Underdog vs Favorite


I recently read an article which surveys hundreds of athletes from all levels of competitions and asked them if they would rather be the underdog or the favorite.  The results indicated that 75% of athletes would prefer to be the underdog.

This makes sense if we believe the philosophy of Yogi Berra who said the 90 per cent of sport is 50 percent mental.

The thinking is that all the pressure is on the favorite.  The underdog really has nothing to lose since they are expected to lose, so they can go all out and take risks.

The thinking is that most sports ultimately come down to the mental game.  In the last few minutes of the game, if the game is close, that is when the mental game takes over.  The underdog thinks, "it's close, it is within reach, this is really possible." and the favorite thinks, "this isn't the way it was supposed to turn out, they shouldn't have had a chance".

People love to cheer for the underdog in sports.  The crowd, the public can often be like a extra member a team.

Sports are an awful lot like life, yet when we are the underdog, we typically back down and don't even try.  We think we can't fight city hall, of equivilent.  We give up before we even try, thinking that the odds are astronomically against us.

Maybe sports has more to teach us in life.   Recently, I saw a great commercial for Tim Horton's.  It told us that Tim's had responded to tweets from ordinary Canadians indicating that their dark roast was not flavorful.  They are changing their dark roast in response.
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This is incredibly encouraging.   It tells us that David can still beat Goliath.  The underdog may have more power than they realize.

If you are ever in a battle that you think you don't have a chance, don't give up.  You may have more power than you realize.

You may win or you may lose.  Either way, the sun will likely come up the next day and you will never have to deal with regret.  You tried.  The crowd will be with you !!

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