Why Athletes Choke Under Pressure and How to Prevent It
Choking is one of the biggest fears for many athletes and sports teams and is often perceived as worse than losing. No player or team is immune to it; even great champions have fallen victim to choking and we all know the disappointment when this happens.
There are many examples of this happening e.g.:
Rory McIlroy’s Collapse at the 2024 U.S. Open – In June 2024, Rory McIlroy was leading the U.S. Open by two strokes with five holes remaining. However, he faltered in the closing stretch, missing crucial putts and recording three bogeys in the final four holes, ultimately losing his lead and the championship.
England’s Penalty Shootout Struggles in Euro 2024 – In the UEFA Euro 2024 quarterfinals, England faced Portugal in a penalty shootout. Despite a strong performance during regular play, England missed three consecutive penalties, leading to their elimination from the tournament.
Serena Williams (2015 U.S. Open Semifinals) – Serena Williams was just two matches away from completing a calendar Grand Slam but succumbed to the pressure and lost to unseeded Roberta Vinci. Vinci played fearlessly, while Williams appeared tense and unfocused.
South Africa Cricket Team (1999 Cricket World Cup) – One of the most infamous examples of choking in sports history, South Africa needed one run to advance to the final. In the last over, Allan Donald and Lance Klusener had a miscommunication while running between the wickets, resulting in a run-out. The match ended in a tie, and Australia advanced based on their superior net run rate, leaving South Africa heartbroken.
Jana Novotná (1993 Wimbledon Final) – Novotná was leading 4–1 in the third set of the Wimbledon final against Steffi Graf when nerves got the better of her. She made numerous unforced errors, allowing Graf to win five consecutive games and take the championship.
Ireland vs. New Zealand – 2013 (Last-Minute Collapse) – Ireland led the All Blacks 22–7 with 20 minutes remaining in Dublin, seemingly on the cusp of their first-ever victory over New Zealand. However, Ireland choked under the relentless pressure, conceding 14 points, including a last-minute converted try, to lose 24–22.
“Choking in sport can be defined as the failure of an individual athlete or team to win a game or tournament when the player or team had been strongly favored to win or had squandered a large lead in the late stages of the event”. – Wikipedia
“choking is suboptimal performance, not just poor performance. It is performance that is inferior to what you can do and have done in the past. Sian Beilock
You may have wondered what causes performance choking and what can be done when it happens?
Performance choking is caused by an ego that is afraid of looking bad. You must learn to leave your ego outside of your event. Gonzalez
The Ego and Performance Choking
Performance choking stems from the ego’s fear of looking bad. Athletes often feel immense pressure to succeed, and when the fear of failure dominates their focus, it triggers a physical and psychological response that undermines performance.
Get you ego out the way! The reason why choking is so devastating, is because it can strike at any time and you cannot simply “train harder” to prevent it. “Choking” is essentially caused by focusing on the outcome and being concerned about looking bad. “Choking” can also be described as a physical response that is triggered by the psychological threat to the ego.
“Choking is about thinking too much. Panic is about thinking too little. Choking is about loss of instinct. Panic is reversion to instinct. They may look the same, but they are worlds apart.” Malcolm Gladwell
However it is important to remember that although the physical symptoms of “panicking” and “choking” may seem similar, it has a different cause and it is important to note that “choking” is more than just having a fear of failure. When panicking, stress can erase short term memory. Many people recall in times of panic that they could not think properly, and rely on their instincts. Experienced people fare better in moments of panic, as they can calmly rely on their long term memory to guide them through the skill, which is why panicking can be less detrimental at a high performance level, than “choking”. Choking on the other hand is more about “overthinking”.
Fear is in your head and “choking” happens when performance is actually affected by the nervousness, stress, and worries about looking bad if things go wrong. It’s very different from the fear of facing a dangerous or life-threatening situation. These are subtle distinctions, but result in big differences in how the brain to act. When outside stresses shift attention, “the pre-frontal cortex stops working the way it should and we focus on aspects of what we are doing that should be out of consciousness. (Beilock) That’s right we start to overthink our performance.
“Choking isn’t just poor performance, it is performing worse than you are capable of because there is a lot on the line. While it doesn’t always happen on a world stage, nor in the sporting arena, choking is remarkably common basically anywhere the stakes are high and we don’t want to fail” University of Chicago psychologist Sian Beilock, author of Choke.
Understanding how explicit and implicit learning influences our ability to perform under pressure becomes crucial. Explicit learning happens when you first learn a new skill or technique and you break it down into the basic elements consciously and with awareness. In contrast, implicit learning can be seen as learning outside awareness. High Performance Athletes have exceptionally developed implicit learning systems.
Why is this important you may wonder. In highly stressful competitive situations, the brain can become so obsessed to win that it reverts to depending on the explicit system to complete the skill. As many athletes have not depended on the explicit system since learning their skills initially, they have essentially regressed to a beginner status. Choking is therefor essentially caused by reverting back to the explicit system by overthinking and holding on to the outcome.
How to deal with “Performance Choking”.
- Whatever you do, do not start to focus on detail. This will cause you to overthink your performance. Rather look at the bigger picture and focus on what you want to do than the what you don’t want.
- Focused breathing helps to bring back control and focus into the present, and to allow your body to calm down and your pre-frontal cortex to work as it should.
- You can take back your mind from the control of your ego by using an outside cue or focus point. This can either be a key word that summarized the intended performance, or firing a performance anchor that was setup previously or if possible you could just for a moment walk away.
- Creating a performance anchor can be very helpful to activate more resourceful states. This can be done by recalling a positive event and connecting all your sense until an optimal feeling is experienced. This feeling can then be anchored, either with a focus word, touch or image that would be visible.
- Once you understand what causes choking you can shut it down and immediately begin to refocus.
Get your head out the way and let your body do!
Mental resilience distinguishes champions. By understanding and managing choking, athletes can regain control, stay composed, and perform when it matters most.
Sport is ultimately a mental challenge and as the physical requirements, to perform at a higher level become more demanding, the mental side of performance increases even more. What distinguishes excellence is often not the physical ability or skills level, but the mental ability to perform when it counts.
“Champions focus on what they can control. They know that while they can’t always control what takes place during an event, they can always control how they respond.” Gonzalez