Perform Under Pressure - Tricks

Perform under Pressure

• Smart people choke more as they are loss-averse. Want to win leads to performance anxiety
• People with larger working memory (amount of info you can hold in memory at once) choke

• Practice under pressure Practice at same level as final play. Win a match, every day until you’ve won the final one

• Distract yourself a bit Don’t focus too much on the skill at hand. Sing song, take off, rejuvenate

• Do it quick and accurate keep aggressive timeframe, aim for accuracy, aim for completion, Just do it

• Focus way from uncontrollables Anticipation often turns-on worst fears. Acknowledge them, and then let them go

• Have fun Practice comedy, crack jokes on self, belittle nightmare, free-up working memory

• Focus on what matters, when it matters Be in the moment, focus on now, focus on your own play, don’t compare to others

• Less is more Use muscle memory when in play, no active thinking. Let practice help you win

• Focus on doing, not on outcome If you can do you act to its best, you can expect the outcome to be likewise

• When under pressure, it is tempting to just go with whatever comes to mind first Best strategy is to take deep breath, clear your mind, then carefully analyze problem at hand. Professional players quickly scan the entire ground/court & players before making next move. It is important to absorb all relevant info before proceeding

• Punish mistakes to correct them A match performance is only as good as its training Neural activity of expert marksmen is very low during match as they’d have practiced it so much