Why Athletes Choke Under Pressure

Even the most skilled athletes, musicians, and performers can make mistakes on relatively simple tasks, so what’s happening in our brains when we choke, and is there something we can do to overcome these moments?

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[jerry]

The problem is especially bad when it happens at food eating contests

[Master_Therion]

This can be dangerous for competitive freedivers. The better they do, the more pressure they're under.

[michaelmeyers]

When you want to watch a 6 minute video, your bus comes in 6 minutes, and you get a one minute unskippable ad

[Toastmaster_]

In my experience, it's not specifically being distracted that matters, but rather preventing yourself from thinking too hard about what it is you're doing. If you're a pro at something, you depend largely on muscle memory or instinct to do what it is you do. _But, _ even if you're not under _any_ pressure, if you start thinking too much, you start to screw up.
If you're a touch-typist and you think about which position your next finger needs to be in or watch the keyboard, you'll slow down your typing.
If you drive a manual transmission and you focus too much on where your hands and feet are, you won't shift smoothly.
If you play a video game where timing matters and you count-down in your mind when to make your move, you'll miss it.
You don't necessarily have to distract yourself, you just have to stop thinking about your technique.

[TrekkieBrie]

Life long figure skater here. It NEVER fails that during almost every competition I would fall during a jump, even ones that I knew I could land.

[thisaccountisdead]

British tennis player Andy Murray is an interesting case. As a child he was caught up in a school massacre in-which many of his school friends died. So in some ways he possibly had tennis as something to focus on as way of dealing with the trauma - and he got very good at tennis. But in other ways he seemed to be so racked with 'survivor guilt' that he would struggle to win games - even if it seemed as though he was sure to win, he would fall apart. Possibly an extreme of what we all go through perhaps?

[TMWriting]

I’ve never actually seen Nord VPN *not* on a 75% sale. I’m beginning to think it just costs $2.99 a month and they’re pretending that you’re always about to miss out.

[TheGFeather]

So true for music as well. Overthinking is probably the #1 reason I make mistakes while playing. My fingers know what they're doing, but I get in the way of myself ALL THE TIME!

[MysticalOrb]

Can you rename this to "why people choke under pressure" so that I can send it into my friend when he loses a 1v1 clutch in a video game?

[sanjuansteve]

Yes, pressure can distract and it can also push us to a higher level of focus, and yes, confidence (absence of fear of failure) is the primary determining factor.

[ExecutionersSon]

I don't know why, but this video (more accurately its topic) made me really anxious.

[lilliandutch]

We are at a track meet when this was posted and my sister said she just "choked" at long jump so perfect timing

[indigodragon]

I guess this is why I seek to forget all of my math knowledge on a math test. It’s also just seeing the numbers. Math literally gives me anxiety. I look at the numbers, specifically equations, and all I want to do is crumple up the paper and shred it.

[Kalmortha]

That probably explains why when I have a full bladder and have to pee I tend to do better at my job during high stressful parts. There are moments that I choke during training exercises and I have noticed that if I drink a lot before a training exercise, especially with live aircraft or live ordinance, and force my self to have to pee and hold it during the event I do a lot better and sometimes even Ace the event with 0 discrepancies. Me having to hold it makes me separate my attention, I have even noticed if I even make small jokes or play with a pen I can get the same effect. Very interesting.

[RedwoodGeorge]

As a golfer, ummm, yep. I came up with a good technique to avoid overthinking, especially when driving the ball. I noticed that if I really messed up a drive (sliced it into the woods, hooked it onto the nearby highway), hitting a *second* ball always went pretty well. Usually I'd overthink the first swing, taking too much time thinking about my grip, readjusting my feet, second-guessing my balance and posture, etc. On the second attempt, I'd approach the ball with the attitude of "Dang it! You know how to do this! Just walk up there and hit the #$&@ ball!" ...and sure enough, I'd usually smack the ball straight down the fairway.

As an experiment, I started approaching the ball -as if- I had already mis-hit the first ball. I'd walk up with a "just hit the ball already!" attitude and do what my muscle memory already knew how to do: hit the ball properly. It works surprisingly well and on those occasions when I fall into the over-thinking trap, I pull this little trick out of the bag :-)

[NewMessage]

That's why I never chew gum while ...


I mean, .. You should never...


C'mooon.. just one joke, NM..You trained all your life for this moment.. you can do this. You can do this!


Knock knock?




... Dammit.

[spindash]

Given that I have the working memory of a potato powered clock, that explains why I never freaked out on tests in high school

[MrChanw]

That was a smooth transition to the sponsor

[zacharysmith]

Did anyone else get flashbacks to all those standardized tests they didn't do so hot on?

[RangerRuby]

Yes, people tend to choke under pressure but as all procrastinators are convinced, they say they do well under pressure.