Game Face

Men are different from women. That's a shocker I'm sure, but it is in fact true. One thing that guys do, and often times do very well, is developing multiple personalities. This isn't the disorder kind of personalities, but intentional personality groupings to accomplish specific tasks.

This ability is often referred to as having a "game face". Men have lives as women do and sometimes those lives involve things that make playing sports well harder. For example, Johnny just broke up with his girlfriend. He is pretty torn up about it and angsting all over everyone because of it. He gets to his high school football game and they coach yells at him to pull it together and put his game face on.

Is his coach being mean? Is he telling him to squelch his feelings and not have them anymore? No, no to both. The coach is telling him to put his feelings into his romantic relationship brain box for later and pull out his football lineman box. Johnny gets the message and does it. He goes out and smashes heads in for 90 minutes and hardly once thinks about his ex. He performs well and once the game is over he puts lineman Johnny back away and pulls out angsty ex-boyfriend Johnny and grouses some more.

I have seen this and variations on it many times in my life and in my own personal experience. The effect is most pronounced in athletes, pilots, and soldiers. They shut down whatever life distractions there are and immerse themselves in the moment at hand. I have seen guys who are normally peppy goofy dudes zip up a flight suit and sit in a pilot seat and become super serious no-nonsense sticklers. Then a couple hours later they hop out and boom, goofy all over again.

It happens more broadly in different environments. When I am at work I behave differently than I do when I am at home. I behave differently at church. I behave differently when I am with some friends vs others. It isn't an issue of me not being "true to myself" or disingenuous with anyone. It is simply that different environments call for different focuses of my broader personality.

I realize women do it too, but I have seen it much more strongly in men. It's just a kinda neat trick we do.