How CrossFit Promotes Social Facilitation And Performance

For over a year and a half, I’ve been actively involved in CrossFit and this has positively impacted my training. Before I started the CrossFit program, I was a gym rat. My focus was on the bodybuilder routine. When I added in rock climbing, I added cardio to my program.

The next routine I added was the kettlebells. I added these after a RKC workshop. I felt this helped to better complete my training. However, the progress wasn’t quite what I was expecting.

When I joined CrossFit, I saw supercharged results in just a month. When you consider the fact that I was already in great condition, these results are rather impressive. After all, there is a belief when you are physically active and fit you are already at an incredible place.

Social Facilitation And CrossFit

This experience made me realize something important, groups do have an influence as part of social facilitation. This happens all the time, in areas where your decisions impact you in profound ways. In the past, I’ve approached sports with an attitude that I did it because I loved it. This is the claim most athletes make when they do an interview. The truth is, most of us struggle to admit we love doing things for the audience and the outside influences to what we are doing.

Social facilitation is interesting, because it comes from a deeper evolution. This is perhaps why we struggle to readily admit the influences we have. Some of the effects of it are positive after all, while others are considered negative. It is safe to assume that social facilitation is somewhat positive, after all, this does lead to survival. Zajonc Keingartner stressed this point in his 1969 study which shows the social behavior is found in cockroaches.

In the study, the cockroaches studies actually completed tasks slower than those who were working with others. Groups were able to accomplish tasks faster. But what does this mean for athletes? In this case, you’ll perform better when there are others look at you. After all, when you’re good at something, you want to be viewed as the best. Alternatively, if you are weak in an area, you are more likely to choke when the pressure is on.

[color-box]Struggling? Find out why by getting your free copy of “How To Make Change Easy” HERE[/color-box]

So how are you able to use that information to your advantage? Especially when you are looking at ways to be more effective in what you’re doing. A good place to begin, is to accept that social facilitation is real. When you accept that, you’ll have the chance to move to the next step. That understanding training for your sport is essential before you try to head to a public stage.

Looking at social facilitation, it is important to understand what it means. It is the improved performance a person experiences, in the presence of others. This comes from co-action effect and audeicne effect.

While looking at social facilitation we find the impact comes from an individual’s behavior which is affected either by the real, implied or imagined presence of others. After all, there is something about impressing those around us that appeals to a deeper subconscious.

The first social experience of this kind was designed by Norman Triplett in 1898. As part of his research, he looked a the speed records being set by cyclists. He noticed that when these individuals were racing against each other, they managed to achieve higher speeds. In laboratory conditions, he attempted to duplicate his findings.

For this, he used a child and a fishing reel. There were two difference variations. The first had the child alone and the other was children in pairs working alone. Their task was simple. They had to wind the fishing line as quickly as possible. In the scenarios with other children, the times were dramatically faster.

Triplett’s experiment showed that there is a co-action effect. In this cases, having someone else around had others performing their task faster and more effectively.

So would you be impacted by the co-action effect? Think about your study habits. Do you work better in library where others are working, or do you work better at home alone? In 1937 Chen observed worker ants dug three times more sand than ants who were digging alone. In 1967 Platt, Yaksh and Darby found animals eat more of their food when other species are present.

[color-box]Make sure you grab your copy of Develop The Mental Strength of a Warrior Today! [/color-box]

Of course, social facilitation is also found in cases where a person is passive, such as a spectator of the sport. In this case, it is the audience effect.

In 1935 Dashiell discovered having an audience actually increases the number of performances which delivered better results. 1925 found Travis with a similar study suggesting that well trained individuals performed better when their performance was in front of spectators. However, in 1933 Pessin did suggest that subjects needed fewer trials to learn nonsense words, when they were being taught in front of a group.

To an extent, this suggests that social facilitation depends on the task at hand and the performer. In some cases, there is an improved quality of performance, while others may not be as directly impacted, based on the underlying circumstances.

Regardless of the reasons why, we know that having approval or disapproval from others does impact who we are and how we perform. The presence of others ignites our triggers and give us the anxiety and the drive to perform as best as we can.

This all leads up to why CrossFit is one of the best choices we have. After all, this program is designed for us to meet our full potential. When you are working with a group of people with a similar mindset, there is more of a drive to push yourself and to ultimately achieve a greater degree of success. All through the magic of social facilitation.