Copy 2 of Body Language | MySportingSpace

Outlining the many benefits that positive body language can have on your thoughts, feelings, and behaviour is at the heart of this module. It is a simple concept, essentially that the display of positive body language is good for your game. You don’t need to know anything more. You can ‘advance to go’ and collect your practical tools from the coaching section, and start working on improving your body language straight away.

However, before wondering off and taking advantage of the coaching tools, it’s my belief that it’s important to have an adequate understanding of the subject first. E.g., What is positive body language? How do we know body language affects performance? What does the science tell us? What cautionary notes need to be considered?

Completing the module will provide you with a greater appreciation of the subject, shining a light on the importance of body language in sport performance. With this knowledge, you are more likely to ‘buy into’ the concept, and add body language training to your programme with full vigour. Therefore, without further ado let’s delve into the topic.

Definition

Communication can be divided into verbal and non-verbal language. Body language (which can include facial expressions, postures, eye movement, and gestures) refers to the conscious and unconscious non-verbal signals we use to communicate our feelings.

It is thought body language plays a hugely significant role in our everyday communication, even more so than verbal language. Dr. Albert Mehrabian, who completed a number of studies on non-verbal behaviour in the 1970’s, suggested up to 55% of the way we communicate is conducted via body language!

Body language is believed to play a key role in sport. As such, it has been a keen topic of interest for psychologists for a number of years.

Positive vs negative body language

The positive aspect refers to the fact that the body language being displayed reflects positive feelings such as happiness, confidence, enthusiasm, interest, excitement, etc. Negative is the opposite as it refers to the display of body language that reflects negative feelings such as sadness, anger, depression, etc.

When displaying true emotions our body language acts like a shop window to our feelings. E.g., looking at the pictures below, it is pretty obvious which athlete is feeling more positive compared to the other.

Positive body language indicating that athletes are relaxed, confident, and happy will typically include cues such as smiling, head up, chest puffed out, shoulders up and open. Golfer Rory McIlroy (pictured right) is displaying these attributes perfectly. Whereas, athletes displaying negative body language indicating that they are unhappy, disappointed, and stressed will include cues such as frowning, head shaking, head down, and the hunching of their shoulders.

Dominant body language

Body language that depicts power, pride, and dominance is typically displayed through open and expansive postures, essentially poses that make the body seem larger. Whereas a lack of power is characterised with inward and closed postures, poses that make the body seem smaller.

The act of making yourself big can be seen throughout sport. E.g., when a tennis player wins a point or a golfer makes a putt, they often show a display of dominance by showing off an expansive posture.

Golfer Tiger Woods displaying dominant body language after sinking a putt

It’s in our DNA

It's believed that much of our body

language is present at birth and not

a learned behaviour. The University

of British Columbia studied

congenitally blind (blind from birth)

and seeing athletes from all around

the world.

They discovered that all athletes had

the same body language when they

won, i.e. arms raised above their

head, mouth open, head/chin tilted

up, and with an expanded chest.

Congenitally blind athletes couldn’t

have learned the behaviours from

watching others. Thus, the body

language indicating pride is

considered an innate characteristic

from birth.

It has an evolutionary purpose

Body language is thought to have originated as a functional non-verbal form of communication which was a practical way to communicate before speech was developed. Scientists believe non-verbal displays of dominance serve a functional purpose within the animal kingdom, which may help explain the reasons behind our in-built characteristics as we share similar DNA with a number of animals.

Within a social group there can be limited access to valuable resources such as food, shelter, and mates. Fighting is one method to establish the pecking order of who gets access to what, but this can cause injury and is energetically costly. The need to fight would be a constant problem as access to limited resources can be a daily occurrence. Therefore, to avoid the constant need to fight, the formation of a hierarchy can be achieved via communication instead.

For example, when two animals confront each other they may each display dominant body language in the attempt to show each other who is more likely to win in a fight (e.g. a chimpanzee holds his breath until its chest bulges). Consequently, one of the animals may choose to be submissive, and as such the hierarchy is formed without any necessity to fight.

Thus, dominant body language can be used to intimidate the opposition into submission. This likely explains the motivation behind why humans display dominant body language in times of conflict/competition. For example, within a sporting context this can be seen in the stare-down before a boxing match, where boxers try to assert their authority and intimidate.

The All Blacks performing the Haka which displays open and expansive postures. You can see how it may exert feelings of dominance and power over their opponents.

