Is home turf always an advantage?

With the London Olympics well and truly under way, there is lots of talk of how the athletes are coping with the home venue and how this may affect performance, positively and negatively.

The supposed 'home advantage' theory has had many advocates over the years. In football during the 2000-2001 Premiership season, for example, over 60 per cent of matches that did not end in a draw were won by the home team. Some of the more obvious reasons for the perceived home advantage are: home crowd support filling the athletes with confidence, players' familiarity with their surroundings including how the pitch plays, the lack of travelling, superior changing facilities for the home team (as is the case at Stamford Bridge, home of Chelsea FC), increased motivation/inspiration to perform well. The list could go on...

Welcome to our turf

Already there has been a lot of discussion about how TeamGB and ParalympicsGB athletes will perform on home turf. Naturally, much of this has revolved around the positive effect of being at home. In fact, British Airways are so convinced of the positive influence that home turf will have on performance that they painted a giant image of heptathlete Jessica Ennis onto a field below the landing strip at Heathrow Airport reading 'welcome to our turf', with a hashtag of #homeadvantage. This is a reminder for those overseas athletes as they land that GB have the advantage this year – a form of advertising and gamesmanship that has probably done as much for BA's profile as the morale of TeamGB.

But there is a flipside to home advantage, too. The word 'pressure' has arisen in articles and interviews more than a few times. While GB athletes are being given lots of newspaper headlines and television time, this also comes with huge expectation and pressure. GB women's hockey coach Danny Kerry has already spoken out about how he feels that the team are going to view playing at home as an advantage and not as a pressure – because they choose to see it that way. No doubt there may be athletes viewing it as a disadvantage, but that is a perception personal to an individual.

Have a backup plan

It is vitally important that the athletes are prepared if things don't go their way by having processes in place should this occur. From a sport psychology point of view this is always good practice as it is important to plan for the 'what if?' scenarios. It's an approach that can be transferred into any sporting situation, giving the performer a sense of control. With this comes confidence and a lesser chance that the athlete will need to use their backup plan.

Release the pressure

So what can you do when perceived pressure is high? Notice I have used 'perceived' pressure, as an individual's perception of pressure is ultimately what pressure is for them. This varies hugely from athlete to athlete. It is important to reflect on what you think pressure is and where it may come from for you. The more you know about how and when you feel it, the greater chance you have of being able to positively deal with it on the big day.