Forrester PE Dept

Surprise

 

Surprise Definition:

Is a reaction to something unplanned or unexpected. Surprise is a brief emotional, mental and physiological state- a startle response experienced as the result of an unexpected event.

 

Impact on Performance:

Surprise can be pleasant, unpleasant, positive, or negative. Surprise can occur in varying levels of intensity ranging from very-surprised, which may induce the fight-or-flight response, or little-surprise that elicits a less intense response to the stimuli.

 

Depending on the nature of the surprise it can affect your decision-making, confidence, resilience and determination. An intense negative surprise can create a negative response or uncontrolled reaction, which impairs the ability to make decisions where the player just reacts without conscious thought. The performer’s mindset, level of confidence and resilience effects how they deal with the surprise/unexpected event. For example a tennis player who loses a point due to an unexpected lucky shot can react negatively they see it as bad luck on their part. They dwell on their bad luck, let their “head go down” their resilience or ability to bounce back is low this then affects their determination and confidence and their performance drops. A tennis player in the same situation with a high level of confidence and resilience can cope with the surprise/unexpected lucky shot forget about it and move on to the next point and not dwell on it or let it impact on their performance