Threat, Challenge, or Opportunity?

Last week was the final of the Australian Women’s Cricket T20 World Cup at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. This event marked the culmination of just over 2 weeks of competition, with our Australian women’s team reaching the final against a strong Indian side. The game was played in front of over 86,000 people – the 2nd biggest crowd of any women’s sporting match in history. Millions more tuned in from around the world to see the spectacle. It was a huge occasion for everyone involved, and a defining moment in the history of the women’s game.

Former Australian Men’s Cricket player and World Cup winning captain, Michael Clarke, commentated about the OPPORTUNITY these women had on the biggest possible stage. Which players would take this opportunity and execute the skills that they had been honing for most of their lives? Who was up for the CHALLENGE, and who would fall short?

A lot of players might become fearful or overcome in such a daunting occasion. The whole world was watching, cameras were rolling, and everything was on the line. One small mistake or missed chance could mean the difference between success and failure. Yet the players that typically perform better under such conditions tend to adopt a particular mindset.

Australia’s opening batter, Alyssa Healy, was one of those players that rose to the occasion on the day. She took on the challenge and put her stamp on the game right from the beginning. On the first ball she faced, she stepped out of her crease and smacked it to the boundary for 4 runs – you can’t get much braver than that on a cricket field! This showed a clear intent to be positive, aggressive, and take the opposition head-on right from the start. She went on to produce a match-winning score of 75 runs, win the player of the match award, and lead Australia to victory.

In performance situations, it is quite common for nerves and anxiety to be at their most intense right before you are about to step up and play. Once you’ve got through the early jitters and settled in, you can start to push the envelope and perform your absolute best. But it’s in this initial period when you need to maintain a positive and facilitative perspective, so that your nerves don’t get in the way or hold you back.

The main issue is that many people see pressure situations as pretty threatening. This type of perspective often leads to thoughts about what COULD happen in the future, commonly picking out the worst possible outcomes i.e. Catastrophizing. This threat perspective can muddle your senses, cloud your thoughts, and send you into panic mode. Concerns about making mistakes, thoughts of how the audience might interpret your playing, or how strong your nerves are feeling can create a whirlpool of negativity and fear that is extremely hard to overcome. It saps your energy, depletes self-confidence, and impairs short-term memory, attentional capacity, and judgement.

For any regular cricket player, playing in front of tens of thousands of people would be a daunting and threatening prospect. But this wasn’t the case for Alyssa Healy – she thrived under the circumstances.

So what might she have been focusing on in that moment before the first ball?

As Michael Clarke pointed out, rather that seeing her situation as a threat, she saw it as an amazing OPPORTUNITY to have fun and show everyone what she was capable of!

As a performer, you too can adopt this kind of “opportunity perspective”, which will enable you to achieve a much more positive and productive outcome. Focusing on the opportunity you have to display your love of music, the opportunity to perform, and to play beautiful music to an awaiting audience will greatly increase your chances of success.

What other opportunities can you think of that performing gives you?

Another perspective you can use to frame your upcoming performance is to see it as a CHALLENGE to test yourself. This kind of thinking helps narrow your attention and energy on producing your best effort, rather than focusing on the possible negative outcomes. You can build this type of “challenge thinking” every day, by viewing regular tasks as daily challenges to display and improve your skills and knowledge.

So for this week, I challenge you to improve 1 aspect of your playing, and come up with a plan on how you will do this each day. You can even say to yourself “Today I am challenging myself to improve on my (insert aspect of playing here)” before you start your practice. Then transfer this mindset into your performances – “I challenge myself to really go for it in the concert today!”, or “I am ready for the challenge ahead!”

So how will you approach your next performance opportunity? Are you up for the challenge?