Staying calm under pressure

Your favorite athlete gets closer to a decisive victory. She misses the shot at the crucial moment as the crowd holds its breath. That competitor just went through the "choking" phenomenon, in which someone fails when it counts the most despite having practiced for months or even years. In sports, where performance frequently takes place under extreme pressure and depends on key moments, choking is a common occurrence. However, those who speak in front of an audience, compete in spelling bees, and even well-known musicians can all suffer from performance anxiety. The majority of people instinctively attribute it to nerves, but why does anxiety affect professional performance? There are two schools of thought that contend that focus is primarily the cause of choking under pressure.

There are the theories of distraction first. These imply that when the mind is preoccupied with worries, doubts, or fears instead of concentrating on completing the task at hand, performance suffers. Something has to give when thoughts that are pertinent and irrelevant vie for the same attention. The amount of information the brain can process at once is limited. Pressure is especially vulnerable when performing tasks that tax working memory, the mental "scratch pad" we use to temporarily store items like phone numbers and shopping lists.

In a 2004 study, a group of college students were asked to complete math exercises, some of which were simple while others required a lot of memory. While the other students completed both problem types while calm and under pressure, only half of the students completed them.

While everyone performed well on the simple tasks, the more challenging, memory-demanding tasks were worse for those who were under stress. The second set of theories for why people choke under pressure are explicit monitoring theories. They worry that under pressure, people might overthink the task at hand. According to this line of reasoning, once a skill is automatic, thinking about its exact mechanics hinders your ability to perform it.

Unconsciously performed tasks appear to be most susceptible to this type of choking. In a study of professional golfers, the players' performance was compared between training them to simply concentrate on making the best possible putts and training them to be acutely aware of the mechanics of their putting stroke. Golfers typically carry out this action unconsciously, so those who suddenly became aware of the specifics of their own movements also suffered from a decline in their ability to hit accurate shots. However, not everyone will necessarily choke. According to research, some people are more vulnerable than others, particularly those who are anxious, self-conscious, or afraid of being negatively judged by others.

So how do we prevent choking when it matters most? First, practicing in tense situations is beneficial. In a study of professional dart players, researchers discovered that those who hadn't practiced under pressure fared worse under anxiety than those who had. Second, many performers tout the benefits of a pre-performance ritual, which may include deep breathing exercises, saying a cue word aloud, or performing a set of rhythmic movements. Studies on water polo, golf, and bowling have found that brief rituals can improve consistency and accuracy of performance when under time pressure.

Thirdly, studies have shown that an external focus—where one is tuned in to the big picture—performs better than an internal focus, where one is tuned in to the details. In a study of seasoned golfers, it was discovered that those who hit chip shots while concentrating on the ball's trajectory outperformed those who concentrated on the movement of their arms. The old adage "practice makes perfect" can therefore be modified to mean practice done under pressure, with concentration, and with the end in mind.