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There have been numerous studies investigating the relationship between body language and how it influences ones thoughts, feelings, and behaviour. This chapter will look some of the research conducted and how the findings relate to sporting performance.
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Expectations of success
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“When warming up for a competition I often catch myself looking at my opponents, noticing how confident and relaxed they are. I know they are good and start wondering whether I belong here."
Does the above quote resonate with you? It is fairly common for an athlete to experience feelings of intimidation at some stage throughout their career. It’s perhaps more likely to occur earlier in ones career or when progressing to higher levels of competition, but it can happen at anytime.
As human beings, we have a natural tendency to compare ourselves to others in social situations. In sport, this is evident when we 'eye up' the opposition, but in doing so, we can at times become intimidated by our opponent/s. Seeing your opponent/s display positive body language, can make some competitor's feel small, inferior, and defeated before they even start.
There is a considerable amount of evidence that shows a competitor's body language will influence how you perceive them, and conversely your body language will influence how your competitor perceives you. This interaction is super important within a sporting context as it could influence the outcome of an event.
Studies conducted in sports such as tennis, table-tennis, baseball, and football have established the body language displayed by an athlete before a match can influence ratings of their perceived ability and expectations of success. Athletes who display positive body language are perceived as more assertive, aggressive, competitive, experienced, confident, positive, and relaxed compared to athletes who display negative body language.
A study completed by Buscombe, Greenlees, Holder, Thelwell, and Rimmer (2006) asked participants (who were experienced tennis players) to view video recordings of tennis players warming up before a match. The video footage included the player entering the court, walking to his seat, getting his racket out of his bag, going to the back of the court to do some stretching, and then removing his tracksuit before playing seven rallies. The researchers created four different combinations of warm-up footage:
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with positive body language wearing tennis style clothing
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with positive body language wearing general sportswear
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with negative body language wearing tennis style clothing
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with negative body language wearing general sportswear
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The same player and playing footage was used in each video (e.g. the rallies included the same number of winning shots and unforced errors). The only difference was in the preparation (warm-up) footage of the player.
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Participants were asked what they thought of the players ability (e.g., technique, speed, movement, and power), and whether they thought they would be able to beat the player. Any difference in ratings would be a result of the tennis player's display of body language and attire.
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The results showed that participants rated the ability of tennis players ability when:
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wearing tennis style clothing and displaying positive body language, compared to when wearing general sportswear and displaying negative body language.
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wearing general sportswear and displaying positive body language, compared to when displaying negative body language wearing tennis style or general sportswear.
The participants also reported that they felt more confident of defeating a tennis player who displayed negative body language compared to when they displayed positive body language. Therefore, it seems body language can influence your expectations of success. Your expectations can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. I.e., the expectancy that your competitor is better than you, can lead you to think and behave in a way that means they will in fact perform better than you.
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As soon as you set foot on competition soil, you have the ability to alter the expectations of your opponents, and potentially alter the outcome of the event. The game starts before the ‘whistle’ is even blown. It would be wise to utilise any psychological advantage you have on offer, and in this instance, choosing to display positive body language from the outset of an event may give you a competitive edge!
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BODY TO MIND
It’s widely accepted that thoughts and feelings influence your body language (e.g. if you feel happy you will smile), but does it work in the reverse? I.e. can your body language have an impact on your thoughts and feelings? This question is of particular interest to athletes, because if the answer is yes, consciously displaying the appropriate body language will help create the right mindset for peak performance.
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Persistence
Competitive sport can be a volatile, unpredictable, and a mentally tough environment. Things don't always go the way you plan, expect, or desire. On occasion, it can get too tough for some. As a result, an athlete may ‘give up’ mid-performance, as they struggle to deal with the disappointment of losing and/or failing to reach their desired standard. This behaviour is far from ideal as it virtually ensures defeat and prevents the athlete from learning how to best to recover from the inevitable performance errors in the future.
The research mentioned in Chapter 1 conducted by Riskind and Gotay (1982) found that you are more likely to persist with a difficult task, if you display positive body language. In their study, participants were asked to complete 4 puzzles (2 were impossible to solve). The researchers could gauge a participant's persistence by measuring the amount of time/attempts they spent trying to solve the impossible puzzles.
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Participants were assigned to an upright or slumped seated posture for a period of approximately 3 minutes, before being asked to complete the 4 puzzles. They found that the participants who had sat in an upright position were more likely to persist in their attempts to solve the impossible puzzles, compared to the participants who had adopted a slumped posture.
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This finding suggests that it is important for athletes to display positive body language throughout their performance, to increase the likelihood that their motivation to perform well will persist, especially in the face of adversity. It appears a display of negative body language is more likely to lead to you 'throwing in the towel' when faced with a challenge - and you will be faced with plenty of those in your sporting career!
