‘You have to applaud the USA. They are a step above everyone else. The USA does not apologise for wanting to be the best and they have that winning mentality that everyone needs to get. They show up on the biggest occasions. It is up to the rest of Europe to close the gap.’ – Alex Scott[1]
In winning and retaining the Women’s Football World Cup in France on the 5th July the United States team met not only their own expectations but also those of many US journalists and others who had predicted before the tournament had begun that the US team would win.
This tournament was one where the England team had turned up with the expectancy of going one further than before by making the final and winning. The England team like other teams along with many journalists and pundits, did not agree that the US would win thinking that they could be caught this time around. However, they had not reckoned on the unwavering belief that Jill Ellis, their English born coach, had built in the team that they would lift the trophy.
Whilst the expectancy of winning was fulfilled by the US team it was not for the England women who finished fourth, an outcome their coach, Phil Neville, in an interview was clearly frustrated with: "We came to this tournament to win gold. Throughout my life, winning is all that matters - not finishing second, third or fourth. My players feel exactly the same way as me on this matter.” Neville was to conclude that: “What it leaves us with is that we have another 15-20% to go. We have to come back in four years and be better."[2]
What Neville was referring to in his ’15-20%’ he did not quantify but no doubt it is the ‘…winning mentality that everyone needs to get’ and the capability to deliver it, for as Alex Scott points out of the US team: ‘…show up on the biggest occasions.’
Expectancy is vital to motivation but delivering under pressure is about matching expectancy with the corresponding level of self-belief. Here is the challenge: Too often the level of expectation, both internal and external, can rise to a level that far exceeds the level of belief or under pressure drops under the increasing pressure of high expectancy: There is a gap.
Let’s wind 6 days forward to the Ladies final at Wimbledon 2019 on the 13th July where the 23-time Grand Slam winner, Serena Williams, was going for her eighth Wimbledon title against Simona Halep, who was seeking her first Wimbledon title to add to her one French Open title. From the moment the semi-final results had revealed the finalists, the World’s press, tennis pundits, and bookies had installed Williams as the favourite, for not just the title but also to equal the record number of Grand Slam wins.
Williams in stepping up to serve to open the Women’s final looked pallid and edgy subsequently losing her service and the game. In the next game Halep held her serve whilst Williams in the third game again lost her serve. In those first three games Williams looked listless, edgy, and wooden and at love-three down went to her chair, took up a towel and held it open over her lap staring downwards into her lap with an expressionless face. John McEnroe commentating on BBC TV made an insightful observation: ‘I wonder what ghosts she is looking at’, for indeed she looked haunted by self-doubt.
Williams went on to win just 4 games in the match that ran away from her in fifty-five minutes during which she made twenty-six unforced errors to her opponents three in just sixteen sets. Whatever Halep perceived she stuck ruthlessly to her winning game plan.
Had Williams, as great a champion as she is, fallen into the trap of a restless night invaded by Polar Thinking?
Two-option Polar Thinking is an internal involuntary process of analysis that filters potential outcomes into two possibilities: in Williams’ case win or lose/victory or defeat. Polar Thinking can, and does, impact not just sport but many other situations in life such as: life or death; right and wrong; all or nothing; thin or fat; me or you; us or them; smart or stupid; my way or your way; and so the list can go on.
For some people Polar Thinking routinely occurs while for others it happens selectively, particularly in situations where the stakes are high and where it can do the most damage such as a Wimbledon final or in stepping up to take a penalty at football.
The pressure of expectancy is a fertile environment for Polar Thinking especially where the Inner-Critic (see blog ‘The Inner Critic and a Change of Mindset’, 17th April, 2017) is feeding negative messages that undermine self-belief such as: ‘you are not good enough’; ‘you won’t make this’; ‘you’ve not beaten them before’; ‘they didn’t buy off you last time’; 'you made a mess of that last presentation'; and many other automatic negative thoughts that can erode your self-belief over all aspects of life.
None of us are immune to Polar Thinking and indeed data from the ‘Beliefs and Attitudes Mindset Questionnaire’©[3] of the last running one hundred people to complete it reveals that the highest self-reported construct of the eight is that of self-expectancy - people are optimistic - with the lowest scoring being self-belief – people are critical of themselves. Note that significantly there is a gap.
The London Underground warning on many platform edges to ‘Mind the Gap’ is a safety warning that we can similarly use to warn ourselves of the dangers of rising expectancy and its potential impact on self-belief.
[1] Alex Scott is a former England player and was speaking to Tom Gary reporting on BBC Sport, (2019). ‘USA win Women’s World Cup 2019: Can Americans be caught by Europe’s Elite’ www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/48903746, 7th July, 2019
[2] BBC Sports (2019) ‘Third place paly-off a nonsense game’ www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/48896767, 7th July, 2019
[3] Statistics from the ‘Beliefs and Attitudes Mindset Questionnaire’© July 2019