Performing under pressure

I haven’t played in a tournament yet.  Not an individual one, at least.  But, the time is drawing nigh when some competitive experience would do wonders for gaining an understanding of what the future holds, so I’m in the process of picking a first amateur tournament to participate in.

In the meantime, I came across a fascinating study by English psychologist Rob Gray titled: Links Between Attention, Performance Pressure, and Movement in Skilled Motor Action.  The study was published in October 2011 and the pdf can be downloaded here:  http—www.iapsych.com-arti

His article is about the affects of pressure on performance and how the stress of a competition can shift attention inward which causes choking under pressure.  He breaks it down to four ways the mind affects the learned skills: Changes in Movement Variability, Changes in Multi-Joint Coordination, Changes in Movement Economy and Changes in Motor-Control Strategy.

Here is what stood out to me in each section:

Changes in Movement Variability: “A characteristic of the automatic, proceduralized process thought to be involved in expert-level performance is the ability to produce movements with very low variability from trial to trial.  Then a performer shifts control from encapsulated and automatic procedures to step-by-step cognitive control, an increase in movement variability should occur.”

Changes in Multi-Joint Coordination: “findings on multi-joint coordination, in which movements become more rigid and less variable when attention is self-focused… these effects represent a temporary regression to a lower skill level (associated with an earlier stage of skill acquisition) brought on by an increase in explicit monitoring of the motor action.”

Changes in Movement Economy: Using electromyography (EMG) they found that “pressure has also been shown to influence economy of movement…  Under conditions of anxiety, muscle activity increases and movements are produced with more force as a result of increased excitability of the corticospinal tract.”

Changes in Motor-Control Strategy: He uses a putting example for this one where there are two strategies for hitting a ball different distances, you can either utilize a different amplitude swing with the same pace or have the same size swing with greater velocity. If you always perform one way, the anxiety of pressure can cause you to change and strike the ball with the other strategy, throwing off your game.

The simple solution would be to try and quiet the brain and perform like you always do, but the truth to the matter is that the physical stress of the situation can cause your brain to process differently and it’s better to be aware of what is going on than to try and trick yourself into thinking it’s just another day at the park.  Being aware of what is happening is the first step to overcoming it.  I’m not sure what it will be like to start getting some tournament experience, but during that time I will try and avoid internalizing my thoughts too much and practice target oriented golf.  Only time will tell what the outcome of that will be.