The mentality of sport is a fascinating thing. How individuals’ performance changes based on their mental state is vast and unusual. From the confidence of the champions to the pressure-enforced crumblings of the ‘bottlers’, one’s mentality can greatly define performance, often more so than technical or athletic skill.
We often do not talk about the mentality of individual players and teams because it is difficult to quantify. How do you statistically analyse whether someone is calm under pressure? It is very different from measuring someone’s pass accuracy rate. And yet, mentality has such a major impact on proceedings of sport.