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On July 31, Beijing time, in the men's singles table tennis competition at the Paris Olympics, China's top seedWang Chuqin Lost to Swedish player 2-4Moregard, was unexpectedly eliminated and failed to reach the top 16, which sparked heated public discussion.

Previously, Wang Chuqin's racket was stepped on and broken in public during the mixed doubles gold medal match live broadcast. This unexpected elimination has caused relevant discussions on various social media.

Although Wang Chuqin himself responded that "changing the racket is not a reason for losing",But from a psychologist's point of view, even if the secondary racket and the main racket are physically exactly the same, the psychological impact of changing rackets should not be ignored.

Zajonc, an American social psychologistZajonc）It is believed that in social situations, the "presence" of others may arouse individuals' awareness of being evaluated by others.

In other words, when there are many spectators watching the game, athletes will realize that others are scrutinizing them and will unconsciously pay attention to their own behavior and performance, which is manifested in two different effects: one is "social inhibition" and the other is "social facilitation."

Distraction, that is, the dispersion of attention, has relatively little impact on short-distance and long-distance running events that rely more on the athlete's physical fitness rather than attention resources. For example, the famous sprinter Bolt can still turn his head to look at others while sprinting.

But table tennis is different. It requires more precise movements and tactical games, and requires quick and accurate judgment and decision-making.In a competition, paying attention to "spectators" will have a greater negative impact.Because distraction may lead to insufficient cognitive resources, thereby reducing the quality of decision-making. For example, when facing an incoming ball, should you pull the ball or slice the ball, should you play it short or hit it from behind, technical movement deformation may be inevitable.

Let me give you an example that is easy for everyone to relate to. When we are taking an exam, if the invigilator is standing behind us and watching us, we will feel that our thinking is disturbed, which will affect our answers. Some people can't even write a single word, and the teacher will misunderstand that they are "guilty" and want to cheat. This is actually a typical example of "social inhibition".

Although Olympic-level athletes are accustomed to the attention of the audience, this is probably the first time that an athlete has encountered "the whole world watching their racket being stepped on and broken" - they are not mentally prepared for it.In a sense, the more you think about “I can’t let the racket control my performance” and “I can’t let my opponent feel that I’m being influenced”, the more susceptible you are to the psychological implications of these negative thoughts.

When discussing this incident, some people citeZhang YiningIn the previous case, Zhang Yining believed that she could have won the match even though she was forced to change her racket. However, in terms of "being noticed", the two incidents were completely different: in the previous case, neither Zhang Yining's opponent nor the audience knew about the "racket change". Zhang Yining herself also said, "I can't let my opponent see that I am particularly dissatisfied with this racket."

Therefore, in terms of mentality and momentum, Zhang Yining was not "overwhelmed". But Wang Chuqin's racket was broken during a live broadcast to the world, which is impossible to disguise, and it is difficult to guarantee that his mentality will not be affected by it.

In 2019, several sports scientists from Ukraine interviewed high-level athletes and found that the primary factors affecting athletes' performance include motivation and willpower.

Motivation is easy to understand, whether you have a strong desire to win. Willpower represents whether an individual can break through himself, overcome difficulties, control emotions, etc.

Athletes must have a desire to win, which is necessary, otherwise what is the point of competing. However, if you have an overly strong mentality of "wanting to win and fearing to lose", it actually takes up a lot of cognitive resources and psychological energy.

Robert Yerkes, American psychologistRobert M. Yerkes) and John Dodson (John Dillingham Dodson) proposed the Yerkes-Dodson curve in 1908. The curve states that people perform best under moderate stress or excitement levels, and as stress or excitement levels increase, performance will first improve, reach an optimal point, and then gradually decline.

in other words,If you want to achieve good results, there is no pressure at all, that is, the motivation to win is impossible, but if the motivation level is too strong, it will hinder behavior and performance.。

The most typical example of poor performance due to excessive motivation levels in sports is the "Jensen effect".Dan Jansen ) performs very well in normal training, but often fails in important competitions - this is because high pressure and high expectations lead to poor performance.

