With all the references to the Proteas' Cricket Team choking in big tournaments,
this article looks at the psychological processes of the 'choke'.
this article looks at the psychological processes of the 'choke'.
Athletes know that feeling of effortlessness that comes with a great performance on the field. Every move feels imbued with a dancer's grace; the game flows and the athlete flows with it, never feeling rushed or harried. To the millions of spectators watching in the arena and at home, it's almost as though the team had some supernatural prescience, playing as though a victory were the only possibility they could see.
What is Choking?
Choking is the opposite of that flow. Stumbling and stunned, the team that should win -- that must win, if they're to uphold national pride in the biggest game of their lives -- falters. Instead of balletic grace, they exhibit something more like a zombie's stiff shuffle.
Mistakes that they thought they'd left in their schoolyard days reappear. Far from having a vision of their victorious future, the choking team looks as though they're barely aware of where they are in the present. While New Zealand managed to recover from their near-choke in the 2011 Rugby World Cup (Image courtesy of digiarnie, Flickr), it was closer than fans of the All Blacks may have liked. With an 8 to 7 win over France in the final round, New Zealand drew first blood, but looked stunned throughout much of the second half and barely managed to fend off the French assault. Ultimately, it was France's Francois Trinh-Duc who choked harder, missing a penalty kick that could have won the game.
Injuries to both teams took their toll, but so did mental errors. Those mental lapses and emotional meltdowns, not physical limitations, define a choke. Teams are therefore keenly interested in finding out what causes choking and how to prevent it.
The Science Behind a Choke
Sports psychology is one of the most rapidly growing sectors of the field, and not only for athletes. Anyone who has failed an exam or flubbed a job interview despite being well prepared for the challenge understands choking to some degree.It's tempting to chalk such mistakes up to a lack of concentration or to grow disgusted at a team for appearing to give up, but poor concentration is unlikely to be the culprit. The University of Birmingham recently published a study in the Directions in Psychological Science journal that suggests that choking comes not from a lack of mental focus, but from too much of it.
During major games, the researchers found, athletes become more analytical of their own actions.
They no longer become enmeshed in the flow of the game, but mentally stand outside it to scrutinize their place within it. Instead of letting muscle memory take over, the player relies on dissecting a performance to spot and correct its flaws.
As the game doesn't pause to let an athlete reflect too deeply on the past, that heightened awareness of mistakes leads to making more mistakes in the present. A loss becomes almost inevitable as the player becomes increasingly preoccupied with fixing a bad game. This process -- over-analysis leading to paralysis -- is the origin of a choke, and it also explains why bigger games mean bigger opportunities to choke.
Buckling Under Pressure
Athletes on the practice field feel little pressure. The worst they're likely to face is a dressing-down from the coach. Transferring the scene of the action from the practice field to a real match adds stress. With an audience of tens of thousands of raucous rugby fans screaming in delight or anguish at a player's every move, even a professional player becomes self-conscious, checking constantly for small breaks in form.If the match is against a hated rival or is part of a playoff or semi-final run, that pressure builds exponentially. During a final match, tens of millions watch, cheer and suffer. With so much riding on a kick or a block, players who aren't equipped to end that spiral of anxiety and fault-finding can choke.
Sports psychologists train athletes to break the analytical habit during matches. Telling athletes to relax does little good, but replacing the mental chatter of over-analysis with practical visualization helps overcome a choking habit. For example, a tennis player whose backhand becomes stiff under pressure might concentrate on using no more force than that required to flip a pancake.
Learning to focus on the present instead of the past or future of the match keeps choking at bay; past mistakes cannot haunt the player who lives in the present. Routines also let athletes focus on something concrete so their minds don't turn to fruitless analysis during a match.
This article has been produced on behalf of Keith Prowse,
the UK's leading corporate hospitality provider, with an affinity to sports.
the UK's leading corporate hospitality provider, with an affinity to sports.
