When it comes to how an athlete presents his or herself, the popular ideal is an aura of humbleness. Scouts across sports are often hoisting prospects to the tops of their lists because they are both talented and humble.  Coaches love humble athletes because they are seen to be more coachable, less problematic, and likely not to cause rifts with the rest of the team.  Then, on the flip side to this, there is the athlete with a mental attitude problem.  This athlete negatively responds to a number of situations, might see his or herself as better than their teammates, and gives off an expression of conceitedness or cockiness.  Somewhere along the way, the athlete who plays with a chip on their shoulder got lumped into this category.  For whatever reason, the “chip” became associated with that negative attitude that coaches steer clear of when selecting players.  I maintain the chip on an athlete’s shoulder could actually be a healthy one, and could lead to more positive outcomes than negative ones.

Everyone has heard, and probably utilized, the term “chip on one’s shoulder” at some point.  It is an expression relative to many life scenarios but is very commonly used within the realm of athletics.  The chip has grown to become associated with cockiness and a bad attitude, at least to some degree, but let’s take a step back and see what it’s really all about and if it is as negative as people make it out to be. It is believed by some that the phrase originated back in the 1800s when it was commonplace for someone looking for a fight to walk around with a small chip of wood atop their shoulder.  If someone knocked the chip off, the chip-bearer was expected to fight that individual.  You could almost envision someone walking around with their chest puffed out, daring others to step up and knock that chip off of their shoulder, portraying a sense of“I’m not afraid of you, or you, or you.”  Compare that to an MLB slugger stepping to the plate daring the pitcher to give him his best stuff or an NFL corner daring a QB to try and hit a receiver over them. A player that portrays this kind of attitude openly on and off the field would be considered, by many, as having a chip on his or her shoulder.

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary has an informal definition of the phrase “have a chip on one’s shoulder”: “to have an angry or unpleasant attitude or way of behaving caused by a belief that one has been treated unfairly in the past.”  We never hear of athletes being mistreated or not getting what they deserve, right?  Of course we do, all the time: players of young ages getting cut from teams that they clearly have the talent to play on, better athletes finding themselves on the bench behind a lesser skilled player, players not getting drafted in a high-enough round…the list goes on and on.  Some would refer to these situations as forms of adversity, and coaches everywhere admit to loving athletes who have experienced and overcome adversity because it makes them better all-around players, formulating grit. Therefore, it’s all in the athlete’s response.  If he or she feels like they’ve been wronged and uses that situation to fuel themselves to be better and prove someone wrong, then so be it.  The chip on the shoulder develops directly from this, and that is where the distinction lies between having a chip on one’s shoulder and being cocky or conceited.  Having a chip on one’s shoulder is not the flip-side to humbleness, in fact, it could be a reason to be humbler.  That wronging in the past serves as a reminder of why they are where they are now.

This is exactly the case for NFL Jaguar’s cornerback, Tyler Patmon.  He made it to the NFL as an undrafted free agent and thus doesn’t feel stable on any roster he lands.  He claims that this lack of stability has put a chip on his shoulder that keeps him going and working, but also keeps him humble.  Another way to look at a chip on one’s shoulder is that it is describing a strong internal will to succeed.  This is backed up by the results of a study done on scholarship-awarded college athletes vs non-scholarship athletes.  Non-scholarship athletes were found to maintain higher levels of internal motivation than their scholarship-recipient counterparts.1  Obviously, the athletes on scholarship have an external source of motivation but internal motivation appears to last longer and stronger, as scholarship athletes report being less motivated each year, while non-scholarship athletes show more motivation over time.  An athlete who is pulling motivation from feeling wronged in the past has something to prove and feels as if they have nothing to lose. That is a strong combination that can lead to some very positive results.  Think about all the times you hear a story about a baseball player that spent years in the minor leagues to finally be brought up and they do something incredible their first game.  That is the epitome of playing with a chip on one’s shoulder.  They felt wronged that they were looked over for so many years and now they have an opportunity to prove people wrong and stick it to those involved.  

So, what is going on in the brains of athletes that play with a chip on their shoulders?  While there is no published research done on the topic, it doesn’t mean we can’t extrapolate.  The description above portrays the idea of playing with a chip on one’s shoulder as maintaining an emotional underpinning.  If you remember from the previous article, the limbic system (the oldest, evolutionarily, part of our brains) is highly involved in emotion, and more specifically, the amygdala.  In the previous article a possible positive connection was made between amygdala/limbic activation and performance in pressure situations.  When you think of someone with a chip on their shoulder, you tend to think of someone with a great deal of confidence. Performance in pressure situations is dictated heavily by self-confidence.  Another part of the brain I would expect to see implicated with the chip on the shoulder is the prefrontal cortex, which is involved in what’s called executive functions.  One aspect of this is involvement in the creation of thoughts and actions as they relate to internal goals, which directly applies to the idea of internal motivation in these athletes.

As it relates to personality traits, we can extrapolate, as well.  Based off of the tendencies of individuals that fall into the different Big Five personalities, I would expect an athlete that plays with a chip on his or her shoulder to be high in conscientiousness and maybe express a degree of neuroticism.  I argue for conscientiousness because those in this category are found to typically aim for achievement and are often perceived as stubborn but focused.  The degree of neuroticism stems from the base in emotion, however, since those with a positive chip on their shoulder tend to harness this emotional energy and utilize it well, there is a stability aspect to it.  As such, I would not expect them to be high in neuroticism, but, rather, express it to a degree.  These assessments would need to account for other associations the player has made throughout their life experiences in order to reliably identify the chip as facilitative or debilitative.  This is where my expertise and F.A.S.T. platform come in. Utilizing past and present data, along with scouting reports, I can decipher the grit from the garbage.

I hope to dispel the negative connotation behind the athlete who plays with a chip on their shoulder. The healthy chip on one’s shoulder has its roots in a past event that breeds present internal motivation.  This also makes for a clear distinction between the chip and cockiness or conceit.  Other popular psychologists have also noted the positive side of having a chip on one’s shoulder.  One example of this is Angela Duckworth, author of the New York Times bestselling book “Grit.”  Besides noting the presence of the chip on the shoulders of gritty athletes, she also worked with the NFL Seattle Seahawks on a system which included drafting athletes who had something to prove.  The athlete’s chip needs to stop being looked at negatively and start being seen as something that could drive motivation and the fuel to go from a good player to a great one, as represented by so many professional athletes out there today and in the past.

References:

1.    Medic, N.; Mack, D.E.; Wilson, P.M. & Starkes, J.L. (2007) The effects of athletic scholarships on motivation in sport. Journal of Sport Behavior30(3): 292-306.