Choke
What the Secrets of the Brain Reveal About Getting It Right When You Have To
Sian Beilock is one of the world’s leading researchers studying the science of optimal performance. In this book, she walks us through a range of research studies she and her colleagues have conducted to help us get a better understanding of why, under pressure and when it matters most, some of us choke. And, of course, Sian provides a range of tips on what we can do about it. Big Ideas we explore: the what and why of choking, the ultimate choke vacuum, practicing under pressure, an antidote to exam choking, and a bunch of little tips on rockin’ it.
Big Ideas
- What Is Choking?Pressure --> Perform sub-optimally.
- Why Do We Choke?Worry doesn’t help.
- The ultimate worry vacuum machine= Meditation. Train your mind!
- Practice Under PressureMakes perfect.
- Antidote to Exam ChokingMore pressure practice.
- See the Big PictureAnd more anti-choke ideas.
“Ever since I was young I have been intrigued by amazing performances—at the Olympics, in the orchestra pit, and even my friend Abby’s performance on the LSAT. How do people go about turning it on when it counts the most? Why do some thrive while others falter when the stakes are high and everyone is focused on their every move? As we know, sometimes that one instance of performance—one race, one test, one presentation—can change an entire life or a career trajectory forever. …
In Choke we will explore how performance in the classroom is tied to performance on the basketball court or orchestra pit and whether success in one arena carries implications for skill execution in another. We will ask why the mere mention of differences between the sexes in math ability disrupts the quantitative exam performance of a female test taker and we will delve into other activities where similar phenomena occur. Why are those high-powered students—with the most knowledge and skill—most likely to choke under the pressure of a big exam? Do these same folks also choke in sports? Can calling a ‘time-out’ immediately before a game-winning field goal in football reduce a kicker’s success or ‘ice’ him? Why does icing work and can a politician be iced before giving an important speech? Choke tells the stories of the science behind these human performances and others as it explains what the secrets of the brain can teach us about our own success and failure at work and at play.”
~ Sian Beilock from Choke
Sian Beilock is one of the world’s leading researchers studying the science of optimal human performance.
In fact, her lab at the University of Chicago where she is a Professor is called the Human Performance Lab. (<— Awesome.)
In this book, she walks us through a range of research studies she and her colleagues have conducted to help us get a better understanding of why, under pressure and when it matters most, some of us choke. And, of course, Sian provides a range of tips on what we can do about it. (Get the book here.)
As you’d expect, the book is packed with Big Ideas. I’m excited to share a few of my favorites that we can apply today so let’s jump straight in!
P.S. The answer to the field goal question is yes! Research shows that “icing” a kicker leads to lower made field goals. We’ll talk about why. The short story is that by doing so, you give the kicker time to overthink what should be an automatic action, thereby diminishing performance.
Download MP3
Download PDFRegardless of whether I was studying the complex decision-making processes involved in flying an airplane or how different parts of the brain work together to do math, my question about human performance was always the same: Why do we sometimes fail to perform at our best when it counts the most?
Get the Book
Listen to the PodcastFirst: What is choking?
“But first, what is choking exactly? Choking under pressure is poor performance that occurs in response to the perceived stress of a situation. Choking is not simply poor performance, however. Choking is sub-optimal performance. It’s when you—or an individual athlete, actor, musician or student—perform worse than what you have done in the past. This less-than-optimal performance doesn’t merely reflect a random fluctuation in skill level—we all have performance ups and downs. This choke occurs in response to a highly stressful situation.”
Alright. Let’s start by defining what it means to choke.
—> “Choking under pressure is poor performance that occurs in response to the perceived stress of a situation.”
Important note: We ALL have ups and downs in our performance. (Just as there are no perfect human beings and no perfect relationships, there are no perfect performers. Period.)
Choking is when the pressure gets to us and we perform at a sub-optimal level. Got it.
Now let’s look at the #1 reason we choke and then we’ll dive into what we can do to have a better shot at performing at our best when it matters most!
Why do we choke?
