Quote:
Originally Posted by Textcritic
"Anyone" can see this effect? I have conceded that players and fans believe they play "bigger" in McGrattan's presence, but I remain highly dubious about declarations concerning players thoughts or feelings as they pertain to the outcome of the game. In my opinion—and this is an opinion that follows from scientific studies on the subject—our own powers of perception and our intuitions are extremely poor adjudicators of real cause and effect.
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I'll only quote the one since I think our disagreement hinges directly on this. You concede that players believe they play bigger with good enforcers on the team, but you don't think this has anything to do with performance. As someone who has spent time working with high performance athletes, this is CRAZY to me. This flies in the face of absolutely every single scrap of research that is being done in the field of sports psychology. I'm not quite sure what science your opinions are following.
Just observationally and strictly as a spectator, watching sports my whole life, I can tell you that intimidation and fear has a massive impact on athletic performance. Look into Berbick's eyes before the bell rings and Tyson is unleashed upon him. Look at any golfer that had to tee it up in the final pairing on Sunday against Tiger in the early 2000's. Look at the Flyers against the Red Army in 76.
You have no idea what will happen if we took fighting out of hockey, and neither do I, but at least my assumptions are based on consensus theories in sports psychology. You have just said it's voodoo, quoted the bible, and presumed that nothing would happen if we just take out something that has a direct effect on both the psychology and physicality of a sport. It doesn't work that way.