best barefoot shoes

Exclusive Content:

The most recent airline collectible is out: KLM’s 103rd Delftware miniature home

KLM Royal Dutch Airways throws a celebration every...

Memorial service to be held for ‘Madame Ecosse’ Winnie Ewing

For free actual time breaking information alerts despatched...

Soldiers, mushrooms, and migrants: Poland heads for elections

Poland's judgment Law and Justice (PiS) celebration...

Why athletes choke under pressure, and how they reduce the odds of it happening again

best barefoot shoes

The Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games are around the corner, and for some athletes, it will be the pinnacle of their career.

But on the world stage, even the most skilled sportspeople can find themselves unable to perform actions they’ve practised thousands or millions of times before.

They “choke” under pressure.

Loading…

And it’s not hard to understand why.

Memories of the “overwhelming” Olympic spotlight remain fresh for Caroline Anderson, two decades after she represented Australia in taekwondo, in the women’s welterweight division, at the Athens 2004 Olympics.

“It’s different from world championships, World Cups, and other world events,” Ms Anderson recalls.

“Walking out [into the stadium], it can feel like an incredibly lonely place.

“And there was a specialness about it as well, but absolutely an intensity like nothing else.”

A smiling woman with long brown hair.

Ms Anderson was almost a fully qualified psychologist when she competed in the 2004 Athens Olympics.(ABC)

The former Olympian is now the Paris 2024 Australian Olympic team’s lead psychologist.

Part of her job is to help athletes perform in that special, intense atmosphere.

So how does she — and other professionals — make sure sportspeople at the top of their game don’t choke under pressure?

And why does it happen in the first place?

When automatic actions go out the window

The history of sport is littered with examples of choking.

Some of the best-known are from golfers who’ve gone into the final round of a tournament with a seemingly insurmountable lead … only to squander it.

For instance, it’s hard to pinpoint exactly when the wheels fell off for pro golfer Jean van de Velde on the final hole of the 1999 British Open Championship, but it was well before he took off his shoes and socks to wade into water after his ball.

“This really is beyond a joke now. He’s gone ga-ga,” BBC commentator and former professional golfer Peter Alliss lamented.

A professional golfer standing in a shallow creek looking down to the water at his ball

Van de Velde considered hitting his ball out of the water, but instead opted for a drop.(Getty Images: Michael Steele/EMPICS)

The stakes could not have been higher. If the Frenchman completed the course’s 18th hole in no more than six shots, he’d win the entire tournament.

And before he teed off, it was all but in the bag: he’d played the hole three times before, finishing it in four shots once and twice in three.

But in a nightmarish play that put his ball in the rough, then knee-high grass, then into a creek — where he considered trying to hit it out — and then into a bunker, he finally sunk the putt on his seventh shot.

That triple bogey put van de Velde into a three-way play-off for the championship the next day … in which he finished third.

Chris Mesagno, an exercise science lecturer at Victoria University who researches choking in sport, says there are three components to the phenomenon.

“The person must have an increase in anxiety from what is normal, normal being: what do you feel when you’re practising?

“[That anxiety] leads to a decrease in performance, which is the second element that needs to occur.”

A smiling man with a salt and pepper goatee standing outside

Dr Mesagno conducted his PhD in choking interventions.(Supplied: Chris Mesagno/Victoria University)

The third part, Dr Mesagno says, is that the person must have a decent level of skill: “Most researchers would argue that novices have too much fluctuation in performance levels to have a choking experience.”

For most athletes, that high skill level comes from years of relentless practice, whether that’s flinging a discus, kicking a footy or putting a golf ball.

Over time, these actions become automatic. But when that automatic motion is interrupted — without any obvious reason — problems can arise.

We don’t know exactly what was behind van de Velde’s disastrous final hole of the 1999 British Open, but researchers have identified a couple of broad reasons for choking. One is self-focus, or “paralysis by analysis”, Dr Mesagno says.

“In golf, for example, they analyse their swing too much. They try to be perfect.”

Instead of letting their body and swing gently propel a ball towards the hole like they normally would in practice, a golfer might think about each step. How far back do I swing the putter? Where are my hands positioned? How hard should I hit the ball?

Posted , updated 



Source

Latest

spot_img

Don't miss

payday loans online

Syrian regime loses Aleppo for first time since civil war began

Syria’s second-largest city Aleppo has fallen from government control for the first time since the country’s conflict began more than a decade ago,...

java burn weight loss with coffee

This will close in 12 seconds