When an Athlete’s Effort Decreases when Challenges Increase
When an athlete’s effort decreases when challenges increase this means this athlete has an ego goal orientation mindset. Moreover, this ego centric behavior is what sports psychologist call rescinding effort.
Rescinding effort is when an athlete seeks to protect their ego by intentionally not giving their best effort. These athletes do this so they can use not giving their best effort as the excuse for losing. For example, if an athlete gets what they perceive as “too far behind” to comeback, they stop trying. Or, if an athlete realizes he or she has “less ability” than the opponent the athlete reduces their effort.
Athletes typically exhibit this behavior when they only have outcome goals and no process goals. When an athlete only has outcome goals, at the point when that outcome becomes impossible to achieve, ego dominated athletes give up. On the other hand, if a process goal is still available to achieve the athlete still has a reason to push themselves.
Therefore, the best way to help athletes with an ego mindset is to get them to prioritize process goals. Process goals are goals that are completely within the athlete’s control. This means the achievement of a process goal has no dependency on the environment, coaches, teammates, or competitors.
These goals include pre-game and post-game rituals, self-talk mantras, executing a technique to a standard, or demonstrating one or more behaviors consistently. The specifics are obviously unique to the athlete and sport. However, the key for all process goals is to make sure they are meaningful, challenging, and lasting through the event.