The Story of The All Blacks: from Notorious Chokers to Rugby Dynasty

Posted On January 9, 2017

As I was researching “performing under pressure,” I came across a very interesting story about the All Blacks. For those not into rugby, the All Blacks are New Zealand’s (NZ) national rugby team and current 2x world champions and are considered the best team in the world–think of the All Blacks as the New England Patriots but way, way, way better. (Rugby is btw NZ’s national sport and passion like hockey is to our friendly neighbor to our north).

Picture

All Blacks performing the pre-game ritual: the Haka

This, however, was not always the case. Between 2004-2011, the All Blacks who carried an overall winning percentage of 75%, were known to be chokers–think of them then as the Buffalo Bills who won a lot but could never win the big one.

The All Blacks on paper had the talent and the preparation but they could never measure up to their country’s ambition during the Rugby World Championship (RWC), are held every four years. The All Blacks couldn’t shake their reputation and seemed to always make that fatal mistake in RWC matches. So how did the All Blacks go from zero to hero? How were they able to transform themselves from perennial chokers to standard bearers of excellence? ​

After a disastrous showing at the 2007 RWC, the All Blacks realized that physical, technical, and tactical preparations were not enough; they also needed to work on their mental strength–meaning their capacities to stay calm, stay on task, and make good decisions in big matches.

Here are my 5 take-aways from the All Blacks story:

  1. Define past mistakes to learn and fix them for the future
  2. Reflect positively on the negative to maintain confidence
  3. Prevent being helpless by preparing for the unexpected
  4. Be task driven, not result oriented
  5. Define challenges as positive opportunities

For those interested in geeking out a bit more, below are studies related to the matter:

  • Hodge, K., & Smith, W. (2014). Public Expectation, Pressure, and Avoiding the Choke: A Case Study from Elite Sport. The Sport Psychologist, 28(4), 375-389.
  • Jordet, Geir (2009) “Why do English players fail in soccer penalty shootouts? A study of team status, self-regulation, and choking under pressure.” Journal of Sports Sciences. 27(2): 97–106.
  • Vealy, R., Low, W., Pierce, S., & Quinones-Paredes, D. (2014). Choking in Sport: Act on It! Journal of Sport Psychology, 5(3), 156-169.