The London Olympics have shown again how easy it is for athletes to fail when everyone, including themselves, expect to win, or at least, to achieve their best possible performance when it counts, which is my definition of success.
Along the path toward success there are a multitude of possible stumbling blocks, invisible fishing lines, trap doors and banana skins, but there is one obstacle that stands out as a particularly tricky one: choking.
I have read my fair share of sports psychology books and read about this problem of ‘choking’. As an athlete I have fallen into this trap many times, but I’ve learnt to stay clear of it in my better moments. As a coach I have observed many athletes choking, in training and in competition, and I recognise when an athlete just lets go and succeeds. It often shows on the outside whether and athlete is in the flow or has the yips, and it certain shows in the performance.
For example, what must have gone through Steve Hooker’s mind during the recent Olympic final? His whole demeanour and facial expressions reflected negative, destructive thoughts, so far removed from the Steve Hooker who radiated confidence just a few years ago. Let’s hope he can get back on track, but the human mind is certainly a jungle of thoughts and emotions that is difficult to negotiate, especially under pressure.
To be able to overcome choking it is useful to know what is at play here.
I recently read an interesting book, “The decisive moment” by Jonah Lehrer. It isn’t marketed as a sport psychology book, but it contains a short but very good section on what ‘choking’ is about, and every athlete should read at least that chapter – better still the entire book, as it provides great insight into how the human mind works.
Lehrer start the chapter entitled “Choking on thought” by describing how famous opera singer René Fleming was suddenly overcome by feelings of self-doubt and could no longer reach the highest notes of her favourite Mozart piece. Her problems quickly became chronic, so that she regularly choked to the point where she wanted to give away singing altogether.
The reason for choking is simple: The performer, or athlete, thinks too much.
Lehrer describes a study by psychologist Sian Beilick (her book “Choke” is currently on my to-read list, but this video is quite informative as well), which demonstrated how beginners must put conscious thought into their efforts to produce better results. For athletes who have developed automatic movement patterns, on the other hand, there is nothing worse than thinking about those movement patterns when the aim is to perform at their best. Automatic processes should be left alone, especially when it counts most.
So basically, thinking too much means that you are over analysing, you are being distracted by your own thoughts. If you think about something that you can really do in your sleep, because you have perfected it through many thousands of repetitions, you are effectively telling yourself that you don’t trust yourself or your body to do that movement, and if you don’t trust yourself, you doubt yourself, you start thinking even more, you might start questioning your preparation in general, your inner dialogue becomes negative and destructive, and your performances will suffer as a result. You are caught in a negative loop which can be extremely difficult to escape.
There is of course a time when even experienced athletes should be thinking about their technique, namely during the preparation phase when they’re working on improving a particular aspect of their technique, but during the business end of the season athletes should not be changing their technique significantly. During the competition phase it’s all about developing confidence in a reliable movement pattern, feeling at home with it, so it can be simply recalled, practically at will, when it counts. Prime example: Sally Pearson, an impersonation of self-confidence.
Even if you know that your technique is not as good as you’d like it to be, you will probably fare better if you stick with what you’ve got, and work with it for the main part of the competition season, rather than continuously try to work on stubborn errors in your technique, up until and even during your competition.
Over the many years I have been competing I have so often observed competitors criticising their own techniques or that of their competitors, I can see competitors and their coaches or competitors talking amongst themselves about what they should be doing better technically.
That sort of chit-chat might assist beginners, but athletes who have done a lot of training in their chosen sport will hardly benefit from critiquing their technique during competition, or even helping others doing the same. It only leads to thinking about technique, when you really should just do it without thinking much at all.
During competition time only positive thoughts are allowed, thoughts that instill confidence in yourself. Those thoughts might still include a mantra of some sort that has to do with technique, but those thoughts would then form part of your pre-throw, pre-jump or pre-race routine and will help you stay focused.
So by the time D-day comes around you must be in a frame of mind that allows you to go out there and “just do it!”