“People choke under pressure because they worry. They worry about the situation, its consequences, what others will think. They worry about what they will lose if they fail to succeed and whether they have the tools to make it. They may even conjure images in their head of the unwanted outcome—the flubbed performance, the missed shot, the fall on the ice.”
Worry. It’s the not-so-surprising secret sauce to choking.
Sian walks us thru the science of what’s going on when we worry and how it affects us differently whether we’re in the classroom taking an exam or on a golf course taking a winning putt.
Here’s the short story:
When you’re taking an exam, you need all the cognitive resources you can get. In particular, you need a strong working memory—which is basically the engine that helps you solve complex problems by keeping relevant information fresh in your head.
Now, if you are worried, that worry takes up REALLY precious energy. It diminishes your working memory just enough so your brain can’t perform at its best. You literally don’t have enough bandwidth to worry AND crush it. That’s how worry diminishes performance in the exam room.
On the 18th green on Sunday, worry works a little differently. In those situations (or in any other performance-based activity in which elite performance is a result of a TON of motor-skill development like sports or music), we’re not so concerned about working memory because our skills don’t require a lot of thinking. In fact, we should simply let them run on autopilot because they’re so grooved into our consciousness. (This is called “procedural knowledge.”)
But… When we allow worry to seep into our brains, we tend to bring *too* much thought into what should be a thought-less activity. Rather than let our bodies do what we’ve trained them to do, we attempt to control our behaviors and our once fluid, expert motions become rigid.
Result? We choke.
So, although worry affects us differently depending on the context of our performance, we’d be VERY wise to learn how to keep those worry gremlins out of the equation.
Now it’s time for some tips and tricks on how to rock it.
The ultimate worry vacuum machine
“Researchers conducting the Zen meditation study wanted to know if meditation practice changed people’s ability to recover from the intrusion of a word that unexpectedly appeared on the computer screen, which would strongly suggest that meditation improved recovery from the distractions induced by spontaneous thought as well. After the interruptions, the experienced meditator’s brains did indeed return faster to a relaxed state than nonmeditator’s brains. Intensive meditation practice seems to reduce the elaborative thinking that normally occurs when we evaluate a thought and meditators are able to clear their minds of distractions more quickly than those who don’t meditate.
Obviously, this type of thought control could be useful in dealing with worries that arise in stressful testing situations. Worries about screwing up often cause flubbed performances because they use up valuable working-memory resources that could otherwise be devoted to test taking. By training the brain to discard negative thoughts, you can thwart the negative effects of stress. Discarding these thoughts is not the same as trying to ignore them or dismiss or suppress them, which uses up working-memory. When a worrisome thought arises, you acknowledge it, name it (as if actually identifying it and writing it down), but then let go of it. You don’t attach any more brainpower to it.”
Sian references Richie Davidson and his ground-breaking research on meditation. See our Notes + Interview on The Emotional Life of Your Brain for more. (And, of course, see Meditation 101.)
For now: Know that a key aspect of letting go of worry is not getting stuck on any given thought. That’s hard to do. One of the best ways to master the skill is to give that skill a workout. Which is, of course, EXACTLY what meditation is.
Our mind wanders. We notice it. And we bring it back to our anchor. Again and again and again. Day after day after day. Month after month. Year after year.
Then… When the pressure hits and our mind wanders to Worryville, guess what? We know how to get back on focus.
If we don’t have that ability? We get stuck in a worry loop—burning up precious working-memory resources (or overthinking) and we may choke. (We’ll certainly perform less optimally than we would if we had the disciplined mind!)
And, get this: Sian has conducted research in her lab in which students who had never meditated before were given a super quick 10-minute training in meditation shortly before taking a pressure-filled math test. Altho they scored identically on the practice test taken before the stress, the meditation group averaged a B+ while the control group got a B-.
Not bad for a 10-minute intervention, eh?
Want to boost your ability to deal with worry and focus your mind? Meditate.
