You can stop choking under pressure. Details inside.
Jun 16, 2022 2:52 am
Hello,
I had the best discussion with Pam about everything mental toughness. We covered so much, she had to divide the interview into two parts! Part One is below.
Choking under pressure is a common issue I help my clients overcome. One of the best ways to do this is to train under pressure. I tell you how below.
Be well,
Dr Eddie
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What is Mental Toughness?
In this interview I share the most powerful strategies I use in my work with athletes and other high performers to develop mental toughness and overcome anxiety.
Enjoy this lively discussion with Pamela Keim from Grand Tap Media-Business TV: https://youtu.be/Z4_l5Mi79C0
Discover the strategies that can get you past the mental and emotional thoughts and fears that keep you stuck and standing on the sidelines. Helpful in sport, business, and life.
Topics we cover:
Mental Toughness
The benefits of anxiety
Comfort as a problem
How to talk to yourself
What mental training can do for you
Fall Athletes: Summer is a great time to develop your mental game before the season starts. Let's work together.
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Stop Choking
Choking is when you fail to do a skill under pressure that you can reliably do in practice. It isn’t simply making a mistake in big moments, especially if the demand is challenging. It is underperforming: not doing as well as you could and should have.
It is often characterized by heightened physiological arousal: rapid heart rate, sweating, feeling shaky, tense muscles. You may have rapid and/or negative thoughts about the future and your ability.
While calming down can be helpful, you’ve probably found that doing so under stressful conditions is very difficult. Are you really supposed to be calm in the face of such challenges with the realistic threats of losing or failing so strong? That doesn’t makes sense.
A better approach is to practice executing your skills under stressful conditions. In this way, you develop them in the competition conditions you will be facing.
One of the most famous examples of this is when Michael Phelps’ coach, Bob Bowman, purposely stepped on Phelps’ goggle during a training session without him knowing. Phelps was forced to adapt and swim with his goggles filling with water. This pressure training paid off when adversity struck in the 2008 Olympic butterfly 200m race and Phelps’ goggles cracked. Phelps knew what to do. He counted the strokes he needed to blindly get to the other side of the pool and won gold. And set a world record.
Other ways to increase training pressure:
🏅Beat your personal record for number of basketball free throws made in a row. You’ll find it harder to focus as you get close to and pass your record. (Also try it from the 3-point line. Try tennis serves in a row, football pass catches in a row or QB throws to a target, golf putts from a distance, etc.)
🏅Scrimmage from a point deficit
🏅Limit ball handling to the non-dominant hand or foot
🏅Intentionally make bad or unfair calls
🏅Change the rules to increase pressure (e.g., in baseball, allow only 2 strikes before being called out)
🏅Use consequence for outcomes in training (e.g., a meaningful reward for he winner)
🏅Circle everyone around to watch two people perform
Remember to be sure training demands are important and relevant to the performers’ goals. Also be sure to increase the support of athletes during this pressure training by teaching psychological skills, and brief and debrief athletes before and after sessions to explain rationale and benefits.
🥇To develop these mental skills, join me inside Success Stories Membership.
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Dr. Eddie O’Connor
