How Being the Favorite/Underdog Affects your Mindset and Performance
Last week I talked about how the score can affect your mindset and performance . Today I want to talk about how being a favorite or an underdog affects your mindset and performance. A favorite is the athlete or the team that is expected to win against a certain opponent. An underdog is the athlete or the team that is expected to lose against a certain opponent. You can be anywhere on the spectrum. You can be heavy favorites, slight favorites, slight underdogs, or heavy underdogs. Two teams can be evenly matched with no clear indication who is the favorite and who is the underdog. Being a favorite and being an underdog can affect an athlete's mindset and performance in many ways. Here are many examples: Being a favorite can give you confidence . If everyone thinks that you can/should win, this will help you believe you can win. This confidence can be great for motivation . This improves performance. Being a favorite can cause complacency. If everyone thinks you should win easily, yo