Remember: “Essentially, meditation training allows people to develop means to engage and disengage from what they experience—something that is extremely useful for battling self-doubt in pressure-filled situations.”
Practice under pressure makes perfect
“Practicing under the types of pressure that you are likely to face in an important game or tournament situation helps to ensure high levels of performance when it really counts. In my laboratory at the University of Chicago, we have shown that golfers who learned to putt in front of an audience were less anxious and putted better under stress than those who never practiced with others looking on. Thus that half hour of putting practice at the end of a round of golf may be more beneficial when it occurs while your friends look on than when you are alone—especially if you have to buy a beer for your buddies every time you miss a shot. This is also true for other activities such as public speaking or pitching a marketing campaign. Practicing answering on-the-spot questions before they actually have to face them in a real do-or-die situation may be just what the VPs and their team members need in order to get ready for the high-stakes meetings that their president is concerned about. If you are accustomed to operating under pressure to begin with, you will be less likely to choke, whatever you are doing.”
Practice under pressure. This is one of the most important tips.
Super Bowl-winning coach Pete Carroll talks about this Idea in his great book Win Forever (see Notes). He pushed his players SUPER hard in practice—competing on EVERY drill. They constantly felt pressure during the week so when Sunday came along it was relatively easy.
He says: “Our players learned to compete one snap at a time, one practice at a time, and ultimately, one game at a time. When we focused like that, we were able to achieve our best results and play at our full potential.”
Sian shares a great example of how to do this. Take free throw shooting in basketball. Most teams, if they practice this at all, do so after the regular practice in a calm environment in which a player just shoots free throw after free throw. ZERO pressure.
Then, when they need to make a free throw to win the game, they suddenly have ENORMOUS pressure—completely different than all the other free throws they’ve taken. Now, of course, you can’t ever quite recreate the pressure of a game-winning free throw in practice, but you can come a little closer.
One example Sian shares is a college team that used to be one of the worst free throw shooting teams in the country. A new coach came in and was committed to getting really good. At random points during a practice, he’d have his players line up and take a free throw. Make it and they got a break. Miss it and they had to sprint. This tiny pressure was big. They became one of the best free throw shooting teams.
How about you?
Are you practicing under some pressure? How can you turn it up a bit?
Remember: Practice under pressure makes perfect.
P.S. One of the ways I do this is via my PNTVs. Obviously, they’re filmed so that ups the pressure. (I used to HATE being on camera. Now I’m so desensitized I don’t care.) Then I dial the pressure up even more by never (!) editing the PNTVs. Ever. Well, I did recently edit one but I’ve done hundreds in one take—which makes it a lot easier to go in and crush it for the higher end Master Classes we do and also allows me to perform better in interviews, etc.
P.P.S. Back to you again. What can you do to make your practice more pressure-packed like your performance?
Antidote to exam choking
“Like the Wonderlic, significant practice effects on tests like the SAT or GRE can occur. In fact, there is a huge market for test-preparation courses where practice taking actual tests is one of the big selling points. Test-prep classes like Princeton Review or Kaplan not only teach students tricks to get through particular test problems; these classes also give students lots of practice with real, timed tests. Practicing under the types of pressures you will face on the big testing day is one of the best ways to combat choking.”
Let’s take a moment to chat about prepping for big tests. There’s obviously a longer chat we can have about the merits of such tests (limited) but there’s no arguing the fact that they have become increasingly more important for acceptance into top schools, etc.
So… If you/your kids have a big test coming up like the SAT or GRE, remember to PRACTICE!!
How? UNDER PRESSURE!!!
Put yourself in a little bubble and act as if the practice test you’re going to take is going to really count. Be super rigorous in your time constraints. Allow yourself to feel the pressure of wanting to do really well. Share your test results with your family (or whoever) so you feel *that* pressure, too. Whatever you can do to desensitize yourself from the stress.
And take a TON of those pressure-packed practice tests.
