Have you ever wondered what goes through a basketball player's mind when they have the ball down two points with the final seconds ticking away? Can you imagine the pressure a kicker has to make the game-winning field goal as the clock expires? Athletes often have to overcome a mental battle in high pressure situations in their respective sports.
Adidas recently celebrated the launch of its new global brand campaign in Las Vegas with a panel of brand athlete stars to discuss how they navigate and overcome the pressure associated with their sport. In its new campaign, Adidas joined forces with leading sport neuroscientists, neuro11, to analyze and dissect the impact of playing sports under pressure. Backed by data and analysis, the goal of the campaign was to find ways to eliminate pressure from an athlete and get back to the joy of the game.
Adidas' panel featured some of the brightest stars in the game including WNBA champion Chelsea Gray to go along with NFL stars Tua Tagovailoa, Kirk Cousins, Amon-Ra St. Brown, and Garrett Wilson. In front of kids from the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, each athlete discussed situations they've experienced where they were under a significant amount of pressure and they explained how they dealt with each scenario.
Kirk Cousins shared how he was on the cusp of being benched and losing his job for good in 2015, playing for Washington, as his squad was down 24-0 to the Buccaneers.
"I remember thinking maybe, I'm not cut out for this and maybe I've reached and exceeded what I was capable of," Cousins says during the panel. "We ended up coming back and winning 31-30, the largest comeback win our team's history. It was after that game I looked into a camera and yelled 'YOU LIKE THAT!'"
Cousins explained that to eliminate the pressure he just had to let go and just go play whether he exceeded or failed. Tua Tagovailoa referenced the 2017 National Championship as his pressure-filled moment when he replaced Jalen Hurts to lead Alabama to comeback win over Georgia in the biggest game of the year.
Pressure coincides with the mental health of an individual. Some of the Adidas stars expanded on how to make sure they maintain their mental health. Chelsea Gray, Garrett Wilson, and Amon-Ra St. Brown all agreed that getting off your phone is good way to avoid the negativity that might trickle into your mind from social media. They all highlighted ways to maintain your mental health from cooking to listening to music to connecting with family.
Fabien Steinberg and his neuro11 team worked with Emiliano Martínez, Ludvig Åberg, Nneka Ogwumike, Rose Zhang, and Stina Blackstenius to analyze and identify where pressure peaks, to help athletes everywhere understand how to deal with pressure. In a press release, Adidas reported "that the brain zones that neuro11’s state-of-the-art brain technology measures and the main insights from each athlete’s training session, each report sets out to support all athletes in accessing the optimal zone - the brain state in which they perform at their best. Rounded off with science-backed tips that reveal the optimal area of a goal to strike a penalty, how to use time to regain focus before netting a free throw, as well as the impact of dwell time on putting in golf – the guides are shaped around enhancing mental focus."
