How Challenge versus Threat Mindset Affects Trampoline Gymnastics Performance Under Pressure

What is it about?

In elite trampoline gymnastics, athletes must perform very complex routines under high pressure, where even tiny mistakes can make a big difference. This study looked at how athletes’ mindsets before the season affected their performance later in the season during a high-stakes event. Specifically, we examined whether they evaluated an upcoming competition as a challenge or a threat. According to a psychological theory called the Biopsychosocial Model of Challenge and Threat, people who see motivated performance situations (which are important for wellbeing and personal growth) as a challenge (something they can handle given their personal abilities and situational demands) tend to perform better than those who see them as a threat (when the required performance is too much for one's abilities). We followed 50 elite trampoline gymnasts ranging from kids to adults and asked them before the season how they felt about their most important upcoming competition to see whether the competition was rather challenging or threatening to them. We then checked how well the athletes performed at their highly important competition, which was about 5 weeks later on average. We found that athletes who saw the event more as a challenge tended to do better in their first routine (a simpler performance with the same jumps for everybody), even after accounting for age, gender, and average performance throughout the season. However, in the second routine (which was freely chosen and generally more difficult), athletes who failed their routine actually were among those feeling more challenged before the competition.

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Photo by Charles Cheng on Unsplash

Photo by Charles Cheng on Unsplash

Why is it important?

The results suggest that while having a challenge mindset can tell us something about future performance, it will not always show who will perform better. Precisely, one needs to account for the complexity of the performance, as well as the temporal dynamics. It might be that asking athletes about challenge-threat experience after their first routine would have shown a different picture, and made it possible to predict better performance in the second routine. However, the research also shows the importance of considering sport-specific characteristics when trying to predict upcoming performances. For example, it might simply be that better trampoline athletes tend to report more challenge, but also have a greater risk of failing their routine as they pick more difficult jumps. This study adds new understanding to how mindset affects sports performance and might point future research into new directions.

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