The Role of Faith In Sport
Summary
We live in a world that values winning above just about everything else. In Chapter One I described some of the factors that are acting to increase the pressure that athletes are feeling to win, and at the same time, decreasing the faith, self-confidence, or trust they have in their ability to accomplish that goal.
Copy of Videos included in the the book \’The Role of Faith in Sport\’, by Robert M. Nideffer
Technology and the breakdown in global boundaries have resulted in a leveling of the playing field, and in dramatic increase in the number of competitors. These changes have resulted in athletes having to dramatically increase the amount of time and energy and personal resources that they have to invest in themselves in order to be competitive. Young athletes are specializing in a particular sports earlier than ever before. They are putting in more time in the weight room, and on the practice field than ever before.
The risks and the rewards have increased dramatically. With respect to rewards, between 1973 and 1983 top ranked tennis player Bjorn Borg won $3.65 million dollars in prize money. Between 2003 and 2016, Novak Djokovic won more than $100 million dollars in prize money. Also, consider the changes in the highest baseball salary paid over the years: In 1930, Babe Ruth made $80,000; in 1950, Joe DiMaggio made $100,000; in 1970, Willie Mays made $135,000; in 1990, Robin Yount made $3,200,000; in 2010, Alex Rodriguez made $33,000,000. As to risks, athletes have to push themselves harder than ever, dramatically increasing the likelihood of career ending injuries. In the process, there may be illegal use of performance enhancing substances to facilitate recovery and increase level of performance. In addition, the use of pain medications to deal with the consequences of the abuse of their bodies has dramatically increased.
Today, there is more fan involvement in competitive sports than every before, and athletes are subject to the verbal and sometimes physical abuse from those fans. Also the media can be absolutely brutal and within the competition itself, trash talk and “psych outs” are the rule rather than the exception. So you begin to get a sense for the pressure competitive athletes have to cope with today.
All of the factors mentioned impact not just the athlete, but also all of the individuals the athlete relies on, including family members, friends, and coaches. All of that pressure makes it difficult for the athlete to maintain trust or faith even in those who are most important to him or her. Those are the pressures that erode and/or make it difficult for athletes to develop faith or confidence in themselves and their abilities. Those are the pressures that lead to the downward performance spiral that athletes often refer to as “choking.”
Chapters Two and Three provide you with a picture of the full spectrum of performance, from the downward performance spiral referred to as choking to the transcendent experience of being “in the zone” (chapter three). In Chapter Two I describe how the emotional responses to pressure affect both the mental and physical performance of athletes. On the mental side, the athlete’s focus of concentration narrows and thus interferes with the ability to anticipate and to see everything that is occurring. Decision-making and judgment are compromised because the athlete lacks some of the information needed to make his or her decisions. On the physical side, there are changes in respiration rate and muscle tension that have a negative impact on fine motor coordination and timing, while increasing effort and fatigue. It is the interaction between the mental and physical changes that creates a feedback loop, which results in “choking.” Contrast that with what happens when athletes perform out of their love for the game and the joy that comes with the process (as opposed to the outcome) of competing.
When an athlete becomes so caught up in the joy of performing that he or she loses all sense of self, that athlete enters “the zone.” Gone are concerns about the outcome of the performance, and athlete loses awareness of the past and has no thoughts about the future. Instead, the athlete is “living in the moment.” Mind and body are fully integrated, and there is no need on the athlete’s part for any conscious adjustment or intervention. Everything happens automatically, effortlessly, and the athlete has a feeling of being in complete control, anticipating everything before it happens, without any effort being expended at all. To enter that space, the athlete needs a bit of luck, but he or she also needs to be able to let go of all of the distractions, worries, and concerns associated with anticipated outcomes of the competition.
Chapter Four deals with the role that faith plays as a mediator of performance. Faith, trust or confidence is a measure of the extent to which an athlete actually believes that he or she can achieve a desired outcome. The greater the faith the athlete has, the easier it is to let go of distractions and to control the negative emotions that interfere with performance. Thus, it’s more likely that the athlete will be able to enter the zone. On the other hand, the less faith, confidence or trust the athlete has, the greater the likelihood of distractions and negative feelings, and the more likely the athlete is to “choke.”
In Chapter Four I make three important points. The first is that faith, in contrast to what some believe, is based on data or evidence that supports it. The more convincing the evidence to the athlete, both logically and rationally (objectively) as well as emotionally (subjectively), the stronger the faith, the better the performance, and the quicker the athlete recovers from adversity. Second, because of all of the pressures mentioned in Chapter One, the faith an athlete has in his or her ability to win is not as strong as we would like it to be the vast majority of the time. The data simply isn’t there to support the kind of faith required to let go of distractions and control emotions well enough to get into the zone. Third, in the absences of sufficient supportive data, athletes need to redefine their goals to avoid choking and to increase the likelihood that they will perform up to their potential. They do that by shifting from the goal of winning to a goal that focuses on controlling the processes that determine how well they perform. They shift, for example, to making the ability to let go of distractions and/or to control emotions more important than winning. Emphasis is on controlling what they can control (e.g., their own thoughts and feelings), rather than on something they aren’t in complete control of (e.g., winning).
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