Men\'s Health Australia - 11.2018

26

Percentage reduction in

perceived stress after doing

30-minute group workouts

once a week for three months.

Training solo did not yield

the same benefits.

SOURCE: The Journal of the American

Osteopathic Association

Let It Go

Making a habit of going to bed

angry can ruin not only your

next day but also the

foreseeable future. People

whose negative emotional

responses to stress carry over to

the following day are more

likely to report health problems

and physical limitations ten

years later compared with

peers who are able to “let it go”,

reveals new research from UC

Irvine and Penn State. Before

you go to bed, write down any

negative feelings you have and

try to settle lingering beefs.

MIND GAMES

November 2018 47

andIaskyoutothinkaboutwhat’s
happeningwithyourknee,there’sa
goodchanceyou’llfallonyourface,”
says Beilock.
In recent years, however, more
researchers have begun pointing to
another cognitive quirk as a more
frequent cause of choking – namely,
anxiety and fear of failure, which
distract your mind and take critical
brain resources (especially working
memory) away from the task at hand.
It’s thinking too little, in a sense.
Broadly speaking, both explicit-
monitoring chokers and distraction
chokerssuffersimilarbrain
breakdowns. Simplified somewhat,
thinking too much and thinking too
little both strangle your brain’s ability
to tap ingrained motor-control skills. In
effect, you revert to a bumbling rookie.
Though noting the differences in
these two choking mechanisms may
seem like splitting neural hairs, they
matter when it comes to potential
fixes. Most common anti-choking
strategies are designed to intentionally
sidetrack explicit-monitor chokers,
such as humming or focusing on
a neutral object. But these tips can
actually be harmful to distraction
chokers and make it even harder for
them to perform under stress.
Although different people have
different choking vulnerabilities and
triggers, the following strategies tend
to work for both types of chokers in
adrenaline-soaked moments:

Forget about being clutch.
“The idea of clutch
performance is a myth,” says
performance psychologist Rob Gray.
Many guys think they can consciously
“getserious”inastressfulsituationor
marshall their strengths to perform
better than usual. It’s false. You can’t
raise your game under pressure; the
best you can reliably do is deliver
your typical performance. If you
haven’t rehearsed your pitch until
it flows, or practised a kick serve
enough to make it 19 out of 20 times,
expecttobemediocreorworse
whenitcounts.“Greatathletesdothe
same thing under pressure that they
doinothersituations,notsomething
radically different,” he adds.

Audition with an audience.
“Practise under the
conditions you’re going
to perform in,” says Beilock. This
usually means having an audience of
people who will be honest and whose
opinion you value. This could mean

asking a neutral coworker or your

barrister brother-in-law to critique

your practice pitch. If that’s difficult

to recreate, try videoing yourself.

“Chokers hate to be watched,” says

Denise Hill, a sport and exercise

psychologist. Rehearsing in front

of an audience can help inoculate

against that fear. The same goes for

time pressure. Set a buzzer when

practising any timed task or exam.

Rehearse variation.

Monotonously doing drills

like sinking free throws

invites choking. “In most sports,

performance conditions are always

changing,” says Gray. “The key is to

add variability into practice.” This

means changing angles and pace,

performing tasks at different levels

of fatigue, asking your test audience

to react differently to your pitch, etc.

“At the driving range, I’ll pretend I’m

playing nine or 18 holes,” says Paul

Sullivan, author of Clutch: Excel

Under Pressure. “I’m not just hitting

the same shot again and again.”

Develop a pre-routine.

Whether it’s bouncing the ball

three times at the foul line,

adjusting your feet in a certain way

over a putt or doing power poses in the

mirror, come up with a pre-routine. Pair

it with trigger words that keep you calm

and focused on a task or a positive

sensation. (“Loose hands”... “Make

these three clear points” and so

on.) Feeling out of control is a key

contributor to choking, says Hill.

Trigger words in practice and games

help maintain this sense of calm.

Make a fist.

Useyourlefthandand

holdit for 30 seconds. Or

squeeze a ball. This activates the

right-brain hemisphere, which directs

visual-spatial processing and, in

turn, supresses the left hemisphere,

whichgovernsverbalandanalytic

processing.Germanresearchers

found it prevented choking in soccer

players and tae kwon do experts in

an experimental setting.

Have “quiet eye”.

Focus intensely on the target,

or the absolute centre of the

audience. “Skilled performers keep their

eyes still right before they start moving,”

says Gray. “For example, good golfers

look at the ball longer and good free-

throw shooters look at the rim longer.

We call this quiet eye because you’re

quieting everything down and focusing

on one thing.”

Hum a song (but only if

you’re an explicit-monitor

choker).

If the fateful act would be insultingly

easy – say, knocking in a hanging

snooker shot – if only your manhood

weren’t riding on it, try humming a

song as you focus in. Secondary-task

distraction is worth a try if you know

you start overfocusing on body control

during quiet eye. Most sports chokers

are likely in the distraction camp, so

their minds are screaming about

the horrors of failure, not their pinkie

angle. If you’re not certain that you’re

an explicit monitor, lasering in on the

hole is probably a wiser strategy than

humming Back in Black.