Most of us can relate to being in a sporting or other competitive situation, and experiencing our opponent trying to psyche us out and use mental tactics to put us off your game. Would you like to know how to better handle their antics?
To start with, understanding the different types of mind games lays an instrumental role in being aware of them happening in real time, and that awareness itself is your prime defence against it. So, here are the six different types of mind games below to keep that edge over your opponent:
The Cold Shoulder
To perform the cold shoulder, the psych-out artist simply shows a lack of interest in their opponent, particularly in moments they may expect recognition. This works well on opponents who seek recognition from others for their performance, particularly young players anxious to impress. When met with nothing but a cold shoulder, the effect it has on the opponent is they try harder and harder for recognition and end up playing worse.
A perfect example of this comes from former professional basketball player Bill Russel: While in a restaurant, he saw an opponent he would be competing against the next day, player he described as “younger and stronger than I was”.
Using his experience, Russel deliberately sat in full view of him and ignored him the entire time, without looking over at him once. During the basketball match the next day, the younger stronger player was intent on proving himself. Russel said “I had him thinking about me instead of his own performance” — a common theme you’ll notice with the different types of mind games in sport.
The underlying message that slips below conscious awareness a cold shoulder gives is, “you are a nobody”, and that is why it works best on young players eager to impress.
Cage Rattling
More verbal than the cold shoulder but under the guise of friendly kidding, the psych-out artist constantly taunts their victim: “I hope you practised your penalties”, “you can do better than that”, or it can be more subtle “did you manage to straiten out that slice since we last played?”.
The message that slips below conscious awareness and into the victims subconscious (the more emotional centre of their brain) is “you don’t scare me; not even your best scares me”. Because it suggests their best isn’t good enough to beat them, the opponent gets caught up trying to prove otherwise, instead of focusing on their own performance.
Teacher-Teacher
Counter-intuitively, the manipulator gives helpful tips and lessons to their opponent, often as they are competing: “Try using the outside of your boot to control that ball”, “you didn’t quite flex your knees enough on that last serve”.
Even if they are useful tips for improving form, the lessons act as a ‘put down’ of the opponent — the underlying message is “I am superior, and you are inferior”. Unconsciously the victim self-sabotages performing at their highest ability.
During the Snooker World Championship Final between Ronnie O’Sullivan and Wu Yize, Ronnie reportedly texted Wu during intervals messages such as “stay focused, be calm, play to your strengths”. Football manager Pep Guardiola was also very well known for public displays of coaching opponent players post-match on the pitch.
Intimidation
One of the more well-known forms of mind games and works particularly well for contact sports. Famous examples include the ‘Haka’ — a ceremonial Māori dance performed by the New Zealand Rugby team before the beginning of the match, despite the Haka being a mark of respect, players ensure to stare down their opposite numbered opponent, bulge their eyes, stick out their tongues, and stomp their legs to demonstrate strength.
Intimidation can often be continuous throughout a match with extra-hard tackles, or verbally with growling or “get after that Quarter-back!”
This leaves the opponent fearful and thinking more about their own safety, they also feel physically inferior and underperform as a result.
Guilt-tripping
Working best on the more empathetic players, naturally this mental tactic involves evoking the emotion of guilt for defeating their opponent. A few ways the psych-out artist can evoke this is either as ‘Mr. Nice Guy’ — “Fantastic shot!”, “you’re doing a great job against me!”
Guilt-tripping could also take place as fawning, “my knees really aren’t up for this today”, “I’m definitely getting too old for this nowadays”. Portraying oneself as clearly inferior can also influence the empathetic opponent to no-longer perform at their best.
When they start to apologise for their good performance, the mental tactic is working.
Distraction
Finally, we have distraction. For some sports, such as Tennis, distraction is incredibly ingrained in the sport with their frequent grunting and temper tantrums with the umpire. In Test Cricket, the fielding team will regularly ‘sledge’ the batters to distract them from their game and thinking about the insult rather than the next ball.
Distraction, much like many of the various ways of performing mind games in competitive situations, are to take your attention away from your own performance, thus performing worse.
Protecting Against The Mind Games
As mentioned already, awareness of these antics is highly protective in itself, awareness draws the mind games and the underlying messages out of the unconscious and into conscious awareness — into conscious control, not emotional dysregulation.
To psych out the psych-out artist, simply not engage in their games at all. Instead, psych yourself in — focus even more on your own game to the best of your ability. If you are relaxed, concentrating, and feel secure in your own game, your opponent’s mental tactics will do nothing to rattle your game, in fact, it will help you:
When your opponent is purposefully employing one of these mind games, they are telling you “I am not good enough to beat you on skill alone, so I will employ these psychological tactics to beat you”. You know they are coming from a place of desperation, and that gives you the advantage.
Rochester Hypnotherapy Clinic 