Trash Talk 101
Nothing is certain except death, taxes and trash talking in sports.
If sport really is 90 per cent mental, then your best strategy is to beat your opponent between the ears. It can be as easy as yelling ‘easy out’ on the baseball diamond or something more serious about your opponent, but once you have the psychological advantage, you can gain the physical one also.
Trash talking is universal among athletes and it’s no different when it comes to para-sports. Some people only think about a Para-athlete’s story and forget they are competitive individuals, competing at elite levels. Para-sports may have different classifications and gameplay, but what doesn’t change is the drive to win on the playing surface. Trash talking is a mental defense that athletes of all ability levels employ to gain the advantage over an opponent who’s more skilled. Talking trash is both strategic and emotional. It can give a competitive advantage to the purveyor and disrupt the athlete on the receiving end.
Paralympic bronze medalist for the Canadian men’s sledge hockey team Kevin Rempel, or “Remps” to his friends says trash talk in his sport is no different fro the kind of trash talk you’d see in the NHL and can be a very effective tool to use on the ice. He says there is always a strategy behind the trash talk. When Rempel first joined team Canada he came across sledge hockey legend, Rolf Pedersen. Rempel says he didn’t possess the speed or skill of the Norwegian, but he would always try to
aggravate him by calling him an old man and telling him to get off the ice. “It was 100 per cent to get under his skin, because we knew that Rolf was a hot-head,” Rempel says. “If we could get him pissed off and draw a penalty against him, their best player would be off the ice and it worked very effectively.”
This form of trash talk is common across sports at all levels of competition, from pro athletes to an average recreational player. It is often referred to as needling, just a way to get under a person’s skin and take them out of their own rhythm. Wheelchair basketball player for Variety Village in Toronto Jesse McNalley, uses this to plant seeds of self-doubt into his opponent’s head. “I’ll say to my team, ‘don’t jump the shooter,’ [meaning, don’t contest the shot] and he will second guess himself and start to think he is a bad shooter.”
These trash-talking strategies are effective in the men’s game, but maybe not so much in women’s sports says one player. Geneva Coulter is a Canadian women’s sledge hockey player and in her experience there is a big difference between how men and women use trash talk. “Within the women’s game talking trash is less common,” Coulter says. But when she plays for the Alberta co-ed team, she notices a significant up tick in the amount trash being talked. “When it comes to men,” Coulter says, “they get angry at the trash talk, their emotions come through and they lose focus. For me I generally end up concentrating more on my own game if I get angry. I want to be better, not worry about the other team.”
Video courtesy NBA
This clip from NBA TV's show 'Open Court' gives the athlete's perspective on trash talking in sports, with real examples.
Jesse McNalley sees your opponent as the big determining factor of how intense the game is and how strong the trash talk can be, often the games that become the most heated are ones played between familiar opponents. “We have a big rivalry with Quebec and there is a lot more trash talking going on in that game than a smaller club game,” says McNalley. Part of the strategy of trash talking is to exploit your opponent’s mental weaknesses, which is far more effective when you know them well. “There are certain players you have played against in the past that have a temper that you can take advantage of,” McNalley says. “The quicker you can get them angry, the quicker you can get their head out of the game and that has an affect on their entire team.”
Christoph Trachsel, a member of the Quebec Wheelchair basketball team, agrees that the more familiar you are with your competition the more you know how to get under their skin. Trachsel though, objects to McNalley calling the games between their two sides ‘a rivalry.’ “The rivalry only exists when the teams are pretty equal, but in the last couple years, Quebec has been much better than Ontario and our real rivalry is with Montreal,” Trachsel says.
Some people think about trash talk as mean-spirited or disrespectful, which sometime it can be, but by in large it is fairly innocuous and is just a way to have fun. “We don’t try to intimidate our opponents with trash talk, people respect each other on the court,” Trachsel says. McNalley agrees, and says talking trash should not be personal; it should just be about the game and your opponent sucking at the game.
Photo by: Andrew Holland
Trash talking has been a part of sports for as long as anyone can remember, and that’s not likely to change. As long as it doesn’t go too far, it can provide professional athletes a competitive edge and recreational players a way to further enjoy sports with their friends. “In practice, trash talk is just about having fun with your buddies,” Rempel says. “All the talk makes playing the games much more interesting.
