Sports and Performance Psychologists have repeatedly found that the key difference between winning and losing in sports, or a good versus a bad performance, “is more psychological rather than physical” (Hodge, 2004).
While physical skills and basic coordination are a must in intricate and quick changing contexts, winning often depends on how an athlete processes information as their brain sees, interprets and responds to occurrences – all before it becomes conscious thought!
Accept me, reject me, but this is me.
Personality is a common enough word. We speak of nice or strong personalities when describing people – especially our sporting heroes. And Personality Plus is something we’d all like to have. But none of these everyday uses of the word captures the psychological concept of personality.
Top Baseball players will hit, catch and throw far better than the average Joe, but these skills don't just come from a superior set of physical attributes. Woven into the fabric these exceptional skills are underlying cognitive mosaics, supplementing a player’s physical prowess.
Baseball is 90 percent mental; the other half is physical.
- Yogi Berra
Elite players must have that rare capacity to completely coordinate their physical and mental processing skills seamlessly.