THE EVIDENCE

There have been various studies investigating the relationship between body language and how it can influence our thoughts, feelings, and behaviour. It is important to note body language should not be implemented in isolation alone. Any benefits derived from the display of positive body language in sport will be most effective when included in a combination of additional psychological strategies (e.g. self-talk, breathing techniques, re-appraisal, etc.) are utilised.

Awareness

Athletes often disregard using strategies such as body language because they do not feel any conscious change, i.e. they are not aware of any difference to their psychology or performance. However, it is possible for behavioural changes to occur from adjustments in posture even without ones conscious knowledge.

For example, a study conducted by Riskend and Gotay (1982) found sitting in an upright posture increased a persons motivation to stick at a difficult task. However, the participants didn't report any conscious change to their feelings, e.g. they didn't feel more confident, determined, or competent in their ability to complete the task. So even though participants didn't feel any different emotionally, the change in posture did produce a behavioural change.

Athletes need to appreciate that implementing a psychological strategy is not a fool proof way of ensuring perfect performance. A strategy like body language is intended to improve your performance, on average, over time. E.g., if utilising body language makes 1 out of your next 50 performances better then it is a worthwhile strategy to implement. Gains can be too small to see over a short period of time, but when they add up over the course of a season, it can make a significant difference.

Expectations of success

"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's fairly common for an athlete to experience feelings of intimidation at some stage throughout their career. It’s perhaps more likely to occur early on in ones career or when progressing to higher levels of competition, but it can happen at anytime.

As humans, we have a natural tendency to compare ourselves to others in social situations. This is evident when we 'eye up' the opposition, but in doing so we can become intimidated by our opponents. When we view opponents displaying confident and positive body language, it can make us feel small, inferior, and defeated before we even start.

There is a considerable amount of scientific evidence that shows that a person's body language will influence how you perceive them, and conversely your body language will influence how others perceive you. This interaction is important within a sporting context as it could mean the difference between winning or losing.

Studies conducted in sports such as table-tennis, tennis, and football have found that the body language displayed by athletes before a match will influence ratings of perceived ability and expectations of their success. For example, the athletes who displayed positive body language were perceived as more assertive, aggressive, competitive, experienced, confident, positive, and relaxed compared to athletes who displayed negative body language. In addition, people expected to perform better against athletes who were displaying negative body language.

If you convince yourself that your opponents are better than you, it can effect your thoughts and behaviour. Your expectations can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. I.e., the expectancy that your competitors are better than you, can lead you to think and behave in a way that means they will in fact perform better than you.

As soon as you set foot on competition soil, you have the ability to alter the expectations of your opponents, and potentially effect the result of the competition. The game starts before the ‘whistle’ is even blown. Make sure you have any psychological advantage on offer!

Body to mind

It’s widely accepted that our body language is influenced by our thoughts and feelings, but can your own thoughts and feelings be influenced by your body language? I.e. confident athletes display positive body language, but can the deliberate display of positive body language lead to the athlete feeling more confident?

This question is of particular interest to sportspeople. If the answer is yes, the conscious act of adopting certain body language could be a great strategy to create the best mindset for optimal performance.

Pride

Pride from a sense of accomplishment that is based on your hard work (authentic pride) is preferred over pride that is obtained from feeling better than others (hubristic pride), as it leads to greater associated benefits. Authentic pride has been associated with increased motivation, perseverance, work ethic, and self-control.

The feeling of pride is a positive experience, and as such we tend to be motivated to repeat experiences that give us pride. The enhanced motivation can manifest into increased perseverance and work ethic in our sport (e.g. more time spent playing and practising), as one chases the positive feelings associated with pride.

Stepper and Strack researched how posture influenced feelings of pride. Participants were randomly assigned to sit in an upright or slumped posture position. Participants completed a task and upon completion were all given positive feedback about their performance.

When told about their success, participants in the upright seated position (positive body language), reported higher feelings of pride compared to participants in the negative slumped position.

Therefore, athletes should be encouraged to display positive body language after a good performance (e.g. making a birdie in golf). This is likely to occur naturally, but if a player is in a bad mood as consequently displaying poor body language, they may miss the opportunity to enhance their feeling of pride.

Persistence

Competitive sport can be a volatile and unpredictable environment. Things don't always go the way you plan, expect, or desire. At times it can be a mentally tough environment.

