Sport Psychology Blog

As I've stated before, there are 3 components of player development: genes, freewill, and environment. Last week, I wrote about the impact of genes and how to have a good attitude about genes. Today, I will focus on one of the other components of player development: freewill.

Freewill, and other similar concepts such as willpower and an internal locus of control, refers to your ability to personally control your destiny. It is your ability to think and behave to shape the world around you and reach your goals. Some people believe in the power of freewill, while others don’t. Some people wait and see if the world happens to unfold the way they want to while other people take initiative and make it happen. Some people undervalue the importance of freewill and willpower because there are many things that are uncontrollable in life on an individual level, such as natural disasters and the economy. However, even though you can’t control everything in life, you still get to control how y…

Nature (genes) vs nurture (environment and freewill) is debated in many domains, one of them being athletics. Some people believe great athletes are born while some people believe great athletes are made. The truth is there are three factors of athletic development/potential: freewill, environment, and genes. Genes control hereditary traits such as height and natural athleticism. Freewill is your personal willpower. It is your decisions to practice, workout, and improve at your sport. Environment is the people, places, things, culture, and era in time that surround you. All three of these factors interact to influence your athletic development. All three are about equally important. None, individually is far superior than the others. Great individual work ethic is limited without good genes and a good environment. Good genes are limited without good willpower and a good environment. And a good environment is limited without good willpower and good genes. But if all three factors are g…

How do athletes improve? What makes professional athletes so good? These are questions about athletic development. There are three factors of athletic development: genetics, freewill, and environment. Together, these three factors interact to develop athletes. Each athlete becomes who they are as a result of these three factors. Each athlete has their unique set of genes, freewill capabilities, and environment that makes them into the athlete that they are.

So the next question is, what are the specific types of genes, freewill, and environments that lead to the best athletic development? Every athlete and coach has their opinions about these questions. There are the common sense answers such as height (mainly caused by genes) helps in basketball, you need to work hard (freewill) to succeed, and it helps to have good teammates and coaches (environment). Many of the answers to these questions are specific to unique sports and unique individuals.

Another question that often comes up is …

Most people believe in the impact of home field/court advantage, but not everyone knows all the factors involved in it. It’s obvious that the crowd noise plays a main role, but there is more than just that. Here are all the factors of home field advantage:
Crowd noise: The crowd noise is meant to impair the performance of the opposing team. For example, the noise makes it harder for the players to communicate on offense or in huddles. The noise, in the form of chants and boos are meant to discourage and intimidate the opposing team. Fans can also try to distract players during free throws and field goal kicks. The crowd noise is also meant to encourage and motivate the home team. Many players feel adrenaline and play with confidence when the crowd cheers them on.
Motivation: With all other factors being equal, the home team is usually slightly more motivated than the away team. A part of this is the effect of the crowd noise. But also, players are very motivated to “protect their home.”…