Officials often tell me, “I have difficulty managing emotions during high-pressure moments.” I’ll then ask the official to give me some examples of situations that are mentally and emotionally challenging. Quite often, the official is great at managing emotions in nine out of 10 high-pressure game situations. But there are often specific cases when an official is still learning to control his or her emotions. For example, the official might struggle to let go of a mistake and move on to the next play, such as after a successful coach’s challenge. Or officials could find their emotions getting in the way during the last possession of an intensely played game. Officials can sometimes struggle when they are being observed and evaluated by a particular coordinator.
For officials, what constitutes a high-pressure moment can vary. One football official said to me, “I don’t care if there are 50,000 fans in a stadium or if it’s a playoff game on national TV, that doesn’t bother me. But if one of my parents is at a game watching me referee, my knees shake.”
But for optimal performance, officials must be able to maintain control over their emotions throughout a contest — from the opening moments of play to the very end of competition.
Fear not. The necessary skills to manage one’s emotions in all high-pressure situations can be developed.
Programs like What It Takes, Referee’s mental-performance course for officials, are designed to help officials build these skills intentionally.
Pursuing Small Improvements Can Have Huge Payoffs
Emotions aren’t the enemy. They are a fundamental and natural part of the human experience. But officials must continue to learn how to manage them more effectively.
Each of us has emotions in high-pressure situations that are easier to manage, and emotions that are more difficult to manage.
It’s common for sports officials to face challenges related to confidence, composure, fear, frustration, anger, self-doubt, uncertainty, etc. Having difficulty managing these emotions can often lead to an official performing tentatively or being overly aggressive.
Healthy versus unhealthy coping mechanisms — Sports officials will develop healthy or unhealthy habits and coping mechanisms to deal with challenging emotions that accumulate over a long season.
The new technologies to evaluate sports official performance, including replay, have added another significant level of stress in high-pressure moments.
Additionally, thanks to social media, officials face more public scrutiny than ever before. “The whole world is watching.” Most sports officials know that limiting social media related to individual performance is important, but developing strategies to do so can be difficult.
To succeed at managing your emotions in high-pressure moments, aim for small incremental improvements throughout the season. If you aim to improve one percentage point per week, over the course of a season and even with setbacks, you could easily become 3–5 percent better at this — and that’s a margin that provides a huge mental edge and noticeable performance-related results.
Seven Common Emotions When the Heat Is On
Identify which emotions are easier and more difficult for you to manage. Set a goal to more consistently channel these emotions in a positive direction.
7 Basic Emotions
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Anxiety
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Fear
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Anger
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Embarrassment
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Uncertainty
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Frustration
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Joy
Positive responses: Motivation, Prepare, Determination, Opportunity, Respond, Grit, Grateful
Negative responses: Self-doubt, Tentative, Acting out, Self-critical, Flustered, Lack of focus, Complacency
Mental Performance Strategies and Techniques for Those Big Moments
Ladder of Success
Identify game situations where your mental attitude is typically at the top of the “Ladder of Success” and situations where your mental attitude is often on the lower rungs. Practice self-talk, breathing, visualization, etc., and see if this helps your mental attitude move up the ladder the next time you’re in a high-pressure moment.
Remember a past situation where you were at the “I Succeed” level of mental attitude. Access this positive memory the next time you need it to bolster your confidence and to give yourself a shot of courage to thrive even when the pressure has been turned to maximum.
Mindset: The Bigger the Game, the Narrower the Focus
In anticipation of high-pressure moments, or during a game with high-pressure moments, in order to control what you can, identify the three basic technical points that you want to keep in mind. These three technical points can become your “mental anchors.”
A baseball umpire recently asked me, “How can I focus better in high-pressure moments?” The umpire and I talked about how the bigger the game, the narrower the focus should be.
The next time he was in that high-pressure situation, he was able to say to himself, “I’m in this situation, I know what to do. I want to keep it simple, be mindful of my positioning and body language, and take one pitch at a time.”
Over time, the umpire reported this strategy helped him to be more in control of his emotions in high-pressure moments, rather than his emotions being in control of him.
Your Mental Preparation for a Game
Before a game, visualize yourself officiating at your best in high-pressure moments so when that moment happens in a game, you can feel as if you’ve already been there before.
Whenever you can say to yourself, “I’m ready for the situation, I know what to do,” you’re going to feel more confident and composed, and your officiating skill and training are more likely to be expressed in your performance.
Additional Strategies to Face the Pressure
Pregame: Positive self-talk, positive “what-ifs,” avoid overthinking
During the game: Regulated breathing, cue-word exercises (“Darn. Stop. Next play.”)
Postgame: Identify positives, set improvement goals, implement healthy coping mechanisms, keep perspective
Develop a Mental Skills Performance Plan
A basketball official recently told me she tended to overthink in high-pressure moments. The plan she developed included recognizing stress signals, doubling down on personal strengths, maintaining upright body language and self-talk: “I’m ready.”
Officials feel more confident and composed when they have a proactive plan rather than reacting in the moment. Officials looking for a step-by-step framework can find similar planning tools in the What It Takes course.
Positive Crew Dynamics
Crew dynamics are a major factor for officials managing high-pressure moments. Crews should talk openly about how to handle pressure situations and support one another in learning and improvement.
Emotional Regulation
Monitoring and managing stress is essential. When stress is too high, it impacts thinking, communication and judgment.
Phases include thriving (“I got this”), surviving, struggling and “red flag” moments (“I need help”), with appropriate actions for each phase.
Hope and Optimism Are Connected to Motivation
Hope is believing you can improve. Optimism is focusing on positives and building on strengths. Together, they fuel persistence, grit and growth.
Progress is not linear. The goal is to trend in the right direction over time, shortening the duration of emotional struggles and improving recovery between plays.
Summary
Managing emotions in high-pressure moments is a critical officiating skill. It’s a work in progress, but embracing the challenge to improve makes it an opportunity for professional growth.
Related Training:
Officials interested in developing stronger confidence, composure and consistency in high-pressure moments may want to explore What It Takes, Referee’s online mental-performance course designed specifically for sports officials.
Joel Fish, Ph.D., is a sport psychologist and licensed psychologist and director of The Center for Sport Psychology in Philadelphia.
