By Matthew Gonzalez, Ph.D., CMPC
Although this movie was released in 1980, just to be polite... SPOILERS BELOW!
As did many kids, I grew up loving Star Wars. And that love for the franchise hasn't changed... Although, maybe that love has gotten more complicated given the wide range of new material and equally wide range in the quality of the new material. But I digress...
The Empire Strikes Back ranks up there with the very best of anything ever created in the Star Wars universe. As well, there are a surprising amount of insights from the movie that are relevant to sport and performance psychology.
So without further delay or personal trips down memory lane, let's jump on in and talk about the six sport psychology insights that I see in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back!
Creativity and Flexibility are Important Success Assets
Near the beginning of the movie, during the Empire's assault on Hoth, the Rebel forces are completely outmatched against the extremely imposing AT-ATs. For those not super familiar with Star Wars jargon, those are the gigantic, metal, camel-looking things.
Wave after wave of Rebel forces intercept these AT-ATs with no measure of success. It isn't until a Rebel fighter decides to hitch a tow cable to one of the AT-AT's legs and wrap it around to trip it that one is first destroyed. Another is later destroyed when Luke tosses a grenade inside one after cutting open a small hole in its belly.
The lesson to be learned here is that the success didn't come until the Rebels got creative and tried something different. The repeated frontal assault was fruitless so they needed to be flexible in their approach to make room for success to happen.
In our day to day work in trying to achieve our personal and professional goals, the same rule applies. If what we are doing isn't working (after a genuine sustained effort), then maybe it is time to try something new and creative.
As you think of your performance goals, reflect on the following questions.
First, in what way might you be approaching your goals over and over again without any measurable impact? And second, in what way might you be able to approach these goals differently, with creativity and flexibility to return to progress?
Fear, Leadership, and Team Performance
It is a dramatic understatement to say that Darth Vader is an authoritarian leader. And while much of the film is set on expanding the audience's understanding of Darth Vader's ruthlessness, in this context I'm less interested in him and more interested in looking at his subordinates.
Authoritarian leaders often control by using fear. They can be the ultimate stick wielders and admonish those who so much as offer a carrot. Those underneath them are motivated towards success out of fear of the punishment that might come if they are not successful.
They are also overwhelmingly concerned with punishment in general. This leads the team to focus more on the avoidance of mistakes, rather than the approach of excellence.
We very well know that being over-concerned with mistakes ends up being a distraction (not to mention potentially lifting someone right out of their performance Goldilocks zone); so overall authoritarian leaders as a whole often end up with lower performing teams than they could have had.
Yes, there are examples of those who have gone this route and found success; but I offer these two rebuttals. First, those examples are great examples of survivorship bias, their success might be on display but hidden underneath that are the countless times it didn't work and did significantly more harm than good along the way. Second, you can definitely name coaches who are more autonomy-supportive who have reached equal or greater success.
If you are a leader in any capacity, reflect on the following questions:
Have I cultivated an environment where those I lead are motivated to do well? Or, have I created an environment where those I lead are motivated to avoid doing poorly?
Is Mental Performance Caught or Taught?
Before the beginning of Luke's training on Dagobah, Yoda is immediately exasperated with Luke's lack of patience. Just then, spoken from the netherworld of the Force, Obi-Wan exclaims to Yoda, "He will learn patience."
This quick exchange opens up an interesting concept. Many of the factors of mental performance are often attributed to (and mistakenly conflated with) personality. Personality factors by definition are stable features of a person, but factors of mental performance are more dynamic than personality.
The resulting conflation of these two has helped creating the resulting narrative that mental performance is something that is caught as opposed to taught.
Said in another way, many people believe that you either have mental skills or you don't.
We know that this fixed mindset of mental performance is incorrect; but the narrative surrounding it persists in some circles. We know poise under pressure can be taught; we know that confidence can be taught, and so on.
So why does the myth persist? Well, like all things sport psychology, its complicated and multi-faceted. Perhaps dissecting some of these myths can be the subject of a future post!
But for now, consider this question:
In what ways might you be limiting yourself because you believe that there is some mental performance attribute (e.g., confidence) that you don't have and have convinced yourself you cannot learn?
Consider Being Here, Now.
During Yoda's consideration of whether or not to train Luke, he talks about Luke's lack of attention to the present moment:
"This one a long time I have watched. All his life has he looked away, to the future, to the horizon. Never his mind on where he was... [on] what he was doing."
