This resourceful article will be showing you how to avoid choking under pressure. This can not only be useful if you are a sportsperson, but even if you are involved in any high-pressure situation or job.
How to Avoid Choking Under Pressure?
Choking under pressure is quite commonly experienced by sportspersons and athletes, who are used to getting involved in high-pressure situations. But, choking under pressure can also be experienced by others.
Basically, anyone who often gets involved in a high-pressure situation has the chances of choking under pressure. Many research studies have been conducted in this area, with some even revealing that those who have higher IQ levels choking more than others.
If you are someone who is often exposed to high-pressure situations and have found yourself choking before, there are a number of things that you can try. These are simple exercises and strategies which can be used no matter what your profession may be.
- Design a simple routine
- Make friends with failure
- Expose yourself to pressure
- Use distraction wisely
- Try not to procrastinate
- Express what you are feeling
- Trust your body
Design a simple routine
One way to avoid choking before a major performance is to practice a simple routine. Many athletes call this a pre-performance routine and it actually works. The routine often has about three or four steps to it.
How the pre-performance routine works is by first distracting you from the outcome and making you focus instead, on the process. Such a routine will also give your mind a protocol which will help you relax and give your best, rather than worrying about anything else.
Make friends with failure
Research studies have also shown that those who are desperate to win are bound to choke more. If you are too keen on winning and have a severe aversion to loss, this may lead you to choke in whatever you are doing.
However, if you are alright with whatever outcome you get and you are more involved in doing your best in the process, this can help in preventing choking. This is necessary, especially if you are trying to go pro in your sport.
Expose yourself to pressure
Proper practice is also necessary in order to avoid choking under pressure. When you are not confident in your skills, your mind is bound to worry more about the result of your work, which can lead you to choke because of the pressure.
The problem with many professionals who work in high-pressure environments is that they don’t practice or rehearse properly. Even when they do practice, they do it in a very stable and safe environment, which is rarely a real thing outside.
Therefore, when you practice, you need to expose yourself to pressure and stressors slowly and gradually. This can make your body and mind get attuned to stress. For instance, if you are a goalie of a football team, make sure that you get used to different shots from different directions.
Use distraction wisely
Another tip that you can use is to make use of distractions whenever you are in a high-pressure situation. However, this may not be liked by everyone and some may actually prefer to stay pressured in the situation rather than pushing their focus on to something else.
At the same time, distracting oneself from the high-pressure situation and focusing on something harmless has been used by many athletes and performers. For example, using a fidget toy can provide the necessary distraction along with some great sensory stimulation.
Another way to distract yourself is by singing a song or humming a song to yourself whenever you find that you are in a high-pressure situation. You can also try listing the names of presidents or doing interesting math in your head.
Try not to procrastinate
Some psychology experts who have closely studied choking and its effects have found that doing the activity quickly without any breaks in between can reduce the chances of choking for those who are in high-pressure situations.
Express what you are feeling
Expressing what you are feeling and going through can also help in preventing choking. This can be done through a number of ways and does not always mean that you need to be inside a therapist’s office for this.
For example, you can try writing down what you are feeling before going in to the high-pressure situation. You can also try speaking to someone, like a trusted friend or a colleague. Expressing not only helps you vent your emotions, but helps in better articulation of your thoughts.
Trust your body
Finally, the most common reason why people choke in pressure, even when they are experts in the field is because they keep overthinking even the littlest steps of their procedure. For example, thinking too much about the steps to a layup instead of just going with the flow.
This is mainly because they think that by tracking their steps and assessing each aspect of the situation, they are bound to come out successful. However, this only adds to the mental pressure of it all and leads the person to choke.
In such a situation, you need to trust your body and allow its muscle memory to do its thing. It may be tempting to overthink the process, but it is always wise to use your body-memory and your intuition to go with the flow.
However, there is a condition that needs to be followed when you are going with your existing memory. You need to have practiced really well before you attempt such a technique otherwise your muscle memory will not be effective enough to work.
As a result, this strategy may not be feasible for those who are new to the sport or the profession in which they are facing a lot of pressure. So, trust your body only when you know you have rehearsed your actions well enough.
If you like this article, please post your comments and questions in the space below.
Citations
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/279572170_Choking_in_sport_Research_and_implications
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1750984X.2017.1408134
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7907503/
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02784/full
https://blog.innerdrive.co.uk/sports/why-do-athletes-choke
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2020/nov/05/under-pressure-why-athletes-choke
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Choke_(sports)
https://news.uchicago.edu/story/psychologist-shows-why-we-choke-under-pressure-and-how-avoid-it
https://dictionary.apa.org/choking-under-pressure
http://psychology.iresearchnet.com/social-psychology/control/choking-under-pressure/
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