Interesting paper from the coaching and coaching psychology perspective.

If we assume that there is really a Mechanism of Contagion then we could speculate that a key psychological Mechanism of Contagion is likely to be enhanced self-efficacy of the individual players by observing their high hitting team members. (Self-efficacy concept is based on Bandura’s social cognitive theory.)

If there is continued on-going success, a form of group-efficacy takes over within the team (and coach) as they all start believing in each other and the team which is the same as Bar-Eli and associates, 'success breeds success'. (Or, of course, the coach has just selected good players.)