Sports Psychology (09-22-08)

On Saturday, I had the privilege to watch our LMS Lady Broncos compete in the Felton Junior High Volleyball Tournament. I began my teaching career as an assistant junior high volleyball coach, so I am a little more familiar with both the pressures and rewards of this sport. I know firsthand just how fast things on the court can change, and just how large a role sports psychology has in the quest for victory.

One of the best games I saw on Saturday was our junior varsity playing the Felton junior varsity squad. It was a classic battle of David versus Goliath. I heard repeatedly throughout the day that Felton doesn’t have 7th grade sports. I can’t verify that fact, but it would not surprise me to learn that all four of their teams were comprised entirely of 8th grade girls. I had the opportunity to visit with a former student who recently transferred to Felton, and he informed that his 8th grade class had 180 students, so the thirty or so girls playing for FMS would still represent less than a third of their female 8th grade enrollment. Longfellow, by contrast, can boast of over 90% participation by both our seventh and eighth grade athletes.

But I digress. The Felton girls were taller and seemed more athletic, with powerful overhand serves. There just seemed to be a general air of superiority on the Felton side. This was their court and their tournament after all. How did little LMS stand a chance?

From the outset, though, it became obvious that we more than stood a chance. Somehow, our girls managed to return the blistering serves while our underhanded rainbow serves caused no end of trouble for the Felton goliaths. We played tough defense and won the first game on pure hustle.

Sensing an upset, the Felton girls seemed to wake up. The second game was a different story with intense play on both sides of the net. Suddenly, we were not as good at returning the serves and their tall girls were able to block some our attempted spikes.

The third game began much the same. Our girls looked frazzled and a little out of their depth. Then, something amazing happened. The coach, Kay Mitchell, called a timeout. I don’t what she told the girls, but when they returned to court, their demeanor was visibly changed. Some of the girls were doing the “pretzel”, a conscious discipline technique that Kay teaches her head start kids to use to control anxiety. Others began taking deep breaths and smiling once Kay told them to STAR (smile, take a deep breath and relax).

Suddenly, the concentration that won them the first game returned. The girls found their rhythm and consequently their shots began to find the holes in the Felton defense. As we inched nearer to tying the score, our girls became more poised, communicating and playing together as a team.

Finally, the score was 14-13 in favor of Felton and they had the match point serve (the third game was only played to 15 with the winner having to win by 2). We won the point, tying the match at 14, but they won the next point taking the score to 15-14 and giving Felton another match point serve.

We won the point again. At 15-15, our server hit a liner that just clipped the top of the net causing the ball to fall on the Felton side before they could react. We now had the lead at 16-15, our first lead since that opening victory. The next serve cleared the net perfectly and was returned out of bounds.

Longfellow had won and David had beaten Goliath.

I don’t know what Coach Mitchell said to the girls, but suddenly they seemed to calm down and believe in themselves. Felton seemed so confident until things started to not go their way, and then they seemed to lose a lot of confidence.

On paper, Felton and their tall 8th grade girls should have won easily. But there is no telling what can happen when a team is able to harness positive psychology. Sometimes, simply believing you can do something is all it takes to get the job done.