Challenge ‘The Choke’

Society expects a lot from athletes. While mistakes are common, almost expected as inevitable to human nature, athletes make up an elite subset highly criticized for anything less than perfection. Held to extremely high, at times unattainable standards, elite competitors face mounting pressure to perform and exceed beyond expectation.

It has long be recognized that athletes’ who fall short of expectations are said to have ‘choked,’ or performed below their ability despite being favored to succeed. When bad outcomes happen, athletes’ choked. Most avid sports fans can recall a time or two when a favorite athlete or team has ‘choked,’ leaving the crowd stunned and frustrated, thinking, ‘what the heck happened out there!’

For years, we have accepted this equation for choking: Big competition + opportunity for success + poor outcome = Choke (Gentner, 2011). However, this implies that anytime there is a negative outcome in sport, the player or team must have choked. And that’s not entirely accurate. In fact, failure and defeat are natural consequences of sport; sometimes the bounce just doesn’t go your way. That’s the game. That’s how we as athletes learn and improve.

So, if choking isn’t failing a big moment or game…what is it?

Choking occurs when we fail to prepare. Athletes (and teams!) choke when they fail to take the necessary action to prepare themselves to succeed in big moments. This often leads to negative performance outcomes, yes, however, ‘the choke’ happened well before the end result.

Optimal performance occurs when athletes’ are zoned in; laser focused. Big moments tend to challenge this focused state, and our ability to stay calm, confident, and relaxed. When we allow the environment, situation, and social pressures to impact us negatively, that’s when we choke. 

So a better way to understand choking is this: Big competition/moment + opportunity for success + failure to prepare oneself to be successful and deal with the moment = choke (Gentner, 2011)

Based on the revised understanding of choking, we can see that we can control the choke. We can work to prepare ourselves to deal with big moments, and to stay calm, relaxed, and confident in competition. We are empowered to decide whether or not we choke.

You have the power and means to control this if you choose to prepare.

Here are a few key preparation strategies to challenge the choke:

1. Tune in to your mind and body. To beat choking, awareness is essential. It occurs when one actively deviates from learned behavior and instead engages in action or skills unplanned or unpracticed in an effort to succeed. This action is many times accompanied by overthinking and self-doubt that one’s learned and practiced behavior won’t lead to success this time. However, most often, this change in action backfires. These highly controlled, deliberate movements fail to be as effective as skills practiced and excelled at overtime resulting in self-produced chaos and stress.

It is important to pay attention to your thoughts leading up to a big competition. Are they racing? Do you doubt your ability? It is important to develop relaxation strategies that can help you calm your mind and refocus. Visualizing yourself succeeding through challenges can help you prepare your mind and body to overcome.

2. Develop pre-performance routines. Good habits keep you calm and focused. Creating a pre-competition performance routine can help you feel successful and confident in your preparation. Having a set routine also ensures that you don’t skip an important stretch, or rush through warm-ups. Developing a personal routine can help you keep your focus leading up to important moments. 

3. Utilize focus cues. Identifying words, short phrases, or lyrics that help to remind you of your goals are important in beating ‘the choke.’ Learning to repeat these focus cues during big moments of competition can help you to stay focused and on task, and they serve as constant reminders of how you can be successful. For example, a soccer player may use the focus cue, ‘endline & connect’ or ‘find feet’ to encourage runs towards the goal and accurate, timely passing.

4. Embrace the opportunity. Work to change your mindset. Instead of viewing big moments and competition as threats, view it as opportunity; an opportunity to play the game you love. Remind yourself of what it feels like to not play, sit the bench, be injured, be on a bad team… What would you rather have? If you continually change your mindset to employ opportunity based thinking vs. threat based thinking, you will in turn increase your confidence and lower your anxiety.

For more on this topic, check out this read

Mental matters almost as much as physical in elite sports