Momentum - Does it Exist?

[hang on]

As Newton turns in his grave at the thread title, I put forward the question more aptly: Does momentum actually exist in cricket?

An interesting article in the grauniad would like to suggest not.

The death of momentum | Guardian Sport Network | Sport | guardian.co.uk

Calling boffins and propeller heads to arms to face the onslaught of the aesthetes and "FFS, it's a game and a player feels the game...." brigade.

 

[NasserFan207]

As any sports psychologist will tell you, momentum plays a role in all sport.

Its effect is limited somewhat within a team environment however.

 

[Howe_zat]

I can understand the idea within a game. But not between matches. It's simply buzzword for players to use in order to describe "playing well" or "form".

 

[NasserFan207]

I can understand the idea within a game. But not between matches. It's simply buzzword for players to use in order to describe "playing well" or "form".

Whatever word you want to use, its basically a subtext for describing the optimal mood required to perform well.

Or, to make it even simpler; confidence.

 

[BoyBrumby]

I can understand the idea within a game. But not between matches. It's simply buzzword for players to use in order to describe "playing well" or "form".

Yeah, mostly agree. It's an overrated concept, but equally I was fairly confident we'd win the 4th test vs India based on what'd gone before and knew for a bollock-crushing fact we'd lose in Melbourne and Sydney in 06/07 once we'd gone 3-0 down. These things take on a life of their own. If one wants to call it "form" or "momentum" or whatever.

 

[Furball]

I can understand the idea within a game. But not between matches. It's simply buzzword for players to use in order to describe "playing well" or "form".

It exists between matches, but only as long as the team with the momentum keeps running with it when the next one starts. It's why England won in Adelaide and Australia didn't win in Melbourne.

 

[Pothas]

It exists between matches, but only as long as the team with the momentum keeps running with it when the next one starts. It's why England won in Adelaide and Australia didn't win in Melbourne.

Well and England are a better side but yeah take the point.

Also very much works the other way round like India this summer, anyone who follows football (well actually not you) will know what its like to go on a losing run which just self perpetuates but always relate that to confidence more than momentum.

 

[Furball]

Well and England are a better side but yeah take the point.

Also very much works the other way round like India this summer, anyone who follows football (well actually not you) will know what its like to go on a losing run which just self perpetuates but always relate that to confidence more than momentum.

I did have to watch us go 11 games without winning once you know

Opposite applies to a winning run which I've seen much more of.

 

[hang on]

I did have to watch us go 11 games without winning once you know

Opposite applies to a winning run which I've seen much more of.

good lord, u must be a babe in arms!

 

[Neil Pickup]

Confidence / momentum / "knowing how to win" - all the same idea with different paint jobs.

 

[centurymaker]

Momentum/confidence does affect individual performances, but the same can't be said, with such certainty, about a team's collective performance.

 

[Furball]

Momentum/confidence does affect individual performances, but the same can't be said, with such certainty, about a team's collective performance.

Two words: batting collapse.

 

[Howe_zat]

It exists between matches, but only as long as the team with the momentum keeps running with it when the next one starts. It's why England won in Adelaide and Australia didn't win in Melbourne.

So "momentum" exists between matches so long as a team happens to carry on playing well across two matches? You're going to have to explain how that's different from the standard idea of keeping up your game.

For the record, I accept there's such a thing as winning streaks and form playing their part in sport (which "momentum" is often used as a synonym for in interviews) but the idea of momentum as a separate concept - that you have some advantage at the start of the next match just because you finished the last match well - is nonsense.

 

[BoyBrumby]

So "momentum" exists between matches so long as a team happens to carry on playing well across two matches? You're going to have to explain how that's different from the standard idea of keeping up your game.

For the record, I accept there's such a thing as winning streaks and form playing their part in sport (which "momentum" is often used as a synonym for in interviews) but the idea of momentum as a separate concept - that you have some advantage at the start of the next match just because you finished the last match well - is nonsense.

Isn't that a bit "po-tay-toe/po-tar-toe" tho? Playing well, winning habit, momentum; all synonymous, surely?

 

[Howe_zat]

Yeah, that's what I'm saying. If you want to use "momentum" as the trendier word for "form" or whatever, go nuts. But the extra ideas you get with "momentum" sometimes - things like being at an advantage for the 2nd Test by doing well on the last day of the 1st to draw it - I think are bupkis.

 

[Midwinter]

Played in games when you could "feel" or "sense" that we were going to win and also when a sequence of events happened and just knew we were going to lose.
That's the worst feeling in sport.

 

[centurymaker]

Two words: batting collapse.

I was more referring to momentum between games.
An individual carrying forward confidence from the previous game will likely perform better, but a team's momentum from the last game might have little positive impact on its collective output.

 

[Neil Pickup]

http://www.cricketweb.net/forum/cricket-chat/42481-class-permanent-form-illusion.html

Thanks for coming, Guardian. Only wrote this 30 months ago.

 

[Howe_zat]

When do we start charging?

 

[Tom Halsey]

Don't believe in "momentum" unless it's meant as a synonym for form or confidence (which themselves are far from the same thing), however I think a lot of people mean it totally differently from those two words.

I’m as certain as you can be that confidence affects performance, purely from personal experience. Being confident (or “in form” if you like) by no means guarantees that you will perform well though, merely makes it more likely.

Neil’s post is interesting, and I think a lot of things that are taken for granted as existing within sport are an illusion, however ironically form isn’t/wasn’t one of them. Will have a look into it.