Thread by @stevemagness

This rant by a coach has been getting a lot of publicity.

Here's why the takes that say it shows passion & that players joking after a tough loss shows they don't care is nonsense.

Research shows us that top athletes don't stew over a loss. They move on, quickly.

Thread 👇

https://twitter.com/kpthefirst/status/1458162684382359559

What happens when we stew over a loss?

Hormonally: Stress hormones stick around, cortisol increases and lingers.

Psychologically: We ruminate. Negative thoughts increase. Frustration mounts.

Neither of those things helps us learn or motivates us. They hinder.

What research consistently shows is:

Better performers show a faster return of arousal/stress-response to baseline post-game.

They possess the ability to ‘turn it off’ to switch into recovery mode.

To simplify, we want to decrease the high stress, the catabolic state primarily driven by cortisol. We want to increase the build-up state primarily driven by testosterone.

Our goal after a game is simple:
-Shift from cortisol dominated into more repair/recovery hormone response.
-Put in a position where they can learn and grow from feedback.
-Resiliency is tied to an efficient termination of the stress response.

You might think...so what? They will be fired up for the next game by a verbal berating.

Research in pro rugby players found that negative appraisal by coaches post-game decreases Testosterone levels and negatively impacts the next game performance.

In psychology, there's a well-studied phenomenon called the winner's effect.

If we win, we get a boost in hormones like testosterone, and our chances of winning the next game, fight, etc. goes up.

If we lose, the opposite occurs. sciencedirect.com/science/articl…

Even if we win, if for some reason cortisol is high, it gets in the way of the T performance-boosting effect. Why? High cortisol shifts us towards a 'threat' state. We feel threatened.

Even high T can't shake us out of it.

This effect isn't just win= good, loss= doom.

After the competition, it's not just about the win or loss, it's what we attribute to it, how we internalize it, and how we evaluate it.

Drill down on our failures after a loss? Increase in C, decrease in T.

Right after a tough loss, we are in what I call the sensitive period. We can shift our psychology and hormones.

Dig a hole deeper after a tough loss. Bring them out of it. Take advantage of a win, etc.

All depending on how we frame it.

Post-game changes in Testosterone predict our behavior.

In one study, after a loss, changes in T predicted desire to play again.

If T increased, they wanted to play another game.
If T decreased, they had a lower desire to play again. researchgate.net/publication/68…

The coach plays a large role in determining which way we go. Emotions are contagious. Particularly when they come from someone of authority.

For example, one study found a coach's expression of happiness or anger predicted players' emotion & performance
researchgate.net/publication/32…

And what about the joking post-game?

One of the best ways to get out of high cortisol/rumination mode is socializing.

Simplistically: Socializing shifts us out of stress mode. Decreases cortisol, increases testosterone & increases in oxytocin, a hormone tied to bonding.

And what about "this is real life. Not a game to me!"

While this shows passion. It shows the wrong kind: obsessive.

When we tie our sense of worth too tightly to something, it puts us in a place where we are motivated by fear of failure, not a drive to succeed.

What research and the world's best performers consistently show is that what we want is harmonious passion. An inner drive.

Obsessive passion, being 'all-in' makes us fragile. We start playing not to lose, because if we lose at a game, it means we are a failure as a person.

So what?

I get it. Emotions are high after a tough loss. And sure, there's a place for being 'hard' on your team to shift their perspective.

But thinking that you need to be miserable after a loss= a sign you care is nonsense.

The best athletes quickly switch off. They move on from the negative emotion.

They socialize to shift out of high cortisol mode.

Why? So they can be in a state where they can process/integrate and learn from what happened.

In advising pro sport teams, I tell coaches:

After a tough loss, your goal is to get them to get them to let go of the emotion. To get the cortisol/threat to dissipate.

To have them quickly debrief/make sense with fellow athletes, not coaches, first.

Debriefing, shooting the shit with teammates is a low threat situation. Having a coach launch into what they did wrong immediately causes stress response, beats them down. The power balance matters when debriefing.

https://twitter.com/stevemagness/status/1353526247280795658

If you can get them to debrief, shift out of high cortisol/threat/rumination state.

Then, that puts them in a spot where you can go over and learn from what went wrong.

That's when you do a coach's debrief/film review, etc.

If you enjoy learning about the science and psychology of performance, follow along.

I try to give research-backed threads like this every week. For deeper dives, check out my free weekly newsletter: getrevue.co/profile/stevem…

For those who want to dive deeper, here's one of my favorite studies, and one I referenced in this thread. It found that post-game coach's feedback/video review influenced not only testosterone hormone concentrations but game performance a few days later.

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22465311/

And just to be clear. I'm not trying to disparage this coach. I get it, he's frustrated. It sucks to lose.

The point is: The screaming rant often feels like it helps.

But the reality is it makes the coach feel like they are doing something, without actually helping the players