When it comes to one of the key mental tricks of high-performing athletes – here basketball players – there seems to be two ways to go about it. Either you visualize and put your goals out there – or you fear that it will lose its value if you say it out loud.
But which one actually works the best? And why may some choose one over the other?
Serbian NBA player Bogdan Bogdanovic is right now with the national team before the upcoming Eurobasket. The sharp shooter and guard for the L.A. Clippers is a key player, vet and leader on what’s widely regarded as the favorite to win it all.
While he’s preparing to reach one of the biggest achievements in his career next to Nikola Jokic and an incredibly deep and talented roster, he’s not happy about putting words on it.
While his coach has emphasized that they expect nothing less than winning the title, Bogdanovic has been more hesitant to make bigstatements.
“When you share it with somebody, it loses value. Those biggest things, they are happening in silence. We’ll keep it to ourselves,”
he said during preparations for Eurobasket.
Now let’s go to the opposite side of how to handle pressure on the biggest stage. Dallas Mavericks guard Kyrie Irving, who is a famously clutch player, and who has great experience playing under pressure throughout his career, has not been shy about sharing how he uses positive self-talk to motivate himself and visualize success.
Just this previous December, he talked about how defense used to be a weakness for him, and how he’s turned it around to be a strength. It’s based in a way to use visualization and manifesting, called self-talk:
“The inner dialogue I have is I’m one of the best defenders in the world and I have to believe that and I believe that in myself,” he
said.
Back then,
I wrote about how positive self-talk and positive affirmations can create lasting physical changes in the brain. According to
scientific research, it helps reinforce the neural pathways associated with positive thoughts and it can boost your mood and increase your energy-level, which can lead to a significant improvement in your overall cognitive function.
Read more:
Kyrie Irving uses this mental trick to raise his mental game. Here’s why you should too
And according to
experts, visualization should be prioritized over fearing jinxes or that it will lose its value. Overwhelming evidence supports the benefits of visualization for performance enhancement. Because more than change neural pathways, it also helps athletes mentally prepare, reduce anxiety, and improve confidence, making it a more effective strategy than focusing on potential negative outcomes.
An important thing to note, however, is that Bogdanovic’s response may have less to do with fearing jinxes, and be more about what you share with the world and the media, and what you keep to yourself and in the locker room.
But emphasizing that something “loses value” when you speak about it does indicate some kind of fear. When you look at the research, it almost all shows that any kind of fear in high-performance athletes is not where success lies. Rather than focusing on what could go wrong, an athlete should reframe their approach to focus on visualizing everything they want to accomplish, how they want to accomplish it, down to the movements and perfect shooting, as well as how it will feel – and how it will end with a successful result. There’s wide agreement that the more dated fear-based approach only takes you so far. Fear of failure can limit the risks you take, and thereby the results in the end. To be a successful athlete, you have to be able to take risks, and fearing them could hold you back.
An interesting thought to consider here and add to the mix, is whether there may be cultural differences in how players may approach this. Irving’s approach is widespread in the US, with Michael Jordan being the modern day poster child for this kind of the-sky-is-the-limit positive self-talk way of thinking – and talking to the outside world – as an athlete.
Historically even, America has been the land of opportunity. As opposed to the very hierarchical, traditions-bound Europe, in America, the thinking was that everyone had a chance to make it big if they just worked hard enough and believed in the American dream.
In Europe, older ways of thinking may be more prevalent still. The idea that something loses value when you speak about it is very European, a humble and more subtle way to be in the world, but perhaps also not always the best approach in sports.
It is also interesting to note, how this is not something either of the European basketball superstars really have spoken of doing either, as far as I am aware. Luka Doncic always says something like “of course the goal is the gold medal” and “if you don’t believe, you shouldn’t be here”, but that is much more subtle than the big statements of many (American) players, who will
state that they are the “best defender in the world” (Dillon Brooks), yell “I am the best in the world” (
Anthony Edwards) and say they are the “best player in the NBA” (
Jayson Tatum) the year Jokic won his third MVP award. Could you imagine Jokic going out there telling everyone he was the best in the world – even though he actually is?
But in reality, we don’t know what these stars say to themselves and how they talk to their teams. The difference here is how they approach this topic with the media.
And maybe, being more subtle in your outward communication is not a negative thing. It may just depend on your personality type which approach works best for you. In Bogdanovic’s case, it may just be the humble approach from someone who has been so close many times and wants this more than words can express. There is within high-performing athletes a feeling that the magic of something very special could risk evaporating if you speak too much about it in the process. Because, as we know, there’s more to this than scientific research and data.
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