Performing under pressure? For athletes, it depends on 3 key things

Why do some people seem to thrive under pressure while others seem to fold or crumple?

This phenomenon is also known as choking and is defined as performing worse than expected given ability in a situation with a high degree of perceived importance.

The concept of pressure can take on many forms or manifest in varied ways for different people. But the ability to move through perceived high-stakes situations seemingly with little effort and exceed expectations is a phenomenon worthy of exploration — with significance for sport and everyday life.

Optimal performance, intense conditions

The key to optimal performance under intense conditions consistently over time intersects with the right combination of skills.

First, we need to understand that “pressure” or the perception of stress can vary among individuals, situations and events. Public speaking may come naturally for one person and be absolutely terrifying for another.

Shooting a free throw in the final seconds of a game while down by one point may lead one athlete to lock in and make the shot and another to tighten under pressure and miss. Playoffs for professional teams happen annually, and this allows for failure and redemption from year to year.

Championships can be more stressful, as getting to the final game or competition is not guaranteed, so taking advantage of opportunities becomes paramount.

Tournaments or quadrennial events such as the World Cup can exacerbate the perception of pressure, elevate arousal or anxiety and contribute to physiological malfunctions in executing even basic skills performed successfully in less-pressured situations.

Conversely, other athletes are able to thrive or exceed performance expectations. Researchers and mental performance consultants spend significant time and energy understanding how athletes can internalize pressure and cultivate strategies to better prepare them for specific performance demands.

Emotion-performance theories

Several emotion-performance theories have been developed to better understand performance under pressure, including the biopsychosocial model of challenge and threat.

This theory posits that when competitive situations are perceived as a threat, athletes or performers view their resources to compete or win as inadequate, often attributing outcomes to luck rather than skill.

This mindset places the athletes at risk for increased heart rate and physiological shifts in the execution of physical skills such as taking a penalty shot or making an accurate pass. As the heart rate increases, attentional focus narrows, leading to changes in decision-making.

For example, if a goalie does not believe they can stop a shot from a leading goal scorer, they may misread a cue, commit too early and allow their opponent an easier shot. Conversely, by staying focused and patient, they are nimble and able to respond quickly and accurately.

Additional pressure: goalies, penalty shots

Athletes in individual sports such as golf, swimming or archery are used to solo performance where the outcome is directly related to their own ability to manage stress and excel in competition.

Team sports, such as hockey or soccer, can include situational pressures on specific positions such as goalies or anyone taking a penalty shot.

For example, a breakaway in hockey will highlight the offensive player and the goalie. In late innings of baseball, pitchers tend to receive more attention and pressure to execute the right pitch with the perfect placement with all hope and attention on their performance.

While winning and losing are based on the team’s performance, individual players can receive more attention, and therefore more pressure internally related to a responsibility for their team or organization.

Seeing perceived challenges as opportunities

As Herb Brooks, coach of the United States’s 1980 Olympic men’s hockey team, said to the team right before playing the world champion Russians during the 1980 Olympics, “Great moments are born from great opportunities.”

This means that skills executed under perceived challenges are considered opportunities where all the hard work, practice and sacrifice can be tested to see just how well athletes and teams can meet or exceed their own expectations.

Athletes who believe they have the resources to be successful are less vulnerable to high pressure situations, and athletes can learn to tolerate and even flourish under these intense circumstances in three key ways.

1. Physical competence: Athletes must develop competence in their physical skills, because confidence is reinforced through successful execution. Consistent physical and mental preparation and well-ingrained habits help protect athletes from choking under pressure.

2. Life and mental skills: Performers acquire skills that range from transferable interpersonal life skills such as self-efficacy, initiative or goal attainment and solution-focused or coping skills such as creative problem-solving, resilience or decision-making.

These skills are instrumental for psychological well-being. When combined with performance-specific skills such as focus and productive self-talk, they can help athletes perform optimally.

Athletes learn mental skills similarly to physical skills — experientially or by applying them in training, practice and competitions until they become automatized. Once these skills become part of their performance, they can better adapt to their environments and focus on technical and tactical strategies.

3. Normalizing competition: Normalizing competitive environments or events can help reduce the anxiety that can lead to choking. Athletes learn to train under perceived stress or high-stakes situations.

If every training session, practice or competition is visualized and practised like the last seconds of the final game in the World Cup tournament, when the actual day and time come, it becomes just another day at the office.