Dealing With Pressure

In the last article, we looked at the different theories behind pressure-related performance declines, which is well and good for understanding, however, without being able to act on that to get over the issue, the knowledge isn’t going to be helping anyone too much, here we look at some of the methods and approaches to being able to overcome pressure-related performance declines [1].

First, there is an attitude-based approach to overcoming pressure-related performance declines. This essentially means that one can practice under expected pressure-related scenarios to get used to the feeling and gradually become increasingly comfortable with the feeling of pressure. This approach has its theoretical roots in exposure treatments to phobias [2] and essentially treats the athlete’s response to pressure as a phobia. Phobias treated using exposure gradually expose clients to situations in relation to the phobias that get increasingly difficult to cope with. Similarly, an athlete should be exposed to scenarios that gradually increase in pressure as one form of intervention.

As the NBA finals are currently going on, let’s use an example that could help a basketball player overcome pressure-related performance declines. A good example would be a player taking a free-throw, in a match, everyone, including the audience, coaches, teammates, opponents and referees are all focussing on the single player that must make a shot into the basket. This situation is incredibly filled with pressure and that doesn’t even consider the score or situation. How would we gradually expose a player to scenarios that would become pressure-filled?

Well to begin with one could slowly increase the amount of people watching, starting in practice with teammates on the field, then introducing people into the crowd and increasing distractions, depending on the team resources of course.

Another example could be the use of sound. A lot of people assume that the sound of a loud crowd affects player performance, and it does, this is correct (more so for improving the home team’s performance) [3] however, one thing that is often neglected is the lack of sound. Quite often in a free-throw situation, the crowd might be silent rather than loud. This puts emphasis on the player and their one action in taking the shot. Again, a team can introduce more people, but have them remain silent and watch, putting increased emphasis on the player action.

By using this method of increasing amount of pressure by increasing people observing an action a team can also increase the amount of distractions on a player, which if you remember from the last article was a theory of sources relating to pressure-related performance decline, if not, go ahead and check out that article.

Another thing to be wary of is the game-situation. Does the clock of the game cause pressure? Does the score cause pressure? Practicing tight games and clock situations can help an athlete overcome these pressures. For example, during practice, have the scenario represent challenging situations in an actual game, like the score being tied with not long left on the clock and increase the difficulty of this.

The method of pressure-related gradual exposure can slowly increase an athlete’s resilience to pressure-filled scenarios, but it is important to consider what is causing the performance decline, is it the noise (or lack of) of the crowd, is it them watching, or is it the scenario in the game e.g. are there only a few seconds left in the half/game and the score is close?

Another way to help athletes overcome pressure-related performance decline is to utilise an athlete’s self-talk. As previously mentioned, declines can be caused by cognitive resources being distributed ineffectively or inefficiently. Self-talk can play a part of this, as a cognitive process, this can be used effectively to boost positivity and self-efficacy in athletes or even to silence the athlete’s thoughts to focus on just the physical action and/or objective. The importance of self-talk on pressure is high as it can be the difference between completing an action under pressure or not, however, it must be utilised correctly in order to have a positive effect. An athlete telling themselves to “not” do an action generally leads them to acting in the way that they were telling themselves not to [4]. This meaning that to effectively use self-talk an athlete should train themselves (or with help) to focus on completing actions and telling themselves to be successful in an action rather than to avoid the negative outcome.

In summary, these are but a few ways of dealing with pressure and the performance-related performance declines that come with it. If this is something yourself or one of your athletes is struggling with, feel free to get in touch to learn further about how to deal and overcome pressure-related performance decline.

References

[1] - Lewis, B. P., & Linder, D. E. (1997). Thinking about choking? Attentional processes and paradoxical performance. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 23(9), 937-944.

[2]  - Hussain, M. Z., & Nolan, G. (1971). Exposure treatment for phobias. British Medical Journal, 2(5752), 46.

[3] -  Nevill, A. M., & Holder, R. L. (1999). Home advantage in sport. Sports Medicine, 28(4), 221-236.

[4] -  Sicong, L., & Eklund, R. C. (2013, June). A source of choking under pressure: The ironic effect of self-talk in a hand motion steadiness task. In JOURNAL OF SPORT & EXERCISE PSYCHOLOGY (Vol. 35, pp. S38-S38). 1607 N MARKET ST, PO BOX 5076, CHAMPAIGN, IL 61820-2200 USA: HUMAN KINETICS PUBL INC.