Pressure Points: Facing Your Fear Of Failure In Softball

This is the second article in the pressure point series. This series is designed to offer mental strategies and tools to help you build the skill of performing under pressure. If you missed the first article (& tip), go back and check out Pressure Points: Tips For Training To Play Under Pressure.

As a recap, there are three common reasons why athletes often fail under pressure (Preston, 2023). The first article in this series covered why we fail under pressure when we're outcome-focused, and provided a tip to help you work on mental zooming so you can zoom in and out on the outcome and process steps in a more productive way.

In this article, we're going to focus on another common reason we fail under pressure: fearing failure.

You may be playing to "not mess up" or with a fear of failing in the moment instead of playing to make an impact. Some experts refer to this as a survive v. thrive mindset. You are playing to survive the moment instead of playing to thrive in the moment. This can also be what we call playing in a threat mentality.

Threat mentality means you perceive the situation as you losing something, or as a threat to something about you. This could be you thinking you'll lose things like the game or your position, but it could also mean you think you'll lose your sense of security, comfort, or control (Raskopf, 2017).

For example, you see the opposing pitcher as a threat to your confidence because she pitches to your weaknesses well. You fear she will expose your weaknesses, or you get uncomfortable facing her because you know she will throw a pitch you are not the best at hitting, and this could cause others to talk about you in a way you don't like.

What happens when you play from a threat mentality? For starters, the game isn't much fun. You tense up or slow down, and play with restricted movements and decision-making because you are focused on not losing or not failing. You can't think clearly because your brain is thinking about how to keep you comfortable and in control (or avoiding the discomfort and unknown). You will not perform well under pressure either because pressure situations demand your full mental capacity. If you're not sure if you've been in a threat mentality, here are some common signs of threat within a performance situation:

The human brain is wired to predict to help us solve problems and maneuver through our environment (Experimental Psychology, 2021; Miyamoto et al., 2021). This means, your brain is constantly trying to assess how likely you will succeed at something even before you try to do it. Pretty neat, isn't it?

With that being said, your brain likes routines because it can better predict what will happen next. This is why you feel more comfortable in some situations on the field than others. If you've been successful before in a situation, your brain recognizes the situation and can send information to the rest of your body about how to be successful because you (your brain) have "seen it" before.

This is also why you get anxious or uncomfortable in new situations. Your brain can't predict the outcome as easily because you have not "seen it" before. For these types of scenarios, you can help your brain by planning and practicing for possible situations that could produce pressure in games. By practicing and planning (rehearsing) what you would or could do in those situations, you are giving your brain a little bit of exposure to the situation.

The more you plan and perform in newer situations, the more information you're giving your brain. Your brain will rework some of its pathways and eventually give you more accurate and successful options/tools with more exposure to those situations and pressure.

So, see this as your sign to get out there and take on some challenges—with some pre-planning, of course.

Dr. Megan Buning is a Certified Mental Performance Consultant (C.M.P.C.) with over a decade of experience training the mental game.

Erdmann, D., Sichel, B., & Yeung, L. (2015). Overcoming obstacles to effective scenario planning. McKinsey Quarterly, 55, 1-6.

Experimental Psychology. (2021, March 16). The brain is a prediction machine: It knows how well we are doing something before we even try. Research. Retrieved from https://www.psy.ox.ac.uk/news/the-brain-is-a-prediction-machine-it-knows-how-good-we-are-doing-something-before-we-even-try

Miyamoto, K., et al. (2021). Identification and disruption of a neural mechanism for accumulating prospective metacognitive information prior to decision-making. Neuron, 109(8), 1396-1408.

Raskopf, L. (2017, December 7). Challenge v. threat mindset: How to empower yourself and your students to rise to the challenge. Institute of Completitive Sciences: News.