1. Protect yourself from the heat, but don’t follow every piece of advice
Whether this World Cup will be a cracker remains to be seen. But the temperature is set to be well over thirty degrees in several matches.
In the run-up to the Nijmegen Four Days Marches, exercise physiologist Thijs Eijsvogels offered participants some advice on how best to cope with the heat. His advice at the time: wear light clothing, acclimatise to the heat in advance, drink plenty of fluids and adjust your walking pace.
In that respect, the Netherlands is well prepared. It certainly can’t be down to the state-of-the-art kits, and the team has been in America for over a week to acclimatise to the (weather) conditions. Staying hydrated won’t be a problem either, as there are two drink breaks in addition to the regular break during every match.
Then there’s the pace: naturally, it’s not wise to waste all your energy straight away, but a pace that’s too slow isn’t advisable for a good performance. Fortunately, unlike Four Days Marches walkers, the Dutch players can be substituted when they’re exhausted.
2. Embrace the stress (especially as a goalkeeper)
Under stress, our motor system is better prepared to take effective action than when we are relaxed. This was discovered by neuroscientist Yvonne Visser during her PhD research at Radboud University.
In her research, Visser put test subjects under pressure by administering a small electric shock to their finger at unexpected moments. ‘This put the participants in a constant state of stress, comparable to what you would feel as a goalkeeper during a penalty shoot-out at the World Cup.’ At the same time, the subjects had to react to visual dots that appeared suddenly. The neuroscientist then looked at the strength of muscle reflexes and saw that these were heightened under stress.
‘We saw that the muscle reflex was stronger when someone was under stress. The difference between a movement to the left or right was more pronounced. In stressful situations, the communication between the brain and the muscles is therefore stronger.’
The Dutch national team could do with all the help it can get during penalty shoot-outs, as it is no exaggeration to say that the Oranje suffer from a penalty syndrome. This was evident once again during the last two World Cups in which the Oranje took part, when they were knocked out by Argentina on penalties.
So, to goalkeepers Bart Verbruggen, Robin Roefs and Mark Flekken: embrace the stress and then trust in your stronger reflexes.
3. Listen to music after the stress
Whilst stress just before and during matches can contribute to better performance, it is important to calm down afterwards, for example by listening to some music. You might think that calm music works best, but psychologist Krisna Adiasto discovered that the music genre does not seem to play a role in the songs we choose to recover from stress.
Adiasto and his colleagues investigated which type of music best aids stress recovery and why. The researchers used questionnaires to ask 470 participants of various nationalities about the songs that make them feel better after stress. ‘The answers we received were surprising,’ says Adiasto. ‘If you look at previous research, you’d think people would choose classical music, but it ranged from hardstyle to classical and from soundtracks to ambient music.’
Based on the questionnaires, a list of 1,296 songs was compiled. The researchers discovered that stress-relieving songs share common characteristics. Adiasto categorises them into two groups: calm songs in a major key, such as Memories by Maroon 5 and Take Me Home, Country Roads by John Denver, and songs in a minor key that are moderately energetic, such as Shape of You by Ed Sheeran and Nothing Else Matters by Metallica. The songs are often in the key of E, with a moderate tempo in 4/4 time.
The team that finished third at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil had clearly understood this. After every match they won, they played Happy by Pharrell Williams. Hopefully this tournament will also provide plenty of reasons to play victory music.
Photo via Wikimedia Commons
