More performance thanks to mental training? Why researchers have doubts
Athletes swear by psychological tricks to get better. But now this: The new findings should get you thinking.
Many athletes believe that better brain function leads to better performance.
Photo: Getty Images
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Athletes often talk off their heads. And it's like this: the head made the difference compared to the competitor. This means: If the two objects are equal in quality, it is the brain's performance that decides whether to win or lose.
It's no wonder athletes swear by psychological help to improve their performance. One of the most popular and widespread of these methods is self-motivational talking.
Now Swedish researchers from the Karolinska Institutet wanted to find out whether improving performance through such interventions is based on science (here's the link to the study: Effects of psychological interventions to enhance athletic performance: a systematic review and meta-analysis).
Even then, the average person starts to shiver: this makes sense, he says. Why else do all these athletes rely on this mental training? And here we are talking to ourselves again, to choose probably the most famous example: the authors found so few studies in the entire literature on this topic that comparison between works was impossible. This means: (scientific) evidence – always related to increased performance – is not available for athletes.
Even more surprising, the authors found only 111 studies that addressed the question of whether psychological interventions increase athletes' performance. The majority were also unusable for comparison.
Criticisms of specialists
The authors' conclusion: “Despite decades of research, it is unclear whether psychological interventions have an impact on athlete performance.”
So he contacted Gustav Rainbow, the first author of the study. After all, he and his colleagues made quite a splash – as one might imagine. But Renebo doesn't think so, because it has long been known in sports psychology that there is a huge gap in the evidence. “We wanted to address this with our comprehensive study and show that we need to do better on this topic.”
Researcher Gustave Renbaud: “We need to do better on this topic.”
Photo: K
However, leading sports science journalist, Canadian Alex Hutchinson, wrote about the result: “Sports psychology has an evidence problem.” Gustave Rennebaut agrees, but wants to add a few things.
“Sports psychology has a methodological flaw,” he says. “Sports psychology studies are often not conducted in the laboratory, but rather in situ, where many other things can influence the outcome.”
In addition, according to scientific author Hutchinson, there is a surprising homemade mistake: whether psychological intervention was effective was almost always determined in studies based on the statements of the athletes examined – but never based on hard facts such as times. That's why he writes: “Anyone who felt better through competition interventions but wasn't actually faster doesn't impress me.”
Is there a placebo effect?
Can interventions in sports psychology lead to a placebo effect? “There are so few studies on this that we can't give a definitive answer,” Renebo says dryly. And here too: we don't know (yet).
However, it is important for Renebo to say one thing: This general study in no way calls into question the importance of sports psychology per se. It is of central importance, especially when it comes to the mental health of athletes.
“Sports psychological interventions are often aimed at finding a balance between sport and the rest of life and maintaining joy or even satisfaction despite all the pressures of performance,” he says. Improving performance is just one aspect among many.”
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