We all know that in competitive sport, small advantages matter.
The difference between winning and losing can be milliseconds, or millimeters. Here
are some brain hacks that surprisingly give you that advantage. You should definitely read this.
Eccentric methods that makes you better at Sports
By Vidit Gujrathi
SINGING.
A star player misses a critical win; a brilliant
student fails to ace a test; a savvy salesperson blows a key presentation. Each
of these people has suffered the same bump in mental processing: They have just
choked under pressure. This is 'Paralysis by analysis'
Arnold Palmer, known for playing well in tight spots
and being untouchable once ahead, choked the 1966 U.S. Open twice: He blew a
5-stroke lead in the last four holes of regulation, and in the playoff the next
day, he blew 6 strokes in the final eight holes, losing the tournament.
Choking is suboptimal performance, not just poor
performance. It's a performance that is inferior to what you can do and have
done in the past and occurs when you feel pressure to get everything
right," said Beilock, an associate professor in psychology.
But it
turns out that the solution to all of it can be as simple as singing.
Research
indicates that doing anything that your brain also controls (singing or
humming) preoccupies your mind from the task at hand and will keep those
pathways from becoming over active. This in turn keeps your working memory from
shutting down and prevents you from choking. It's essentially just distracting
your conscious mind long enough that your muscle memory can finish the job.
WEARING RED
British
anthropologists Russell Hill and Robert studied the results of the 2004 Olympics (at
Athens) and found that the team or
person wearing red was more likely to win in close matches -- and that's across
a huge variety of team and individual sports, like soccer, tae kwon do and
wrestling.
"Where there was a large point
difference—presumably because one contestant was far superior to the
other—color had no effect on the outcome," "Where there was a small point
difference, the effect of color was sufficient to tip the balance -Barton
This sounds totally absurd,but it is true especially
when studies and heavy statistics are presented.
The researchers had a straightforward explanation
for why wearing red makes a difference. Across the animal kingdom, red
colouration is associated with male dominance, signalling aggression and danger
to others. The vividness of the red displayed by individuals of various species
has been shown to relate to the amount of the hormone testosterone they have in
the bodies, which also correlates with their physical heath and eventual
breeding sucess. The researchers claimed that humans too are subject to this "red = dominance" effect, and
so, for combat sports, the athlete wearing red had a psychological advantage.
*Note to Sports shops! Stock up red!
CHEERING
Behaviour is contagious. If you see someone yawn or
smile, it's often a matter of seconds before you do the same yourself. This
copying behaviour also turns out to work on the soccer pitch. "The more
convincingly someone celebrates their success with their teammates, the greater
the chances that team will win," according to Dr. Gert-Jan Pepping, Sport
Scientist and lecturer in Human Movement Sciences at the University of
Groningen.
No matter
how many times the NFL calls it unsportsmanlike and throws fines and penalty
flags at it, excessive celebration after scoring might actually help a team
win. And it's true in just about every sport. A study found that players who
overtly celebrated with their teammates -- particularly during an important
game were more likely to win!
Pepping and his research group (Moll, Jordet, & Pepping, 2010) studied a large number of penalty shootouts during important soccer matches, but only as long as the score in the shootout was still equal. After every shot at goal, the player was assessed on the degree to which he expressed happiness and pride after scoring.
This revealed that the players who
expressed this clearly, for example by throwing their arms up into the air,
usually belonged to the winning team. "This enthusiastic behaviour
infected the team with a positive attitude. Also important, the opposing team
was made to feel that little bit more insecure."
SPORTS DRINK
Sports
drinks are a huge business -- Gatorade alone makes well over a billion dollars
a year. And the reason so many athletes swear by them is the promise of
increased performance, replacing all those vital nutrients lost during
exercise, just like the ads say.
It turns
out, however, that all that electrolyte and re-hydration technology is nothing
compared to the simple pleasure of having a bunch of sugar in your mouth
The researchers had endurance athletes rinse their mouths with either of two carb-containing drinks, the athletes' exercise performance improved. The same was not true when the athletes were given water flavored with an artificial sweetener.
What's
more, brain scans showed that simply swishing the carbohydrate drinks around
the mouth activated particular areas of the brain associated with pleasure and
reward. Again, the artificially sweetened water did not have the same effects.
Using a
brain imaging technique called fMRI, Chambers and his colleagues found that the
carb drinks sparked activity in brain areas related to both movement control
and pleasure.
The
researchers speculate that the brain activation allowed the athletes to work
harder without feeling like they were.
