Some athletes just seem to play into the underdog narrative perfectly, but why is this? We spoke to a sports psychologist to ask what traits help underdog athletes upset the odds and write their names into sporting folklore.
Alice Pinion is a sports mind coach who works one-to-one with professionals from a range of sports. When dealing with underdog athletes, she stresses that there are a few essential characteristics that either come naturally or must be worked on to make sure that an athlete or team is best prepared for a giant-killing.
Being open-minded
“The main thing that allows someone who’s really junior or lower ranked to compete well with someone who is higher ranked isn’t arrogance but feeling as if they don’t have any pressure. Nobody expects them to win, so they haven’t got the normal pressure that their opponent will be feeling.
“If they are open-minded and think, ‘Hey, I’m going to enjoy the experience and see what I can do,’ they’re going to be technically and physically more relaxed.
“The more relaxed that person is, the more likely they are to produce a good performance on the day. A good performance on the day could catch out a stronger opponent because they’re having a bad day or going through converse psychology, which is essentially the thought of ‘I would look like a complete t**t if I lose to this person.”
Self-belief
“Self-belief alone can change an outcome. Absolutely. If you don’t believe it, you can’t see it. In sport, especially, seeing something in your mind is a hugely important step towards actually achieving it. If you can perceive it, you can believe it. If you can believe it, then you can achieve it.
If you are the underdog and you believe that you have a chance of winning, then you can. The key point is if you believe you can win, you always have a chance of winning that day. If you believe you will lose and get psyched out by the dominance of your opponent, you will almost always lose because your body and mind will behave the way that you have envisaged it to, so this is where visualisation can be so powerful.
Enjoying yourself
“A good mindset is the best trait for an underdog athlete. A happy sports person is a good sports person. If it’s all a bit of fun, and bizarrely, if you don’t take it too seriously, it’s a good first step. When you start thinking that it’s the biggest deal in the world, and you’re never going to get this chance again, and this is your time to prove yourself, then you’ll only pile unnecessary pressure on yourself. It stops being fun, and if it stops being fun, you perform badly.”
Staying relaxed rather than being tense
“A lot of the work that I do involves trying to prevent athletes from tightening up. You want someone’s practice performance to match game day. In accuracy sports like shooting, archery, snooker, or darts, it’s obvious that it is less about the athletic power. Even in speed and endurance sports, you lose power, strength, and agility if you tighten up. When you’re not relaxed, you tighten up, and if you tighten up, you will perform badly.”
Alice Pinion BSc (Hon’s) is an experienced sports mind coach working with professional and amateur sportspeople from all sports, ages, and levels, from those up-and-coming in their discipline to national and world champions and Olympians. A multi-qualified therapist and sports mind coach, she’s worked successfully for over 20 years with individuals and coaches to overcome mental hurdles to achieve true potential in both sport and life. In recent years Alice has been working specifically with world-class pro and Elite1 darts players to achieve their true potential. Alice is the author of The Essential Sporting Mind Toolkit and an ultramarathon open-water swimmer.
Contact and Website: alicepinion@gmail.com Tel: 07906 059022www.headfirstsportsperformance.co.uk
