Emotional factor
The emotional factor is all about a performer’s feelings and how these can influence the outcome of any activity. This includes emotions which affect confidence, resilience and self-control.
Anger
Anger is an emotion which has usually been caused by an event or series of events that the performer has had a reaction to. This could be because they have been offended, denied or wronged. It could also be down to much stronger performance from the opposition or an unlucky event. What starts as frustration can quickly change into a much stronger emotion.
Impact on performance
A rugby player is making mistakes with their kicking. The player is getting very angry. A team-mate notices this and has a quick word to help re-focus them. The player has a tackle to make and channels the anger into the tackle. This channelled anger helps knock the ball loose.
A basketball player was struggling against an opponent who was winning more rebounds and was good at protecting the ball. The player was getting angry that they could not help the team out more. This anger led to silly fouls against the opponent and this eventually led to being fouled out of the game.
Trust
Trust is when there is a strong belief either in a positive or negative way that the actions or ability of someone else is either good or not good enough to succeed.
Impact on performance
A sprint relay team have great trust in each other due to hard work and friendship in training. Each outgoing runner sets off and trusts the call from the runner behind will be made properly. They do not need to look back, meaning they stay much safer in the lane and ensure a quicker change over.
In a football match, the most effective midfielder has received a yellow card for fouling. The manager does not have enough trust in the player to not foul again so substitutes him. The midfield players still on the pitch struggle to cope with the defensive aspects of the role the subbed player was doing, giving an important advantage to the opposing team in the last part of the match.