Today is January 18 and the Navigate the Chaos question to consider is “How often do you choke under pressure?”
“Choking,” is a drastic decline in performance in any high stress situation.
It’s when an athlete becomes overly concerned with the outcome that they switch off their mental “auto-pilot.”
One such example is the Chicago Bear field goal kicker Cody Parkey. In the January 2019 NFL playoff game against the Philadelphia Eagles, Parkey missed a 43-year attempt with no time left on the clock giving the Eagles an upset win over the Bears.
In her book Choke: What the Secrets of the Brain Reveal About Getting It Right When You Have To, Sian Beilock, Ph.D., suggests that choking can occur when people think too much about activities that are usually automatic and suffer from “paralysis by analysis.”
Unfortunately, people also choke under pressure when they are not devoting enough attention to what they are doing and rely on simple or incorrect routines.
In their book, Performing Under Pressure: The Science of Doing Your Best When It Matters Most, Hendrie Weisinger and J.P. Pawliw-Fry concluded that “the difference between regular people and ultra-successful people is not that the latter group thrives under pressure.
It’s that they’re better able to mitigate its negative effects.” Moreover, Paul Sullivan’s work Clutch: Excel Under Pressure highlights five key traits of clutch performers who succeeded under pressure:
focus
discipline
adaptability
being truly present,
having the fear and desire to win
Professor Geir Jordet from the Norwegian School of Sports Sciences examined the pressure that soccer players face during penalty shots. Jordet examined the film footage of almost 400 kicks from penalty shootouts during major tournaments and found that players need to take their time.
Using the film footage, Jordet timed exactly how long players took to place the ball on the penalty spot. Those who took less than a second scored 58 percent of the time, compared with 80 percent when they didn’t rush it and took longer than a second.
Adjusting to the pressure of a penalty shot takes time, so players who adapt practice that habit.
Winston Churchill noted “You can measure a man's character by the choices he makes under pressure.”
As you go about your day consider asking yourself how often do you choke under pressure?