This point Yoda makes here is excellent and it relates to so much of performance on a variety of different levels. Of course, thinking ahead isn't necessarily a bad thing. But so much of what determines what might lie ahead is actually happening right here, right now.
As hard as it sometimes is to believe, the steps you are taking (or not taking) in this very moment, can have an impact on whether or not you will approach those end goals that you have visualized.
As you reflect on your performance goals; think about the following questions:
What am I doing right now, that is serving my future goals? What will I do today that I hope will impact what happens years from now?
Seeing Is Believing For Confidence (But Maybe Faith Has a Role Too)
In one of the most iconic scenes of the movie, Yoda implores Luke to try and use the force to pull the X-Wing from the swamp. Luke initially balks at the idea, suggesting that his ability to move a rock is much different than moving what is essentially an entire, submerged, space fighter jet.
Luke makes an initial (maybe half-hearted) attempt and fails, suggesting to Yoda that what he is asking for is impossible. Then, with the most magnificent John Williams score in the background, Yoda seemingly without effort lifts the X-Wing from the swamp and sets it down gently on the land.
Luke exclaims to Yoda, "I don't believe it!" To which Yoda replies, "That is why you fail."
In one scene and a quick exchange we come up against an intriguing dyad of confidence. Is confidence more a matter of trust and faith? Or, is confidence more a matter of evidence? Well, both are important! And here's why.
Let's start with Luke. Luke doesn't believe in the raw power of the force until he sees it with his own eyes. And, for what its worth, the majority of confidence comes from two sources, personal success and vicarious experience; both of which are evidence based in nature.
In essence, the former suggests I believe in myself because I've done it before and the latter suggests I believe in myself because I've seen someone similar to me do it before. So, Yoda isn't fully correct in his dialogue at the end here. But he isn't fully incorrect either.
Part of confidence is wrapped up in the story in which we are telling about our capability. We aren't robots and some of us aren't great observers of our own present and/future ability.
So while Luke might have needed the visual evidence of the force's ability (and his own ability to wield that power), it is also possible that he isn't appraising his own potential accurately and that little bit of self-talk externalizes for a moment which Yoda catches on to.
As you consider your path towards your own performance goals, ask yourself:
What am I not seeing right now, that I need to believe in? And, what success am I seeing right now, that maybe I need to do a better job of taking stock of?
The Role of Anger in Performance
In The Empire Strikes Back, Luke gets his first real exposure to the "dark side" of the Force. On multiple occasions, both Yoda and Obi-Wan caution Luke about the use of anger and how that leads to the dark-side. Furthermore, Darth Vader implores Luke to use his anger in his fight against him to become stronger.
The reality of anger in a performance context is much more complicated and nuanced. Anger gets a bad rap and Star Wars really does it no favors by placing it into the dark-side categories. Let's breakdown how both the Obi-Wan/Yoda and Darth Vader are right and wrong.
How Darth Vader is right:
When we look into sport psychology research, we can find anger nested in ever so slightly inside the marker of emotions that are considered to be negative, but performance facilitative in terms of Hanin's Individual Zone's of Optimal Functioning (IZOF). So, in a way, Darth Vader was correct in that anger does have the potential to assist in performance.
How Darth Vader is wrong and How the Obi Wan/Yoda are right:
Anger isn't 100% helpful to 100% of all performers. For some performers, the physical and mental acceleration that comes with anger can be too energizing and can thrust someone out of their performance Goldilocks zone.
Furthermore, we have to consider how the anger is generated. Anger generated out of dislike for another person or institution could serve to be a distraction; and distractions typically detract from performance.
How Obi Wan/Yoda are wrong:
One final thing to consider is that while being a generally angry person could be a stable personality trait, the controlled use of anger in performance doesn't make you an angry or bad person. It certainly doesn't mean that you are doomed to a life of power-hungry, intergalactic conquest either!
In thinking about your own performance goals, reflect on the following questions:
Are your performances helped or hindered when you experience anger? How can you control that to your advantage?
Wrap-Up
I hope you enjoyed this sport psychology dive into one of my very favorite films and certainly my favorite Star Wars movie. I leave you with my favorite quote from the movie.
"Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter." -Yoda
Go out there and chase your goals like the luminous being that you are!
Please feel free to send any thoughts and suggestions to matthew.gonzalez@greenpeakperformance.com! And if you really enjoyed it, please feel free sharing it!
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