Research Hit: How Words Change Performance - Instantly
How the rights words, or specifically analogy, can immediately boost performance significantly.
Words can change performance instantly? That sounds too good to be true!
It does, doesn’t it.
And in what way?
This research, just out by Jason Moran et al. of the University of Essex, looked at sprinting performance of elite young footballers. As you, and readers, are probably aware, I am a competitive (masters) athlete and take a keen interest in research around sports performance. Many of the results have parallels to everyday life and the world of business.
Ok, and is it specific words?
No, just finding the right analogy. But first let me explain something that may sound counterintuitive and this applies to all areas. We are probably used to coaches telling us and others precisely what to do and in sports this is often focused on bodily movements.
We may assume that this is good advice, however, plenty of other research has shown that focusing on external cues is more effective than internal cues. Focusing on internal cues seems to disrupt fluidity of movement.
This could also be applied to business scenarios such as when giving a presentation and focusing too much on, say, body language which may inhibit something else such as eloquence.
So what was the impact and what words, cues, should we be using?
So, the impact was significant, but let me give some examples.
This was used for 20 players of Tottenham Hotspurs academy in sprint tests - using the instructions "push the ground away” gave better results than "drive your legs into the ground." But the most impressive was when the researchers gave the instruction using an analogy. Specifically: “Sprint as if you are a jet taking off into the sky ahead."
And this produced a 3% increase in performance - that may, or may not sound important for you but for elite athletes that is significant: equivalent to 0.3 seconds over a hundred meters. This is the sort of difference that many well-trained athletes (which these were) would need to train months and years to achieve.
Seems like a few apt words are all that is needed!
Wow - so is this universally applicable?
What is surprising is that this was in well-trained athletes. However, the researchers believe that younger athletes may benefit more because their focus is not as attuned. I am sure that this does not apply to those at the top of a specific skill - so olympic sprinters are so well trained and attuned, pushing the limits of their personal performance, that you would not see this sort of difference. That said I am also sure that it wouldn’t hurt and could make the marginal gain that can make a difference. Medals are often decided on hundredths and not tenths of seconds.
And in other areas of life?
I think this is applicable in all areas of life - focus on the outcome and find the right analogy would be great advice in any situation. And also this illustrates that language does matter - if you use negative language it will impact outcomes, if you find the right analogy it will help create a positive outcome!
And that is very, very good to know!
Reference
Jason Moran, Matt Allen, Joshua Butson, Urs Granacher, Raouf Hammami, Filipe Manuel Clemente, Megan Klabunde, Gavin Sandercock.
How effective are external cues and analogies in enhancing sprint and jump performance in academy soccer players?
Journal of Sports Sciences, 2024; 1
DOI: 10.1080/02640414.2024.2309814