We must have experienced this in our lives: when faced with major events, because we want to perform well so much, we repeatedly remind ourselves "not to be disturbed by external factors", but this causes our minds to go blank, our thoughts to become confused, and our hands to tremble with panic.In fact, this is the physiological change caused by emotions - stress causes the HPA axis to be overactivated, blood flows to the limbs, the muscle tension of the limbs increases, and the brain is ischemic.。

This is why the national shooting team now has to do mindfulness training to regulate emotions before and during the game. Because of the high requirements for fine movements, the hand state cannot be affected by emotions and mentality, such as hand tremors.

Speaking of this, do you think of the phenomenon that many table tennis players will blow air at the ping-pong ball, go to the corner to touch the table, and turn the racket before serving?

Many netizens joked that "this is blowing fairy air" and "laying a magic barrier", but in fact,From a psychological perspective, this is also a kind of mindfulness training, pulling the mind back from the eyes of "spectators" to the present and immersing it in the flow state of playing.。

Image source: Internet

Many times we always linearly link competition results with strength (competitive level, ability, etc.), but in major competitions we have seen too many "dark horses" emerge, and some of the top ranked teams in the world have stumbled - in psychology, this is called the "choking phenomenon."

Among them, the most impressive is the American star Emmons, who missed the Olympic shooting gold medal twice. The reason behind this is actually psychological factors.

As early as the 1970s, management psychologists realized the difference between "Can do" and "Will do" in employee performance - "Can do" is a question of ability, "Will do" is a question of attitude, and thus proposed a formula:

Performance = ability x motivation。

That is, the work performance of employees is related to their actual ability and work attitude (motivation). This formula is still valid in sports scenarios. Competitive sports are not only a competition of ability, but also a competition of mentality, especially for high-level athletes.

American psychologist Korari also pointed out that the success of junior athletes in competitions depends 80% on physiological factors and 20% on psychological factors. However, it is just the opposite for senior athletes.When athletes' training levels, physical fitness and other physiological conditions are very close, psychological factors become the key to victory.

Those who can participate in the Olympics must be the best in different sports fields of various countries. Most of their abilities are on par with each other (except for Bolt's cliff-like lead). What they really compete in the arena may be attitude, motivation, and emotional stability, such as how to deal with anxiety, worry, anger, despair, etc.

Orlick's (2002) study of Canadian Olympic athletes showed that the differences in technical and physical factors among athletes in the Olympic finals did not reach a significant level, but there were significant differences in psychological state, which would have an important impact on the athletes' participation.

In a table tennis match, the number of balls in each game is different, and the score changes are very complicated. For example, there may be a big lead, a big deficit, consecutive scores, consecutive losses, consecutive losses after a big lead, consecutive scores after a big deficit, etc., which poses a more severe challenge to the athletes' mentality.

Summarize

As the highest honor in competitive sports, the gold medal has great symbolic significance and motivational effect for athletes, but for competitive sports, uncertainty is an important part of its charm.

It is this uncertainty in the game results, game process, athlete status, and even referee decisions, weather, venue and audience status that not only increases the viewing and attractiveness of the game, but also promotes the all-round development of athletes and the improvement of their competitive level.

We hope that Wang Chuqin can quickly adjust to his state and devote himself to the next game. We also hope that every athlete facing the dilemma of "being watched" can adjust to their state and perform at their best.

[1] Vysochina, Nadiia & Vorobiova, Anastasiia. (2019). Basic Psychological Factors Affecting Athletes’ Training. Polish Journal of Sport and Tourism. 26. 21-26. 10.2478/pjst-2019-0010. 

[2] Bali, Ashwani. Psychological Factors Affecting Sports Performance. International journal of physical education, sports and health 1 (2015): 92-95.

[3] Jerry Orlick. Excelling in the Olympic context. Journal of Excellence, 2002(6):5-14. 

[4] An analysis of the performance of my country’s top ping-pong players based on scores. Shi Zhihui, October 20, 2015

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