Did We Just Miss or Did We Nearly Score?

The answer is a matter of mindset.

“If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change the way you think about it.”

— Mary Engelbreit

You’re unlikely to make it through an entire soccer match without seeing the image of a striker on his knees, head in his hands. He’s in dismay at having missed a goal that he ‘should have scored’.

It’s such a prevalent display that they’ve done studies on it.

It’s an emotional game and we want our athletes to show emotion. But could a small psychological twist actually help us make more positive use of those near misses, and quickly turn them into goals scored?

What if, instead of labelling the event as a near miss, we taught our players to describe it as nearly scoring?

Categorizing something as a miss has an avoidance mindset attached to it - we don’t want to miss, so we’ll avoid actions or behaviours or thoughts that might lead to that outcome.

However, when we categorize something as largely complete it has an approach mindset attached to it - we can step into the actions or behaviour or thoughts and aim to create more instances like it.

In general, in elite sport, we want to encourage approach behaviours rather than avoidance behaviours.

It’s likely more helpful for a player’s confidence to believe they’re on the edge of a breakthrough, rather than the unwitting victim of an invisible hand that’s somehow keeping the ball out of the back of the net.

In any sport where being engaged in a psychological fencing match with your opponent is a meaningful part of the game, it’s important to consider the gamesmanship element of your responses as well.

If your team clatters five shots off the post, is it more useful to:

1) Collapse to the turf and cover your face in shame each time.

or…

2) Unnerve your opposition by letting them know that you’ve got their defensive system figured out.

The answer is #2.

We individually and collectively have the ability to change our interpretation of events on the field, and choose to respond differently. This is just one shift in one game, but there are many common reactions embedded in our sports that we can upgrade in order to gain a psychological edge.

So, our challenge to you today is to reframe something for your team that is more helpful than the way things have been done in the past.

Did she just miss, or did she nearly score?

She nearly scored.