What Maverick and Iceman Can Teach Us About Performing Under Pressure

If you haven't seen Top Gun in a while, there is a pretty clear difference between Maverick and Iceman.

Maverick is talented, confident, impulsive, and willing to take chances. Iceman is more calculated. He follows the plan, trusts his training, and doesn't seem particularly interested in improvising when he doesn't have to.

As I talked about the movie with Dr. Aaron Peterson, a professor of leadership, pilot, and fellow Trekkie, I started thinking about how familiar this actually is in sports.

Maverick, Iceman, and the Problem With Trying to Make Something Happen

Maverick is a great pilot. That's not really the question.

The problem is that sometimes his talent gets him into trouble. He sees an opportunity, trusts his instincts, and goes for it. That's part of what makes him good. It's also what makes him dangerous.

We see something similar in sports all the time.

A baseball or softball player might start trying to hit a home run instead of just having a good at-bat. A boxer might start looking for the knockout instead of working behind the jab and setting things up.

The funny thing is that these athletes are often trying harder to perform.

They're just getting further away from what actually helps them perform well.

There is a reason we practice fundamentals. When things start moving quickly, you don't have a lot of time to stop and figure everything out.

You Don't Have Time to Think Up There

There's a great scene in Top Gun where Charlie asks Maverick what he's thinking when a MiG has him in its sights.

Maverick basically says that you don't have time to think up there.

He's right.

And he's also wrong.

You don't have time to think through every possible option when you're in the middle of a fast-moving competition. But you can think about it beforehand. You can look at what happened afterward. You can figure out what you want to do differently next time.

Then you practice it.

That's one of the things I liked about our conversation with Aaron. We talked about how much time the pilots in Top Gun spend debriefing their exercises. They aren't just flying around and hoping they get better. They go back and talk about what happened, what worked, what didn't, and what they can learn from it.

That's pretty good advice for athletes, too.

You compete. You review. You figure out what you want to do. Then you go back to practice and drill it.

Eventually, you don't have to think about it as much.

Maybe You Need Both Maverick and Iceman

I don't think the answer is that athletes should become Iceman.

Maverick's creativity and willingness to trust himself are also strengths. If you took all of that away, you'd probably take away some of what makes him a great pilot in the first place.

The goal is probably somewhere in between.

Trust your instincts, but don't confuse instinct with ignoring your fundamentals.

Be willing to make a play, but don't feel like you have to make something happen every time.

And when the pressure hits, trust the work you've already put in.

That's probably a better way to approach performance than trying to become a different athlete when the moment gets big.

Sport Psychology for Athletes in Southern California

I work with athletes dealing with performance anxiety, perfectionism, OCD, confidence issues, and other mental health concerns that can make sports more difficult than they need to be. I provide telehealth throughout California, including athletes in Long Beach, Los Angeles, and the South Bay.

If you'd like to talk about what's going on and whether working together might make sense, schedule a free phone consultation.