How to Stay Calm UNDER PRESSURE

we've all seen both sides of the big moment coin heads keep you cool and seal the wind tails lose your call and seal failure and we've all been shocked when the one guy or girl you'd expect to land the heads freezes up why is it that these superhumans we admire often become sub-human when the pressure is really on why is it that all of us are at risk of choking in big moments whether it be the last shot in a sport sitting that exam or delivering that presentation well today we'll unpick the mystery behind choke or clutch so what do we mean by choke and clutch to choke is to freeze up bottle it panic and let the pressure get to you choking is messing up when you probably should have nailed it and being clutch is to keep it together tackle the big moment and hit the literal or metaphorical game-winning shot so why does choking seem more common well many things and each choke is going to be different depending on the individual context in which it occurred so let me know your favorite joke of all time or perhaps your own choke and i'll see if i can dissect them in the comments below but when it boils down to it there's probably one thing above all else that is often responsible for choking and that is over arousal not sexual you know and by arouse we mean being stimulated both physically and mentally now the problem is in big moments most of us tend to overthink this over thinking comes to act as a little bit of a false alarm and your body kick-starts the sympathetic nervous system and this then increases a lot of things things that in the right dosage are actually quite helpful for performance like an increase in heart rate and blood flow to fuel our movements actions and decision making but this overthinking often turns on the tap full blast when all we actually needed was just a steady flow so our hearts start thumping like crazy and we experience things like a rush of blood to the head and this makes us feel anxious or nauseous and all other types of feelings that ultimately mean our attention becomes divided so instead of focusing purely on the specific task at hand we start thinking about all these yucky feelings so it's no wonder that we can't perform that fine motor skill retrieve that piece of information or get those words out so how do i stay under aroused well here's the thing you do actually want to be aroused just not too much you see arousal and performance follow an inverted you if you're under arouse you're going to be a bit bored and a bit meh so think of a tennis player who can't be bothered to sprint across the court to return a shot but if you're over rouse that's when you get panicky anxious and overstressed and this can even lead to anger and frustration so think of that same tennis player instead of being meh you're going to be smashing every ball into the net or the face of an unsuspecting bull girl but when you're aroused that's when you're in the zone that's where you can concentrate and you've got full control over your mind and body it's kind of like when goldilocks found the porridge that was just right so if i don't want to be under aroused but also not over roused then how can i just be aroused if there was a simple answer to this then we wouldn't see big names still choking but there are a couple of things that you can do number one is take deep breaths taking slow deep breaths activates your parasympathetic nervous system which basically causes a decrease in heart rate and a number of other things that usually make you feel quite tense as your breathing slows down your brain associates this with relaxation so you can ultimately just nudge yourself back into that goldilocks zone your mind becomes clearer the task seems less scary and you start to feel like you're in control again and number two is use relaxing self-talk so i did a recent video on all the different types of self-talk and how to use those so do check that out either here or here boulder choked but during times when the heat is on it's important to verbalize statements that can help you relax and it's important to actually speak aloud as much as that might seem cringe to you because even when we're not over aroused we tend to have around 50 thoughts per minute so your mind is constantly racing and the simple act of actually speaking forces you to focus and direct your attention onto one singular thing so i encourage you to find your own relaxing phrase that can just help ground you and reassess the situation a little bit more and so my personal favorite is the phrase it's just because this is a great statement that just allows me to take the sting out the tail of almost any situation and gain a little bit of perspective so you could say it's just a jump shot or it's just a test or it's just talking to people and again those words of it's just helps dial things back a notch so you can get back into that optimal level of arousal so these are just two very simple but effective skills that a lot of top performers are increasingly turning to so they can tackle the big moments in a far better way so that they can ultimately be more clutch and be less choke or choke less and look any of us that want to reach goals or have any form of success are going to have to continue to face a lot of high pressure situations and at the end of the day for all of us life is it's most exciting when we put ourselves in these situations they're the opportunities to of course win and succeed but even if that doesn't happen there are greatest experiences to learn and grow from and the more of these situations you put yourself in then over time you'll hold a weighted coin that will in more cases than not land on clutch so that's a wrap on that one i hope you stop choking be more clutch you've got the skills to do it bit of deep breathing and some relaxing self-talk there are of course other things and those will be revealed in future videos so do hit that subscribe button and i'll see you in the next one

Channel: Sam Martin - Peak Performance

Views: 56,600

Keywords: why do athletes choke?, sports psychology?, choking under pressure, how to perform under pressure, performing under pressure, performance psychology, mental skills training, athlete mindset, mamba mentality, dramatic moments in sport, most dramatic moments in sport, clutch plays, clutch players, lebron choking, nba chokes, golf chokes, golf choking, ronaldo freekick vs spain, ronaldo hattrick goal vs spain

Id: nVjLf5ALmVE

Length: 5min 30sec (330 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 27 2020