THE ROUGH GUIDE TO PSYCHOLOGYthree irrelevant words; and in the third on a single word that encapsu-
lated the entirety of their movement, for example “smooth”.
At first, Gucciardi kept the atmosphere casual. However, when he
raised the stakes by offering cash rewards, the performance of the
participants in the first category suffered, whereas the performance of
the golfers in the latter two categories actually improved slightly. This
suggests that anxiety harms performance not because it is distracting per
se, as some have argued, but because it causes performers to focus too
much on actions that should be automatic.
One way that elite athletes attempt to overcome the curse of anxiety, also
known as “the yips”, is to make practice sessions as much like the real event
as possible. This is of course easier said than done. Filming your technique
can help recreate the excessive self-focus that occurs during competition.
Raising the stakes through informal league tables or by performing in front
of an audience are other obvious strategies. Ironically, having recreated the
tension of a real competition during practice time, the pentathletes inter-
viewed by Maurizio Bertollo said that during actual competition they then
tried to recreate the relaxed feeling of gentle practice.
THE MYTH OF THE HOT STREAK
One of the most widespread beliefs among sports fans is that players go
through periods of being “on form”, also known as “hot streaks”. Stated
simply, most fans think that if a basketball player was successful with his
last two basket attempts, or if a soccer striker scored with his last two
Tiger Woods celebrates as he holes a putt during the final round of the 2005 Buick
Invitational in San Diego.