The Effect of Body Language on Individual Performance

In a famous TED talk, Amy Cuddy describes how a person’s body language can actually shape their own chemistry, boosting or lowering one’s testosterone levels, and have an impact on their performance. “Fake it till you make it” is the famous line that anyone who has seen the video can tell you.

There are plenty of examples of Major League players that step into character when they get in between the lines in order to put them in a mindset they know will give them the best chance to succeed. They can psych themselves up, calm themselves down, get amped or get angry. Most likely, the player you see on the field is a different version of the person you would see at his home.

There is no better example of this than Al Hrabosky, also known as the Mad Hungarian, who was an undersized left-handed relief pitcher standing at 5’11”, with a straight, underwhelming fastball that hovered around 90 mph.  Al pitched from 1970 to 1982  for the Atlanta Braves, Kansas City Royals and St Louis Cardinals.  He developed a reputation as one of the better backend bullpen pitchers of the era, coming in 3^rd in the cy young voting in 1975 with 22 saves and a 1.66 ERA.

Before every outing, after warming up, he would step behind the mound, look at the ground, slam his hand in his glove, and turn around with an intensity that could not be matched.  His character brought a fearlessness to him, allowing him to pitch with more aggressiveness and confidence while creating a mindset of intimidation on to the opposing hitter. 

Faking Confidence

Two players in a slump. One is pouting, looking like a baby, and trying to get the whole world to feel sorry for him. The other one stands tall, has a smile on his face, and still carries a swagger like he is in charge of the room. Odds are that the player walking around pouting and looking like negative Nancy is going to have his struggles last a lot longer than the player walking around like he has no clue he is even in a slump.

People will still want to be around the guy who walks confident and maintains positivity. Because of that, they are more likely to pull for him and help him through his struggles, where the pouting player will isolate himself and think himself to death.

Digging deep to get into character makes you ask very reflective questions that sometimes spark thoughts and ideas that can serve as inspiration. It can inspiration for some type of adjustment, a battle plan, or inspiration to work harder. The pouting player will be consumed with negative thoughts that will only continue to produce negative results.

Focusing on becoming who you want to be will take energy away from your problems. When you focus on carrying yourself with confidence, you don’t think so much about the slump anymore, because you’re working hard to put your focus on the now. The pouting player has a dark cloud over his head following him everywhere raining negativity. Every negative action and thought is just more energy for the storm.

To be the person you want to be, act like the person you want to be.