Golf: Performing Under Pressure

"If I was no good at sport, then I was nothing. If I wasn’t good at golf, life wasn’t worth living"– Rory Mcllroy

All sports performers experience varying levels of anxiety during high pressure moments. Being able to withstand pressure allows for sporting prowess, whilst falling victim to anxiety can cause choking. Choking in sport doesn’t only effect performance, it can also infringe on an individuals confidence, motivation and mental health as exclaimed by Rory Mcilroy. Dr Daryl Marchant, expert in performance psychology, states that “coaching styles assist athletes managing pressure”. As golf coaches, there are certain methods used in coaching which bolster the ability of athletes to perform under pressure, therefore sustaining from the effects of choking. Throughout this blog I will explain what these are and how they can be effectively implemented. 

What is choking? 

In sport we often see athletes fail at tasks that they have successfully performed thousands of times before such as free-throws in basketball or penalty kicks in football, but how does this make any sense? Are they just not focusing or does it go deeper than that? This phenomenon of underperformance is a concept called choking. In the sport psychology world, this is conceptualised as ‘an athlete exhibiting acute performance decrements in pressure situations which are attributed to increases in anxiety’. Research has shown the effects of choking to occur in high pressure situations but there is no better practical example then Gregg Norman’s downfall at the 1996 Masters , which saw the largest lead ever blown in a PGA tour tournament. 

Catastrophe theory provides an explanation of why choking happens during high pressure moments. It is well established in sport that an increase in arousal is performance enhancing. The model shows how arousal continues to increase performance up until a certain point, at the point of over-arousal there is a sudden drop in performance. This drop is what we consider ‘choking’ which is what Norman experienced. The pressure of finally winning a major caused him to be over-aroused, therefore leading to his choke.

The effects of choking in sport 

The dire consequences of choking on performance have already been alluded to. Although this is an extreme example, choking is a common occurrence which affects up to 47.5% of golfers and hampers the performance of golfers of all abilities. It is suggested that once a choke happens, the performer is unlikely to return to the prior playing level during the remainder of the performance. The effects of a poor performance caused by choking can reduce self-confidenceleading to poor mental health exemplified by Rory Mcllroy. With fine margins being the difference between winning and losing and such drastic ramifications, its important to do our best to eliminate choking from the game of our athletes. By reducing choking, a higher level of performance for performers is enabled. 

Greg Norman's reaction to blowing a 6-shot lead at the Masters

How does choking happen? 

To be able to counter against the effects of choking, we first need to understand the process. Experimental research has unearthed that too much self-focus is the problem. Self-focus choking occurs through an increased awareness of a high pressure situation such as a tee-off on the 18th, therefore we devote our attention toward internal processes, in this case being our bodily movements. However, our manual execution of these processes is not as fluid as our automatic execution, which is why we see a breakdown in skill execution. Based on this theory, it is clear that the awareness of our own gestures is a factor in choking. The knowledge and awareness of our own movements is built up through explicit learning, whereby explicit knowledge of movement is consciously and verbally communicated to others. There are alternative methods of teaching and techniques to deploy which can help to withstand self-focus choking. 

How can my coaching methods help build resistance to choking? 

Now that it’s established what causes the breakdown in skill, we can look at methods which can be used to sustain skill levels. An alternative to explicit learning is implicit learning. Implicit learning is carried out through ‘passive accumulation of task-relevant knowledge’, this knowledge operates at an unconscious level and cannot easily be verbalised by the performer. Athletes who have learned skills through implicit learning are less susceptible to choking. This is because, performers are less aware of their internal processes they perform, so when in high pressure situations athletes have less ability to manually execute their desired movement. This results in the motor system continuing to perform the skill automatically and therefore, producing a desirable outcome. Implicit learning comes in different forms. I will be outlining two methods of implicit learning which can be applied to golf performers to reduce susceptibility to choking. Implicit learning strategies:

• Analogy learning 

• Errorless learning 

Analogy learning 

One method of implicit learning is Analogy learning. Analogy learning uses metaphors to represent a single movement which encompasses multiple task-relevant rules. This allows the athlete to still intend to learn, yet they pickup predominantly implicit knowledge. Using analogies restricts the amount of explicit knowledge the athlete develops. Research has found that analogy learning benefits golf-putting performance when under pressure.

How to apply analogy learning in golf lessons: Refrain from talking explicitly about movements the body is producing. Instead, come up with or use existing metaphors which accurately portray the desired motion and repeatedly refer to this metaphor before taking a shot when the specified technique is required. 

Example: when the performer is setting up for a chip shot, tell them to think about chopping the base of a tree with an axe. 

Errorless learning 

Another effective technique is errorless learning. Errorless learning aims to minimise the number of mistakes when learning new skills. Errorless learning is based on the assertion that when less mistakes are made, there is reduced chance for the performer to pick up explicit information. Research has suggested that errorless learning is an effective method to counter performance-breakdown, maintaining performance in golf-putting. 

How to apply errorless learning in golf lessons: practise a certain skill in its easiest possible form, when the performer is consistent in the skill, gradually make the task harder. This allows the performer to practise accomplishing the skill correctly and build up a feel for the correct movement, rather than getting it wrong and directing attention toward explicit movement. 

Example: practise golf puts from 8 spots, all 1 foot distance from the hole. When you are satisfied the skill is being executed correctly (this could be achieving 7 out of 8 puts), increase the difficulty of puts to two feet away from the hole, and so on. 

How can I work with my athletes to build resistance to choking? 

Coaching styles aren’t the only way to reduce likelihood of choking. The athlete and coach can work together to develop coping mechanisms and deploy them in high pressure moments to maintain performance levels. Rather than impact on the amount of explicit information the athlete develops, the following approaches aim to keep the athlete focused on the build up to the skill, with the same overall goal of reducing self-focus. The techniques described are separate, but can be used alongside implicit learning methods to further reduce the performers prospects of choking. 

The Quiet-Eye technique

The quiet-eye (QE) technique is established as the final fixation on a specific object or location, which happens prior to a critical movement phase. The application of QE supplies an important cue to fixate on, as a result consuming the performer’s attentional capacity and reducing self-focus. Researchsuggests that golf performers employing the QE technique performed more accurately and extending the length of QE improved performance. 

How to apply the QE technique: to deploy QE, the individual should choose an object or location to make their final fixation on before onset of swing. The athlete should experiment to find their optimal QE duration, then practise gaining consistency in duration of their desired final fixation. 

Pre-performance routines 

Pre-performance routines 

Establishing a pre-performance routine (PPR) is a technique many elite sportspersons have utilised over the years. A PPR encompasses a sequence of task-relevant thoughts and actions an athlete systematically engages in prior to performance of a self-paced sport skill. Research shows that PPRs have a beneficial effect on performance. When compared to novices, elite performers exhibit substantially higher levels of consistency in their PPR. 

How to develop an effective PPR: encourage your athlete to practise engaging with a routine which they feel comfortable with. Rhythm and consistency are the most important factors, so make sure to highlight these. The same PPR should be engaged before every shot. Remember that using the QE technique can be adopted as one of the aspects of the PPR. 

Here is Tiger woods repeating the same PPR before strokes

To wrap up what’s been discussed: we now know what choking is; how and why it happens; and the benefits gained from reducing choking.

Methods involving teaching methods and psychological skills have been described and applied to a golf setting to suggest how they can be adopted into a golf lesson. Hopefully, by using some of the knowledge gained from this blog; confidence of players can be kept high, golfing lessons can be adapted to prevent future choking, performers can elevate their golfing skill level. 

Written by Steven Quercia-Smale of SQS Sport Psychology.