Little personal story: Back in the day when I was a miserable accountant for a huge firm, I wanted nothing more than to escape. (I literally threw up on the side of the 405 freeway in LA driving home from work my first week. Hah. And poor younger me. :)
So, my escape was law school. Time for the LSAT.
Although I don’t recall the precise details of my first LSAT diagnostic test, I think I scored somewhere around the 68th percentile—which is pretty good out the gate but not great. I REALLY wanted to get into a great school so I could get the stamp saying I was a smart guy, get some job security, etc. so I HUSTLED to crush the test. (Spoiler alert: None of those were good motivators; I dropped out before a semester was over. More on that story in Finding Joe.)
I put what little money I had into a test-prep class/tutor. Literally every single day after work, I’d drive home and put in a couple hours of practice. All weekend. For a couple months before the test. I liked to joke that I took so many practice tests that I could have WRITTEN the exam let alone taken it. (Hah!) My absurd goal (not advised) was to get a perfect score. (Laughing.)
And… I nearly choked. I didn’t even get to the last 5 answers in the first section and had to bubble in “(c).” I vividly remember nearly panicking and deciding whether or not to get up and leave. Somehow I calmed down and finished the test.
Weeks later I found out I got a 173. 99.5th percentile. Ticket to nearly any school I wanted.
Moral of the story: PRACTICE A TON. UNDER PRESSURE.
P.S. Another personal story with hopefully-relevant wisdom: In high school, I took the PSAT on a weekday (before I started working in a grocery store at nights). I was well rested and scored high enough to be a National Merit scholar. Then, a year later, I took the actual SAT on a Saturday morning after working till nearly midnight and getting little sleep. I did fine but not as well as the PSAT predicted. Moral of the story for parents: MAKE SURE YOUR KIDS GET A GOOD NIGHT OF SLEEP! Not just the night before the test, but the whole week (/always! :).
Other tips: Have them exercise right before the exam. Even 5-10 minutes of jumping jacks or whatever can be huge. Combine that physical exertion (day of + week before/always!) with 5-10 minutes of deep breathing/meditation (that they practiced before)? That’s a winning formula.
One more: If you’re a woman or a minority and you’re asked for your gender/ethnicity during the pre-exam data collection, remind yourself of your favorite female/minority heroes who ROCK IT so you don’t get unconsciously influenced by stereotypes. (Sian talks about these stereotype effects a lot. They’re significant. Did you know African-American GRE test scores went up in studies immediately after Obama was elected. They call it the Obama Effect.)
See the big picture + ...
“Although you might think that a ‘no excuses’ policy is always best, if you are able to take some of the pressure off yourself during an important test by reinterpreting the situation as something less stressful, less diagnostic of your ability, or less ‘do-or-die,’ you may be able to turn a potentially poor performance into a good one. …
Less stress means less worrying and less likelihood that your performance will suffer when it counts the most. Less experience ruminating in general also translates into a lower likelihood that your brainpower will be compromised by worries when they do arise.”
When I read this passage, I immediately thought of my new friend (and OPTIMIZE member), Firas Zahabi. Firas is one of the world’s leading MMA coaches. He’s the guy behind great fighters like Georges St-Pierre. (See Notes on The Way of the Fight. Georges calls Firas his “Maven.”)
In a recent interview I watched, Firas shared that before a big fight, he helps his fighters deal with their fear by reminding them that they are extraordinary people beyond the confines of their next fight and that they will succeed whether they win or lose that night. (<— That’s awesome. I’m excited to interview him for more wisdom on mental toughness.)
So, always remember the big picture.
And, here are a few more ways to combat choking:
- Before a pressure-packed situation, reaffirm your self worth. Note some qualities you really appreciate about yourself before you step into the arena.
- If you’re feeling stressed, take a few minutes to write your worries down—research shows this can help significantly.
- And, reflect on your complexity as a human being—think about and write about the fact that who you are is about more than whatever you’re about to do.
- When you’re feeling your physiology change (a la increased heart rate, sweaty palms, etc. remember to say “I’m excited!” to yourself rather than “OMG I’m freaking out!” :)
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