{"id":10283,"date":"2017-10-23T07:03:43","date_gmt":"2017-10-23T07:03:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=10283"},"modified":"2017-10-27T07:07:04","modified_gmt":"2017-10-27T07:07:04","slug":"the-psychology-of-the-clutch-athlete","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/the-psychology-of-the-clutch-athlete\/","title":{"rendered":"The psychology of the clutch athlete"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mark Otten<\/a>, California State University, Northridge<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know. It\u2019s unbelievable. It\u2019s amazing,\u201d said<\/a> Dodgers outfielder Enrique \u201cKik\u00e9\u201d Hernandez after game 5 of the National League Championship Series, when he became the first Dodger in the team\u2019s 134-year history to hit three home runs in a postseason game.<\/p>\n

This should automatically vault Hernandez to a status as one of the greatest Dodgers of all time, right? Up there with Roy Campanella, Duke Snider and Jackie Robinson? <\/p>\n

Well, actually, Hernandez has a lifetime .236 batting average<\/a>. In the 2017 regular season he hit just .217, and in 297 at-bats managed just 11 home runs. On Oct. 19, he hit three in four at-bats.<\/p>\n

It seems like during every playoffs, an unsung hero emerges. For every Madison Bumgarner<\/a>, there\u2019s an actual bum \u2013 a player whose name will never come up in a Hall of Fame debate \u2013 who rises to the moment, and delivers on the game\u2019s biggest stage.<\/p>\n

What state of mind does an athlete need to be in to pull off a clutch performance? Are some players more likely than others to be clutch, or could anyone do it? In my sport psychology lab<\/a> at California State University, Northridge, my students and I have tested these questions in an experimental setting.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s all in the head<\/h2>\n

We define a clutch performance as any better-than-usual performance that occurs under pressure, and our research suggests<\/a> that anyone can be clutch \u2013 provided they\u2019re in the right mental state. <\/p>\n

For example, feeling like you\u2019re in control of the situation \u2013 in sports or anything else \u2013 can help a lot. In our lab, we tested hundreds of basketball free-throw shooters, both novices and experts. After they warmed up, we asked them to take 15 shots while we videotaped them (to simulate pressure). Afterward, we gave them a questionnaire; those who indicated that they had felt in control were the most likely to succeed under pressure.<\/p>\n

In Hernandez\u2019s case, perhaps he expected Cubs pitcher Jose Quintana to throw a low fastball before he hit his first home run. He had read the scouting report, and he knew what to look for. If so, he would have felt like he had a better handle on the situation. He was more in control. <\/p>\n

Confidence also helps. In our study, before it began, we asked the basketball players about their free-throw shooting abilities. Those who expressed the most confidence \u2013 whether they were a novice or an expert \u2013 also tended to be more clutch.<\/p>\n

Once that first home run flew over the fence, Hernandez probably realized that he could hit a home run off the Cubs, and not only that, he could do it under the pressure of a postseason game. That .217 regular season average? Irrelevant. By the time his second home run soared into the stands, he was probably brimming with the confidence of Duke Snider in the 1952 World Series<\/a>.<\/p>\n

So while experience and expertise are helpful, feelings of confidence and control \u2013 which come and go \u2013 also play a big role. The pressure of the playoffs can change everything, with some players, regardless of ability, responding differently than others.<\/p>\n

David Ortiz and\u2026 David Freese?<\/h2>\n

Let\u2019s take a look at some of baseball\u2019s recent postseason hitting stars. Most fans probably remember Red Sox slugger David Ortiz\u2019s post-season heroics<\/a>. <\/p>\n

But then there are lesser-known post-season stars like Cody Ross and Edgar Renteria (2010 Giants). In 2011 for the Cardinals, it was David Freese; in 2016, the Cubs\u2019 Ben Zobrist nabbed the World Series MVP award. For fans of these teams, these guys will always be remembered. For anyone else, their names might not ring a bell.<\/p>\n

Why does it seem like our offensive heroes sometimes seem to come out of nowhere?<\/p>\n

A few years ago, grad student Matthew Barrett<\/a> and I scanned 109 years of baseball statistics<\/a> to try to answer this question. <\/p>\n

\n \"\"
\n San Francisco Giants outfielder Cody Ross celebrates after hitting a home run during the 2010 National League Championship Series against the Philadelphia Phillies.<\/span>
\n Rob Carr\/AP Photo<\/a><\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

To eliminate small samples from biasing our results too much, we set a minimum of 20 postseason at-bats for a player to qualify. For pitchers, we set the minimum at 10 playoff innings pitched in a single postseason. This left us with 1,731 hitters and 835 pitchers to study from across history.<\/p>\n

What did we find? If someone had a good regular season at the plate, he was more likely to perform well in the post-season (measured by batting average; correlation: .17). If a pitcher threw well during the season, it was also more likely that he would have a solid postseason performance. The relationship for pitchers, however, was slightly stronger (measured by ERA<\/a>; correlation: .28). <\/p>\n

The difference between these correlations didn\u2019t blow us away. But the take-home message was clear: it\u2019s likely that a good pitcher will be the same player during the postseason. For hitters, it\u2019s less predictable.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a sport psychology theory<\/a> to back this up. Hitting a baseball, it\u2019s been argued<\/a>, is one of the hardest things to do in all of sports. Pitching \u2013 while by no means easy \u2013 is a bit less reliant on finely timed hand-eye coordination. In our research<\/a> on pressure-induced athletic performance, motor skills like hitting were found to be more susceptible to fluctuations, good or bad.<\/p>\n

During the 2017 Fall Classic, who will be the next Enrique Hernandez? It probably depends on who\u2019s feeling the most confident and in control. It\u2019s also more likely to be a hitter.<\/p>\n

\"TheA star like Astros second baseman Jos\u00e9 Altuve might continue to build off of his successful postseason run. But a lesser-known player \u2013 say, Logan Forsythe<\/a> or Evan Gattis<\/a> \u2013 could be just as likely to break out, and cement himself in post-season lore.<\/p>\n

Mark Otten<\/a>, Associate Professor of Psychology, California State University, Northridge<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

This article was originally published on The Conversation<\/a>. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mark Otten, California State University, Northridge \u201cI don\u2019t know. It\u2019s unbelievable. It\u2019s amazing,\u201d said Dodgers outfielder Enrique \u201cKik\u00e9\u201d Hernandez after game 5 of the National League Championship Series, when he became the first Dodger in the team\u2019s 134-year history to hit three home runs in a postseason game. This should automatically vault Hernandez to a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":10285,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[293,6],"tags":[414,179,3081,3376,3377,3378,228,203,390,1476],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10283"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10283"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10283\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10286,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10283\/revisions\/10286"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}