceiling to what physicality can bring. Top athletes are all living strict lives and are all in peak shape, especially going into major competition's so the difference is usually either organisation and strategy, psychological or a mix of both.
I follow football, but the reason I'm watching is because of the rugby world cup. I've always been interested in the psychology of the All blacks, unbeatable for two world cups and also the most consistently successful sports team in history. New Zealand also have very successful rowers and so in two high pressure sports the Kiwi's are considered the world's elite.
I've started wondering how much does developmental environment play in this? And how does a country of 4.8 million produce such fine athletes so consistently?. Currently the all blacks have 3 brothers I the squad. Scott, Bauden and Jordie Barrett at points make up for 20% of the starting XI and between them have a better output than a lot of the smaller nations at RWC2019. Bauden is an IRB player of the year winner and I believe to be the single most gifted player I've ever watched. I believe this may be due to upbringing as children, factors that have helped them thrive in pressured environments. Hats off to the parents regardless but it makes you wonder, what was it about life in Taranaki that produced a family of Elite rugby players?
There are ways, sometimes very precise, to help athletes – plus leaders and workers alike – shift from the Threat State to the Challenge State, and thus improve their performance. I'm a PhD in clinical psychology, not sports psychology, and such ways include re-balancing their focus on speed vs accuracy (or productivity vs efficiency) for a given situation.
"Questions in titles that are never going to be explained" – The Economist
Tim Gallwey The Inner Game.
As Billy Jean King says, "Pressure is a privilege".
Just came for AC
The cricketer who's shown to perform poorly looks like Tim Paine. Lol, talk about coincidence!
And still pomps are shite cricket team..
2:07 yes its pressure u put on urself but the question is why are you judging urself and compare urself with others… coz you are using the wrong chamber in ur brain. This girl would hugely benefit from meditation.
Can anybody explain me this shit in hindi language