Basketball: The Science and Solutions to Choking

Anyone who watches, plays, or coaches sports knows about choking. Sian Beilock, president of Barnard College (Columbia) and author of Choke defines choking as "worse performance than you’d expect from an individual, given that there is high pressure or stakes associated with the situation."

Beilock elaborates, “People choke under pressure because they worry about the situation, what others will think, what they will lose if they fail, and whether they can do this.”

Her experiments show that overthinking leads to brain malfunction via excessive blood flow to the right prefrontal cortex leading to a stress response. She found that self-conscious people may be particularly affected. 

Similar to Carol Dweck's research, she recommends the 'growth mindset' and practice to automate performance. Stereotypes also may result in underachievement, like girls underperforming in math. Giving people examples of people who 'defy' stereotypes can improve performance. "Women score about ten percent higher on math tests when you have them think about positive aspects of themselves."

Here's a partial list of 'anti-choking' approaches:

• Practice under pressure (at his zenith, Tiger Woods finished each practice by making 100 consecutive eight foot putts)
• Write down our fears. Writing down worries helps us let go of them. Writing helps fulfill reality. "I will finish this task." 
• Think better. Reaffirm our strengths and value.
• Meditate. Meditation reduces stress hormones, lowers blood pressure, increases brain density in learning and memory centers, and decreases density in the stress center (amygdala).
• Practice coping with failure. Realize that failure isn't final. 
• Let it go. Don't reflect on prior poor performances or question what we're doing.
• Be positive. Positivity takes time and training. I recommend Jon Gordon's book, The Positive Dog and Darren Hardy's The Compound Effect. 
• It's the process. Excessive focus on results distracts from the tasks needed to get there. 

Weisinger and Pawliw-Fry wrote an excellent book, Performing Under Pressure with specific approaches that help mitigate pressure. Think about the COTE of armor (above). I've discussed it a bit here. 

We lead at the intersection of the head (information) and the heart (motivation). When we struggle or fail in either domain, our teams fail. We own that. 

Lagniappe: hat tip, Chris Oliver Twitter account

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