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Mood
A study conducted by Nair, Sagar, Sollers, Consedine, and Broadbent (2015) at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, suggested positive body language resulted in participants feeling more enthusiastic, excited, and strong. Whereas, negative body language led to participants feeling more fearful, hostile, and nervous.
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Getting into the right state of mind is critical for optimal performance. In general, mood can be described as positive or negative, and the research into the relationship between mood and performance suggests that a positive mood is better.
Excitement, joy, and happiness is associated with better concentration, confidence and motivation, whereas negative moods are associated with anger and frustration. When you are happy and enjoy what you are doing, it is easier for you to focus on the task at hand as you become more engrossed in the activity. In contrast, when you unhappy you can be easily distracted and disengaged with the activity.
Enjoyment is a big reason why athletes participate in sport. The more we enjoy something the more likely we are to repeat it. If we display negative body language too much and associate negative mood with an activity, it is possible that over time we will choose to avoid the activity. e.g. drop out of the sport altogether. We see many junior athletes drop out of sport at any early age, and teaching them to manage their emotions, with strategies such as body language training, may be an effective way to reduce this.
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A well-known study conducted by Strack, Martin, and Stepper (1988) looked at whether mimicking a smile would influence a person’s sense of humour. A group was instructed to hold a pen between their teeth (facilitating the muscles associated with smiling), while the other group was instructed to hold a pen between their lips (inhibiting the muscles we use when smiling).
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The participants were then shown a series of funny cartoons, and asked to rate how funny they thought the cartoons were. If body language has no influence over our feelings, then there should be no difference in how the two groups reacted to the cartoons. Interestingly, the results showed that the participants in the ‘smile’ group rated the cartoons funnier, compared to the ‘non-smiling’ group.
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Smiling has the ability to activate positive emotions, and help reduce the
impact of stress. So smile, and smile often. The adage of ‘grin and bear it’ has proven value and should not be ignored. It could be very helpful in maintaining a positive mood under times of competition stress.
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Pride
Pride obtained from a sense of accomplishment that is based on your hard work (known as authentic pride) is preferred over pride that is obtained from feeling better than others (known as hubristic pride), as it leads to greater associated benefits. Authentic pride has been associated with increased motivation, creativity, perseverance, work ethic, and self-control.
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The feeling of pride is generally viewed as a positive experience, a worthy pursuit, and as such we are motivated to repeat experiences that produce pride. Enhanced motivation can manifest into increased perseverance, enjoyment, and work ethic (e.g. more time spent playing and practising), as one attempts to generate positive experiences (e.g. winning) that produce feeling of pride.
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Researchers Stepper and Strack (1993) looked at how posture influenced a person's feeling of pride. Participants in the study were assigned to sit in an upright or slumped posture position. The participants were asked to complete a task and upon completion all were given positive feedback about their performance, regardless of how they actually did. When told about their success, participants in the upright seated position reported higher feelings of pride compared to participants in the slumped position.
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Therefore, athletes should be encouraged to display positive body language to enhance feelings of pride (like Tiger Wood's fist pump after holing a putt). Otherwise, they may miss the opportunity to enhance their feelings of pride, and the associated positive benefits that can follow.
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MODULE BODY LANGUAGE
The Evidence
PERSISTENCE IN THE FACE OF ADVERSITY
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Power
Amy Cuddy, a Harvard professor and social psychologist, is at the forefront of research into the effects of high power and weak power posing. Carney, Cuddy, and Yap (2010) found that when a ‘high power pose’ is adopted, the hormone testosterone (associated with feelings of confidence and assertiveness) increases, while the hormone cortisol (associated with stress) reduces. The opposite effect was seen for a ‘weak power pose’.
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High Power Pose Stance - defined as being open, relaxed, and bigger (i.e. where you take up more space).
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Weak Power Pose Stance - defined as being closed, guarded, and slouched (i.e. where you take up less space).
​Unfortunately attempts to replicate these results in subsequent research have been unsuccessful. As such, the initial findings have been widely disputed.
However, from the same 2010 study, high power posing was found to increase self-reported feelings of power. This finding has been replicated in numerous follow-up studies, and has thus been accepted by the scientific community.
There are many psychological benefits associated with an enhanced feeling of power. For example, powerful individuals tend to feel more positive, optimistic, enthusiastic, and confident, which are all aspects believed to assist sporting performance.
Cuddy suggested displaying positive body language may make it easier for people to recover from negative feelings because of its association with feelings of power, and as such can reduce anxiety in stressful situations, which would be an obvious advantage within the pressure inducing environment of competition.
