A10. Fighting against inferior opponents

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There are occasional reports of professional teams losing to university student teams. This is what is known as a giant killing . The composition of the players on the professional team in the match may be a factor, but it seems that the performance level of the professional team was low, with repeated mistakes. However, the competitive level of each individual and the team's strategy level should be overwhelmingly higher on the professional team, so why does this happen?

　When you think the other person is of lower status, your stress level is low or self-restraint is high. A very low stress level means you are either sleeping or feeling completely at ease, and your motivation is low, your concentration is poor, your movements are slow, and your performance is very poor. On the other hand, when your stress level is too high, your anxiety increases, your movements become worse, and in severe cases you may even freeze up, and your performance will also be very poor..

In fact, when playing against a lower-ranked opponent, even if you are not aware that you are letting your guard down or making fun of your opponent, you feel that you can win or that you absolutely must win . If you think you can win and your stress level decreases , your performance level will drop. Also, the self-imposed pressure of not losing or making mistakes can increase your stress level significantly, causing you to lose your spirit of challenge, slow down your physical movements, and potentially lower your performance level. On the other hand, there are teams that are not afraid of making mistakes and are highly motivated to challenge with all their might, thinking, "It's a giant-killing!", even if they lose . This combination can lead to losses .

In the old story of the race between the hare and the tortoise, the hare is convinced that he will win, so he has no interest in the race itself and his stress level is very low . When the hare actually races, he takes a big lead, so he feels relieved and thinks "I've already won," and his stress level drops even further. Feeling relieved, he falls asleep halfway through the race. Meanwhile, the tortoise continues to walk steadily, and in the end, he is the winner.

In the second round of the Emperor's Cup All Japan Football Championship held on July 3, 2019, Nagoya Grampus of the J1 League lost 0-3 to the National Institute of Fitness and Sports in Kanoya . Inside Grampus features valuable comments from players Yutaka Yoshida and Shuhei Akasaki after the match. Yoshida said, "I don't think we were fighting. The coach told me that we were scared ." "We prepared well for this game. From the start of the match, we didn't put our soul into each play, and we didn't play with confidence." Akasaki also said, "I think our mistakes gave the opponent a chance." "We often played with our backs turned... It's common for this team to become backwards because we care too much about the ball." Even though they had prepared, what were they scared of, why did they lose confidence and care too much about the ball? Rather than being scared of the university students, I think they were scared of the self-imposed pressure of not losing and not making mistakes.

The 1989 Japan Series was between the Yomiuri Giants and the Kintetsu Buffaloes. The Giants were said to have the advantage, but the Kintetsu Buffaloes won games one after the other, and were one win away from their first Japan Series victory . At this point, a Kintetsu pitcher was reported to have said in a hero interview after the third game that "The season was much tougher. Our opponents were strong too..." and "The Giants are weaker than Lotte (who were last in the Pacific League that year)" (Sports Graphic NumberWEB). This motivated the Giants' players, and they won four games in a row from the fourth game onwards, and came from behind to win the championship. (Note that the Kintetsu player himself denies the "we're weaker than Lotte..." statement).

I think the Giants' players were under a lot of tension from the self-imposed goal of "winning is our mission." However, in response to the Kintetsu players' comments, their anger at the players' comments probably overcame their self-imposed tension, and their goal changed to a full-power battle with the opponent in front of them . On the other hand, Kintetsu's stress level had dropped after they thought they would win easily, but then they were suddenly overwhelmed by the sudden backlash, which became a strong stressor for them, causing them to fall into an excessive state of tension and prevent them from playing as usual.