How Mindset Affects Performance
I recently read the piece below on exactsports.com, authored by Amanda Ferranti. I shared it here to our blog because I felt she did an amazing job with it. The topic of Mindset, and how it affects performance, was the hot topic for this week:
“As you watch an athlete perform, it is quite clear, they either have what you want or they do not. Although objective for a coach, the experience of an athlete as being talented is subjective. From an athlete’s perspective, the vital question is, “Am I born with talent or can I work to become talented?” In recent years Carol Dweck (2006) has proposed that an athlete’s answer to such a powerful question is his or her mindset towards learning and success. Specifically, mindset is defined as an athlete’s belief about oneself and ones most basic qualities, such as talent, intelligence, and personality.
On the one hand there are athletes who believe that their basic qualities are fixed – as if genetically predetermined. With a fixed mindset athletes think, “I was born talented, therefore I will always have talent.” In this case, practice has no relationship to performance success. Since talent or intelligence is fixed from birth, the predominant concern of these athletes is to prove their basic qualities. Two quick and easy ways of proving oneself is to compare performances to others or seek praise from coaches or professionals.
Other athletes, however, believe that their most basic traits can be fostered through hard work and dedication. Known as a growth mindset, the belief is, “If I practice, I can become more talented.” These athletes assume control of their skill development whereas those with a fixed mindset feel that an external force is in control. At the most basic level, when an athlete feels in control of their performance, they are better able to problem solve and persist through setbacks.
Although all athletes are capable of performance success, why do some achieve more than others? One possible explanation was provided by researchers in the field of neurology who found that mistakes are actually vital to the development of skill circuits (Coyle, 2009). In congruence with these findings, athletes with a growth mindset acknowledge and accept mistakes as part of the developmental process. They find joy in analyzing their errors and working to fix them.
On the contrary, athletes with a fixed mindset make performance judgments in black and white: I did good/bad, I won/lost, I succeeded/failed. If successful, a fixed mindset towards talent is nourished. If unsuccessful, an athlete’s beliefs are contradicted and feelings of failure and disappointment thrive. As a result, when mistakes are encountered for an athlete with a fixed mindset, performance setbacks or walls will be experienced more often.
So why is mindset so important to success in athletics? It's useful to determine an athlete’s motivation to perform. Are they doing this to be a better athlete, or to be praised for being good at something? The theory of mindset offers cues in helping to understand an athlete’s motivation to perform. With a fixed set of beliefs, an athlete is motivated to prove oneself and receive praise. Whereas with a growth mindset, the motivation is to work hard, develop, and persist. These basic motivating factors have a fundamental impact on an athlete’s sport enjoyment and success as well as his or her career longevity.”
I believe that the above attributes can be coached. If you are working with a good coach, they will do their due diligence in understanding you as a person, not just an athlete. When the coach has a deep understanding of the PERSON they are coaching, then they are able to communicate in a way that drives buy-in and accountability from the athlete. On top of that, the coach is able to bring attention to the details of the person around the verbal and physical feedback that the athlete is giving to themselves. Nobody is going to talk to you more than you, so what matters most is the way you are communicating with yourself. What is your mind driving you to say about yourself, and what is your mind driving your body language to say about yourself. These are little things that a good coach can pick up on and work on reversing over time, turning these self sabotaging patterns into more fruitful ones for that person.
If you are working with a coach who does not and cannot recognize archetype characteristics then you, as an athlete, are going to have a much more difficult time reaching your fullest potential (unless you have already fostered a good growth mindset and inner dialogue.) As athletes grow, you can argue that the X’s and O’s of programming are less important than the ability to coach the athlete around what they truly need - and for many, it’s mindset.
If you are unsure about your current coaching experience, or want to hear about how we help athletes develop strong mindsets then shoot us an email, help@conquerathlete.com and set up a free discovery call to hear all about how we can best guide you to your goals.
