The Antidote for an Athlete's Fixation on Analytics Data

Technology-generated performance data can be highly toxic and disruptive to optimal athletic execution, significantly contributing to unhealthy emotional stress and sports-related physical injuries.

As discussed in the previous Sports Between the Ears post The Dark Side of Sports Analytics on Psychology Today, many young athletes are obsessed with hitting their analytics-produced numbers, embarking on an emotional roller coaster ride as their numbers rise and fall as such performance measurements will do.

Athletic performance is challenging and stressful enough when practicing or competing without throwing in the distraction of numbers. That additional hubris can result in rushed and discombobulated performance as detailed in the previous post linked above.

Here's what to do instead.

How Elite Athletes Conduct Things

Careful observation of what Major League Baseball players do before every pitch will reveal most everything you need to know about an effective approach to successful performance.

Pitchers slowly prepare and compose themselves. They might roll their shoulders, slowly bend their feet heal to toe, rub-up the ball in their bare hands, and other such maneuvers. Most of them will take an observable deep breath and then go into a slow, deliberate windup with their eyes zeroed-in on a small target before their body accelerates with optimal movement to home plate that maximizes strength efficiency and pitch control.

Baseball hitters slowly step into the batter’s box and methodically go through a series of deliberate, unhurried actions before every pitch. They take a deep, rhythmic breath or two with elongated exhales while setting themselves in the batter’s box. Eyes are focused on the ball when it comes into view, as they await a 100-m.p.h. pitch to reach home plate at the same time it takes for an eye blink—a difficult enough task without a number's preoccupation.

Source: Sgt. Joseph A. Lee / Wikimedia Commons, public domain

Basketball players do similar things before taking a foul shot. Moving their feet front to back, rolling their shoulders, wiggling hands, and fingers, slowly dribbling the ball a few times, before setting their eyes on a small target to sharpen the precision of their shot. They take a deep breath with slow exhale and shoot the ball in a rhythmic, deliberate manner.

All those things are commonly referred to as “routines,” carefully planned and repeated maneuvers designed for several purposes. Easing the nerves is one of those objectives so that performance can be executed with correct rhythm. Also, it can help get the athlete out of their head and into the game.

Focus on inside-the-head stuff (thoughts and emotions) can distract from the task at hand and disrupt optimal performance. You might have noticed that much of what pitchers, hitters, basketball players, and other athletes do is employ their senses of sight, touch, and proprioception (body movement and rhythm). Doing all those sensory-related things helps athletes disconnect from the various distracting thoughts, emotions, and internal sensations that can disrupt athletic skill execution.

The Secret Sauce of Successful Sports Performance

“Every ‘rep’ counts” is a common phrase in the sports world. “Rep” is short for repetition, a single execution of an exercise or sports skill. Here’s a simple way that I created for capturing the essence of repetition effectiveness for a weight training exercise or sports skill:

Rhythm-Execution-Precision

Get it? Rhythm, Execution, Precision? REP?

Maintaining proper Rhythm (tempo), Execution, and Precision will secure composure and improve the effectiveness of whatever the athlete is doing. In the language of Acceptance and Commitment Training (ACT), a popular method of approach for mental performance professionals, such effectiveness is termed “workability.”

Sport and Competition Essential Reads

In the Slow Zone: When Time Expands for Athletes

How Video Games and Fantasy Sports Can Improve Men's Mental Health

When REP workability has been lost—a normal part of the sports experience—athletes employ personalized ways of bringing it back. That’s why a baseball pitcher steps off the mound and takes a series of steps to bring it back. After allowing a score, hockey goalies will move around in front of the net, scrape the ice with their skates, and take a swig of drink from the water bottle most of them keep on top of the net.

Source: US Army WCAP / Wikimedia Commons, public domain

All employ slowed, deep breathing with a long exhale. It's what the US Army trains and calls "deliberate breathing," directions that include diaphragmatic inhale, rhythmic pattern, and a sense of purpose for each breath. Doing so maintains composure under the stressful conditions experienced by soldiers.

Those above maneuvers are commonly referred to as “releases.” The athlete is rebooting their focus and nervous system to restore and insure optimal REPs. That’s why I like to call them “reboots.” The crucial first step of the reboot process is awareness of lost focus, rhythm, and/or workability.

The effective rhythm required for a particular skill varies across sports, specific skill execution, and the individual person. Athletes need to discover and understand the rhythm that works best for them when executing a particular skill and do the things necessary to maintain that rhythm to ensure optimal composure, execution, and precision.

Workability is the key, and awareness of what works best for the individual athlete is crucial for optimal success. Coaches also need to be aware of each athlete’s ideal rhythm to assist in keeping their athletes in their right groove. Demanding the same “energy” for everyone doesn’t consider individual differences and can disrupt optimal rhythm, interfering with successful execution and precision of a REP.

A Note on Analytics

Performance data, including analytics, is important in sports and useful when used properly. Running and swimming times, baseball pitching velocity (“velo”), and “spin-rate” when throwing a football are of obvious relevance.

Overfocus and misuse of that data, however, when practicing or competing can interfere with successful performance. Distracted athletes lose workability when obsessed with reaching numbers, often compromising optimal rhythm or otherwise messing up the execution of their REPs.

Occasional measurement of times, “velo,” and “spin-rate” can constructively inform about progress and improvement, but doing so on every single REP (which many coaches and athletes do) can distract, creating disruptive mental stress as the times fluctuate from REP to REP. It can also cause overexertion that can lead to physical injury.

Athletes collecting and viewing data after every single repetition would be like a dieting person weighing themselves after every meal or bite of food. That’s a recipe for distraction and unnecessary pressure and anxiety, sure to impede success.

Summing It Up

Overfocus on numbers can disrupt optimal performance, take away correct focus, create unnecessary stress, and cause physical injury.

Quit the fixation on data.

Maximizing performance requires maintenance of effective Rhythm, Execution, and Precision—REPs. Learn and maintain composure and optimal rhythm by following the example of elite athletes. The nervous system provides extra fuel for maximal performance but can also generate too much energy or freeze it up with anxiety that produces added tension and pressure that will interfere with optimal performance.

Forget the numbers, establish optimal REPs, maintain them, be aware of lost workability, and bring it back.

Bingo! Optimal performance.