Commitment
The failure to commit to a decision, or the second guessing of an original decision is often given as a reason for a mental performance error. Especially in sports such as golf where the player has time to consider a number of different options, e.g. club, shot shape, etc., before playing a shot.
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The ability to use positive concise thoughts and images is an important element of a pre-performance routine, as it helps reduce distractions and errors that may occur from indecision.A study conducted by Brinol, Petty, and Wagner (2009) found that people are more likely to have confidence and commitment to their thoughts when exhibiting positive body language.
Participants were asked to sit up straight and push their chest out, or sit in a slumped position, and then write down either 3 positive or 3 negative traits that related to career performance. Participants were then allowed to relax, and asked about their expectations (on a scale of 1-9) in regards to their future job satisfaction, performance, prospects and whether they would make a good job interviewee.
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The results showed that when participants sat in an upright position, they had a greater degree of confidence and comittment to their thoughts. I.e. participants who had written positive traits, rated their future more positively in the upright position compared to the slouched position. And participants who had written negative traits in the upright position, rated their future more negatively compared to the slouched position. So posture had an influence on confidence and committment to one's thoughts, regardless of whether they were positive or negative.
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Displaying positive body language during the decision making process will help you commit to these thoughts, and reduce mistakes from indecision. Sometimes in performance it is better to commit to a wrong decision than to continue with indecision.
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Energy
Energy is an important commodity that is required for performance success. Appropriate nutrition, hydration, rest, and sleep are well known strategies adopted by athletes to improve energy, but perhaps less well known is that body language can also influence perceived energy levels.
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Peper and Lin (2012) conducted a study involving 110 participants. The participants were asked to rate their energy level from 1 (low) to 10 (high). They were then instructed to walk either in a slouched position or an opposite arm/leg skip (also known as cross crawl skipping), for around 2 to 3 minutes, and asked to rate their energy level again. Those that had walked in a slouched position, were then asked to skip (and vice-versa), and after a further 2 to 3 minutes their energy levels were rated again for the final time
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The results showed that ratings of perceived energy were lower after slouched walking (negative body language), compared to the initial energy rating. In contrast, the skipping condition (positive body language) produced higher ratings of energy, compared to the inital rating.
Therefore, adopting positive body language may help delay the onset of perceived fatigue, whereas negative body language may accelerate it. When the going gets tough, the natural instinct may be to put your head down, but in doing so you may be making it harder for yourself to bounce back mentally from the feeling of fatigue.
Recall
The generation of positive thoughts and images are typically associated with good performance.
Positive self-talk has been linked with enhanced motivation, confidence, focus, etc., and therefore any strategy that helps generate positive thoughts and images is worth utilising to enhance sporting performance.
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Wilson and Peper (2004) completed a study involving 24 participants that showed it is easier to generate positive thoughts when sitting in an upright position, compared to when in a slumped position. 92% of the participants found it easier to recall positive thoughts when sitting in an upright position. Peper, Lin, Harvey and Perez (2017) furthered this area of research by completing a similar study that involved 216 participants.
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“When I sat collapsed looking down, negative memories flooded me and I found it difficult to shift and think of positive memories. While sitting erect, I found it easier to think of positive memories." - participant.
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After a performance error, your tendency may be to dip your head and slump your shoulders in disappointment, but this is going to make it easier for you to generate negative thoughts about your performance - which you obviously don't want. When you are struggling, it is important to stay positive, and being disciplined with your body language will help you achieve this, as displaying positive body language will make it easier to recall the thoughts and images that are more likely to have a positive impact on your performance.
Overview​​
The scientific evidence suggests that the benefits of displaying positive body language during competition is two-fold. Firstly, you will encourage positivity in your own thinking, emotions, and behaviour, but also potentially influence your competitor’s thoughts to your advantage.
The difference between winning and losing in sport can be minuscule. GB cycling performance director Dave Brailsford popularised the concept of marginal gains, which refers to the aggregation of marginal gains in everything that you do. E.g. if you improved everything you do by 1%, it will make a significant difference when you add these gains together.
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Why not start your journey towards marginal gains by making at least a 1% improvement in your body language? The conscious act of displaying positive body language may feel deliberate at first, but with practice it is likely to become habitual, and perhaps even part of your 'personality'.
References
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Buscombe, R., Greenlees, I., Holder, T., Thelwell, R., & Rimmer, M. (2006). Expectancy effects in tennis: the impact of opponents' pre-match non-verbal behaviour on male tennis players. Journal of Sports Sciences, 24(12), 1265-1272.
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stress responses? A randomized trial. Health Psychology, 34(6), 632–641
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