Momentum

As an addendum to the chapter on focus, I want to discuss the phenomenon of momentum. Watching high-level volleyball at the national tournament, momentum changes fascinated me. A bad call, a serve into the net or a dominant kill from the other team quickly changed the energy. A five-point swing could happen fast!

As a mental performance coach, through this book and in person, I want to teach athletes, coaches, and teams how to gain, own, and never surrender momentum. I read this:

Finally, we believe that fluctuations in arousal conditions are a primary cause of momentum changes in sport. Arousal conditions constantly fluctuate as athletes respond not only to their external environment but also to the internal environment of their thoughts and appraisals. We believe that changes in momentum occur, in part, because of the ebb and flow of performers’ or teams’ arousal—from facilitative to neutral to debilitative conditions—due to changes in appraisal (Burton & Raedeke, 2008).

Momentum isn’t an unseen force in the universe that needs to be embraced when it arrives and mourned when it leaves. It is the byproduct of how we view things that are or aren’t in our favor. One’s perspective on current experiences drives their level of physical and emotional activation, which creates or kills momentum.

The word appraisal is key. Through the mindfulness lens, this is “assessing the experience as bad.” The appraisal of the bad call, serve into the net, or a dominant kill from the other team starts the momentum in the wrong direction. This momentum shift happens in the individual athlete, the team, and the parents/fans. When something negative happens once, maybe no big deal. When it happens again and again, the athlete appraises the circumstances negatively. Remember, as an athlete, you want to be mindfully aware of the present without assessing as bad. Two bad calls and the appraisal becomes, “Hey, this isn’t fair.” A serve into the net becomes, “What’s wrong with me?” A dominant kill from the other team becomes, “Wow, that girl is scary.” This appraisal creates a negative thought feeling loop. There are emotional, psychological, and physical consequences that degrade performance. The gravitational pull on attention causes focus to leave the present moment and the task at hand. This experience becomes the bricks and mortar for the narrative we create about why we lost, the unfairness of it all, and how “We should have won that one.”

Momentum happens in reverse for the other team. They appraise what is happening positively and as being in their favor. They play off each other’s positive emotions and feel them transfer into physical feelings. They now have the good side of momentum.

There is another factor that amplifies and contributes to a momentum swing. There is a concept called emotional contagion. We have developed a keen ability to sense what others are feeling through observing their actions, body language, and expressions. We are good at reading other people’s negative emotions, primarily anger and fear. Negative emotion is particularly contagious. So not only do we read the states of others, but we also adopt them automatically. Thiswas once a very handy tool for survival, but it isn’t helpful on the field of play. As a part of this automatic process, the brain dedicates most of its processing power to monitoring the temperature of the group. The default mode network scans the horizon for danger and there are not enough resources available to facilitate elite athletic performance. The breakdown in performance contributes to the appraisal of the situation going south. As this negative appraisal of a couple of bad breaks affects one player, it spreads to another and so on down the line until it compromises the entire team.

Behavior changes in people outside the field of play also influence momentum. When the coach escalates their physical or emotional behavior, it sends bad juju into the universe. When an athlete catches the eye of a coach whose forehead vein is bulging, they absorb that emotion. The words, deeds, and facial expressions of parents coming from the sidelines, at team dinners, and in the car, have just as much influence on this automatic process as the ones from teammates and coaches. The temperature of the crowd during a momentum swing has influence too. One-half cheers while the other seethes. This fuels both sides of the swing, respectively. 

Emotional contagion is an automatic process, so it is important as an elite athlete you maintain your direction and mindset to override any reaction to what others are putting off. Remember the first C of mental toughness, control? Use it. Remain influential on the sporting environment. Stick to your routines and your hourglasses of focus. 

I tied the discussion of momentum to the chapter on focus for a simple reason. The solution to the runaway train of momentum is controlling focus. Good focusing skills are an inoculation against a downward spiral. Focus on pre-shot routines, focus on the task at hand, focus on the plan, whatever it may be. Resetting the system from what just happened to what happens now is key. Framing things that aren’t in your favor as one-offs is important (even if several happen in a row), rather than the perception bad things are building against you. The thought, “What will I do now to execute,” keeps the focus forward and disables the performance killing side effects of negative thinking that lead to momentum swings and the downward spiral.