On occasion, it gets too tough for some, and the athlete’s response is to ‘give up’ mid-performance, due to the 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 learning anything from the experience, e.g. learn strategies that may help them out of a temporary performance slump.

Researchers Riskend and Gotay discovered posture had an influence on a participants motivation to stick at a difficult task. Participants were assigned to an upright or slumped posture, and were asked to complete 4 puzzles (2 puzzles were impossible to solve). The participants who displayed the upright seated position were more likely to persist and spend additional time trying to solve the puzzles, compared to the participants who adopted the slumped posture. Therefore, athletes should remain disciplined and display positive body language, especially after performance errors, to increase the likelihood that their motivation to perform well will persist.

Mood

Getting into the right state of mind is critical for performance. In general, mood can be described as positive and negative, and the research into the relationship between mood and performance suggests that a positive mood is better.

Excitement, joy, and happiness have been associated with better concentration, confidence, motivation, and capability, compared to negative moods such as anger and frustration. When we are happy and enjoy what we are doing, it is easier for us to focus on the task at hand as we become more engrossed in the activity. In contrast, if we unhappy we 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 associate negative mood with an activity, it is possible that over time we will want to avoid the activity, e.g. dropout of sport.

Research conducted by Nair, Sagar, Sollers, Consedine, and Broadbent at the University of Auckland, New Zealand, showed that the display of 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.

A well-known study conducted by Strack, Martin, and Stepper 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).

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 between the two groups. Interestingly, the results showed that the participants who were in the ‘smile’ group rated the cartoons funnier, compared to the ‘non-smiling’ group.

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.

Power

Amy Cuddy, a Harvard professor and social psychologist, researched the effects of high power and weak power posing. In her study (in association with Carney and Yap), she found that when a ‘high power pose’ is adopted, the hormone testosterone which is associated with feelings of confidence and assertiveness increases, while the hormone cortisol which is associated with stress reduces. The opposite effect was seen for a ‘weak power pose’.

High Power Pose Stance - was defined as being open and relaxed, bigger, i.e. where you take up more space.

Weak Power Pose Stance - was defined as being closed and guarded, slouching, i.e. where you take up less space.

Golfer Tiger Woods adopting a power pose

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 study, high power posing was found to increase self-reported feelings of power. This finding has been replicated in follow-up studies, and as such accepted by the scientific community.

Many psychological benefits are associated with an enhanced sense of power. For example, powerful individuals tend to feel more positive, optimistic, enthusiastic, and confident, which are all mental aspects desired for optimal performance in sport.

Cuddy suggested positive body language may make it easier for people to recover from negative feelings because of its association with feelings of power. An additional benefit to feeling powerful is that it can reduce anxiety in stressful situations, which would be an obvious advantage within the pressure inducing environment of competition.

Thoughts

The failure to commit to a decision, or the second guessing of an original decision is often given as a reason for a performance mistake. 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.

Studies have found people are more likely to have confidence and commitment to their thoughts when exhibiting positive body language. It is also easier to recall positive thoughts, images, and memories.

The ability to use positive concise thoughts and images is an important element of a pre-performance routine, as it will help reduce any potential distractions and errors that may occur from indecision.

Positive self-talk has been associated with enhanced motivation, confidence, focus, and stress management. In contrast, negative self-talk has been shown to increase anxiety, and produce changes to physiology such as increased heart and breathing rate. So it would seem sensible to adopt a strategy that makes it easier to generate positive thoughts and images.

Fatigue

Appropriate nutrition, hydration, rest, and sleep are important in reducing the onset of fatigue, but displaying positive body language has also been found to help reduce fatigue. Maintaining energy levels is critical for sports, and athletes should be made aware of the impact that poor body language has on fatigue.

Overview

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. Therefore, it is important for athletes to investigate any areas which can enhance performance.

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 put everything together. Start your journey towards marginal gains by making at least a 1% improvement in your body language.

The conscious act of displaying your desired body language may feel deliberate at first, but with practice it is likely to become habitual, and perhaps part of our personality. I.e., we can convince ourselves that we are the sort of person we are demonstrating. E.g., if we portray confidence with our body language, with practice we may become a confident person.

As the display of body language has shown to provide positive psychological changes that can assist with performance outcomes, it would seem applying positive body language at all times would be the ideal solution. However, a few cautionary notes need to be considered.

