Athletes and the psychological barrier

Shooting for the moon: Bob Mathias broke the psychological barrier by clearing a bar 6 foot 1-1/4 inches tall in the 1948 Olympics.

Psychological barriers have played an important role in sports. These are mental developments that have clogged the minds of athletes, confiscated their license and flustered them into doing the unnecessary until they finally find themselves in a predicament from where the once attainable suddenly seems unlikely.

The South African cricket team after the apartheid era is a prime example. They are always considered to possess the arsenal to make it big and yet have been found guilty of not getting past a single knockout stage in all the World Cups they have played. The prospect of failure cripples the mind and a defeat, in those games, becomes more a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The 10-second barrier was often spoken about when it came to track athletics until Jim Hines, in 1968, completed a 100-meters sprint in less than 10 seconds. His time: 9.95 seconds.

Events, especially in sport, are believed to happen first in the mind before they actually happen on the field.

During their hegemony at the top, Australia had the habit of breaking down a test match into sessions, winning each of them and leaving their opponents deprived of even a modicum of belief.

When Bob Mathias, the U S decathlete and a two-time Olympic gold medalist, was asked how he cleared a bar 6 foot 1-1/4 inches tall in the 1948 Olympics, he famously said, “I threw my heart over the bar and my body will followed.”

And it doesn’t end there. In 1954, Roger Bannister became the first to break the four-minute mile barrier as he, in near exhaustion, completed it in 3:59.4 minutes. After doing so, he spoke of how these events were first run on his mind before they transmuted into reality.

Sport attaches a unique obsession to these “round” numbers. We, fans, are lulled into believing falling short of these figures is because of fidgeting when they are just around the corner. We also don’t find the need to address the absurdity of cheering for a 100 more than a 150.

Interestingly, these psychological barriers once broken, the subsequent pursuits have failed astonish us in a similar manner.

Getting past the 400 run mark in ODIs is no more a fad; not after South Africa showed it is possible to surpass a total of 434 with one ball to spare against Australia at Johannesberg in 2006.

Swashbucklers: Tendulkar and Sehwag become the first and second batsmen respectively to get to the 200 run mark in ODIs.

The late 1990s saw many athletes go past the 10-second barrier. 2008 registered a record number – 14 athletes went past the 10-second barrier.

Few athletes stand separated from others by refusing to take these figures for granted. Not for them these numbers and limitations. These men set standards for themselves, reach them and then reset the bar again. These are great players who turn spectators into addicts with the promise they offer us. Their expectations from themselves outweigh ours.

Sachin Tendulkar’s 200 against South Africa, at Gwalior, was one such example. The fact that it was unexpected record of him and he got there when he was 37 talks of his unmatched appetite for runs.

However, Sehwag was there at the top in the list of likely candidates who could get past the 200-mark (not many remember that he targeted this landmark in the Asia Cup 2004), given the ruthless aggressor that he is and how hard it is for a bowler to contain him. Here at Indore, against the West Indies, with several balls to spare, a 250 was there for his taking did he not miscued one to Martin at long-off.

And now that these two men have set a precedent by getting to the 200 mark, there are a few other batsmen who are rolling up their sleeves waiting to emulate them.