The game is on the line and the coach calls for a flea-flicker. It’s the bottom of the ninth and they signal for a hit and run to get the winning run into scoring position. Or, there’s a par 5 and your going for the green in two. Constantly, situations in sports present themselves in which a little risk will carry a big reward.

As it happens, you or your team takes the risk to gain an advantage. Departing from normal behavior immediately increases anxiety levels and stress but something must be done to turn the odds in your favor. Obviously, whatever task or series of maneuvers you attempt is possible to some degree. It all comes down to the flawless execution.

Execution of this risk comes down to the belief that what you are about to do will yield positive results. This belief is called self or collective efficacy depending on whether it is in the context of a team or individual sport. You build efficacy through one of three avenues: individual, vicarious, and collective.

In an individual sport, such as golf, you believe you can make the shot because you have either made the shot before or someone with an equal skill set has made the shot. The best situation is if you have already done something similar and it turned out positive. Therefore, you know you can do it because you have done it before. Now, if you have never attempted it before then you can rely on other people’s experiences to guide you. Lets say you have a teammate or friend with the same handicap (again, in the context of golf) and they just hit the shot. You know that their skill set is very similar to yours and if they can do it so can you. This is vicarious efficacy and should give you enough confidence to attempt the task and then you will have your own data to verify your belief.

For a team, individual and vicarious efficacies remain true but collective efficacy also comes into play. If you have never attempted a flea-flicker in a game but the people around did it last season then you rely on their confidence to increase your belief of success. Individuals in a team setting feed off of the confidence around them through verbal and non-verbal cues that are highly subconscious but very effective.

Knowing that efficacy is the greatest determinant in behavior gives the player and coach a foundation for their training. Achieving desired results stems from a practice plan built around increasing the individual efficacy through mastery as well as using more skilled players as examples to create vicarious efficacy. More important than building up physical conditioning or memorizing tactics is building up efficacy in each player so they believe they can accomplish their task in any situation.  

For the majority of the game the score should not affect the mental state of the athletes in question. The focus should be on the immediate responsibilities necessary to carry out the next play. However, too often, knowledge of the score adversely affects performance. In transitional sports, namely basketball, the score shapes the perceptions of participating teams.

The greatest shaper of perception in a transitional contest is possession differential. Or, in other words, how many possessions it will take for the losing team to even the score. Not only can the losing team play worse due to this information but also the winning team.

For the losing team, a deficit leads to thoughts that their tactics and personnel are inferior. This line of thinking often times leads to individual play as players attempt to be the superstar and shoot their team back into contention. The result is now the team in question in not only losing but the cohesion suffers as well.

The winning team can also change their performance due to a large possession differential. A thought of superiority can cause a team to let up because a perception of effort necessary to win changes. If 100% effort creates a large lead then “logically” an effort less than the best should maintain the lead. Unfortunately, as soon as the effort decreases as does focus and no good team prepares for games with a less than maximal effort.

The second, and slightly more abstract, shaper of scoreboard perception is the rate of the possession differential change. Great teams do not panic when the opposition high three shots in a row and builds a little lead. They are cognizant of averages and know if they do what they know how to do the game will again even out. However, for more emotionally volatile team it can be alarming.

For the emotionally volatile teams a little run can be exacerbated into a big run when the scope of the their perception draws only from the immediate experiences. Instead of looking at previous times during the season when they erased a deficit a volatile team focuses only on their immediate situation. This sets the team up for failure because they no longer have a positive mindset for their current predicament. Their only thoughts revolve around what caused the deficit and not what will get them out of it.

The third and final shaper of scoreboard perception is when the score is framed by the time remaining. The losing team not only has to deal with scoring points against the opposition but they have to do so quickly. In basketball, this means shot selection takes a backseat to shot frequency as desparation sets in.

Conclusion: teams attempt what they think is possible. On the micro level, each player will attempt what they think is possible. Environmental variables shape everyone’s thinking so it is up to the team to decide what variables deserve their attention. 

One of the greatest household staples is the all-purpose, squeak eliminating, corrosion inhibiting marvel that is WD-40. It is as indispensable as duct tape and is a staple to any garage. How it came to be, however, is not very well known.

Self-efficacy is the belief you can accomplish what you set out to do. If you did not believe you could do it then you wouldn’t even try. Which take us to Norm Larsen, the creator of WD-40.

WD-40 received its name because it took 40 attempts to finally get the perfect formula Larsen had intended. In essence, his first 39 attempts were failures. Fortunately, he persisted until he attained perfection and the world is a better place because of it.

So, next time you attempt something and it doesn’t go quite as planned think of what Norm Larsen would do. He’d go after it another 39 times!

Moral of the story: Do not ever quit until you reach your vision!