SPORTwhen a string of hits or misses occurs, we attribute this to an athlete
being on or off form, rather than recognizing that the pattern is most
likely down to chance.
The power of the mind
Another line of research in sports psychology has looked at mental prac-
tice – where a sportsperson imagines performing sporting techniques
without making any actual physical movement. Neuroscience has shown
that there is extensive overlap in the areas of the brain responsible for
performing an action and imagining that same action. Consistent with
this, psychology studies have shown that mental rehearsal really does
benefit subsequent physical performance. However, in a 1994 meta-anal-
ysis of the literature on this topic, James Driskell warned that the effects
the time in fact – keepers chose to jump rather than stay in the middle.
He thinks this reluctance not to jump may be a sporting manifestation
of the “omission bias” – that is, failure feels worse after doing nothing
than after doing the wrong thing.Manchester United goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar saves a penalty from
Chelsea’s Nicolas Anelka during their 2008 Champions League final.