CAUTIONARY NOTES

Venting

There is a contrasting view that it’s beneficial to let your emotions out, e.g. if you’re angry let your anger out rather than trying to suppress it (e.g. displaying positive body language when feeling angry). It is not unusual to see this type of behaviour in all levels of sport. Tennis players smashing rackets, rugby players punching an opponent, yelling at yourself after an error, and verbally abusing a referee are all examples of athletes expressing and venting their anger.

It is possible that venting your emotions may benefit some athletes, and anecdotal accounts from sportspeople support this. Professional tennis player Alexander Zverev (at the time ranked 3rd in the world) broke his racket in a 4th round loss in the 2018 Australian Tennis Championship. After the match, Alexander said that he felt and played better after breaking his racket. However, he still went on to lose the next two games of the second set and then the last set to lose the match.

Tennis player John McEnroe was well known for his anger tantrums. Fellow professional Henri Leconte said if McEnroe got angry you were in trouble, as he would often play better afterwards.

Venting may also be an appropriate response to try and change undesirable situations. For example, if you are not happy by the way you are being treated, you may need to respond with anger, to improve the situation.

The All Blacks played against France in the 1999 Rugby World Cup quarter-final. The French players were allegedly using ‘dirty’ tactics such as eye gouging and head butting to put the All Blacks off their game. The All Black coach at the time, John Hart, did not believe in retaliation, and had coached the All Blacks to suppress their urge to retaliate. They lost the game. Many ex-All Black players believed if the team had retaliated in anger, it would have stopped the dirty tactics from continuing, and perhaps changing the result of the game in the process.

However, letting go and failing to control your emotions can obviously have some negative consequences. Here are some costly real-life examples of athletes failing to control their anger:

In the 2019 Saudi International tournament on the European Tour, golfer Sergio Garcia was disqualified for taking his frustration out by damaging a green with his putter. He was disqualified for serious misconduct.

In the 2006 football World Cup final, French player Zinedine Zidane headbutted Marco Materazzi in the Sternum, apparently in reaction to something the Italian player had said. Zidane was sent off. The game ended in a draw, but Italy won 5-3 on penalties

In the second set of 2018 US Open Women’s Final, Serena Williams was deducted a point for smashing her racket after losing a game. Then a few games later she was docked an entire game for the verbal abuse of the umpire. The score at that time was 4-3, with Serena serving to even the set, but with the deduction, she lost the set 6-4 and the match.

In addition to the potential negative consequence to performance, there is often a backlash from the general public. The behaviour is frowned upon as they have not upheld the high moral standard expected of them.

Despite the belief that venting emotions such as anger can enhance performance, there is body of research to suggest the contrary. Studies have found that excitement, joy, and happiness are more closely related to concentration than anger or frustration. A study by Hackford and Schlattman found that the expression of emotional states (e.g. anger) can actually intensify the emotion, while suppressing emotions will weaken them and help you maintain concentration and reduce the felt emotion (e.g. anger).

However, it is important to consider that findings reported from research, indicate what works for the majority of people, but it’s obviously plausible that individual differences will exist. E.g., venting anger may work for one person while not working for another.

Individual differences

There will be differences in which strategies work the best for each individual. For example, a study by Lane, Beedie, Devonport, and Stanley (2011) found that 85% of athletes believed that strategies intended to reduce their anxiety and/or anger before a competition would help their performance. Whereas the remaining 15% believed strategies aimed at increasing their anxiety and/or anger would help. Assuming both groups are correct in their beliefs, it shows what works for one person may not work for another.

The study included participants who were all runners, but individual differences will also be linked to the type of sport being played. E.g. a sport that relies on fine motor skills like golf is most likely best performed with low arousal levels (calmness), compared to a physical sport like rugby which is likely to require higher levels of arousal (anger).

PRACTICAL COACHING TOOLS

The following practical coaching tools are to use with athletes who have a desire to work on improving their body language with the intention of producing better performance results.

Video assessment worksheet

Athletes follow a 10-step process, in which they consider

how they want to present themselves during competition

via the process of aspiration, appraisal, evaluation, training,

and review. This strategy includes the use of video

assessment during performance.

Scorecard worksheet (golf only)

A scorecard for the golfers to take out on to the golf course

to score their performance on maintaining positive body

language.

Process testing worksheet (golf only)

A worksheet for golfers to take out on the golf course to