Pressure refers to that feeling of increased importance to perform well, which can often occur at competitions when there are performance expectations from people like coaches, parents or even yourself. It  may be felt because of anything from needing a certain outcome to being the favourite in a race.

This added pressure during competitions can sometimes increase our anxiety and apprehension, which can become overwhelming and result in a sudden and significant decline in performance. This is commonly referred to as a “choke performance”. However, athletes don’t always choke in pressure situations. Indeed, research shows some athletes can excel during pressure situations and demonstrate a “clutch performance” where they experience heightened awareness and skill control, and optimised energy levels, allowing them to execute skills to the highest level. Successfully managing pressure in your sport can be the difference between a choke performance and a clutch performance.

So how can we increase the likelihood that we’ll clutch rather than choke under pressure? Research recommends a variety of techniques to help manage performance pressure, including:

• Pressure training
• Distracting the mind
• Deep breathing
• Having a pre-performance routine.

We’ll now cover these four techniques in more detail.

Pressure training

This is a technique that can be implemented throughout the season. To familiarise yourself with managing high-stress environments, try increasing the pressure you face during your training. This means that when you are under pressure in competitions, you will already be acclimatised to managing your anxiety so are less likely to become overwhelmed and choke.

Consider using some of these strategies in your training:

• Compete head-to-head with peers to recreate competition conditions in practice.
• Include drills where you are being observed by other athletes.
• Add positive and negative consequences when performing skills i.e. running a lap if underperform.
• Train under increased fatigue i.e. perform a free-throw directly after a high-intensity physical exercise.

If training is not under your control, try having a conversation with your coach to see if they can implement some of the above recommendations on your behalf.

A word of warning: it is important to remain ethical when implementing these strategies. For instance, whilst training under fatigue can be useful for acclimatising to pressure, pushing yourself to exhaustion during every training session will likely result in burnout and underperformance. Likewise, consistently punishing underperformance may demoralise you and hinder your coach-athlete relationship. Think about your personal needs and preferences when implementing these strategies, to find the healthy amount to push yourself. If you enrol the help of your coach, good practice would be for them to communicate and set expectations about pressure training at the start of the season and gain consent from all athletes involved.

Distracting the mind 

We now come to the competition itself. When faced with pressure, it’s easy to focus on cues that are irrelevant to the task at hand, like the noise of the crowd or the worry that you may be feeling. Distracting yourself from these cues lowers your physiological arousal – this means your heart rate will lower, and your body’s relaxation system will kick in. What’s really interesting is that research shows that this can not only prevent choking but also improve performance!

To distract yourself from irrelevant cues in a high-pressure situation, consider engaging in another neutral thought, such as listening to music and singing along, or, if this isn’t possible, just reciting song lyrics in your head. You could also try using mental imagery to visualise scenarios that are task relevant, to help focus your attention on what’s important. For instance, a tennis player about to serve may visualise where they want the ball to land to hit an ace.

Deep breathing

We’ve all heard that taking deep breaths can calm you down, but there are certain techniques you can use to relax yourself more efficiently. For deep breaths to be the most effective, each breath should engage the diaphragm. To do this, when inhaling, expand your belly but do not move your chest. You can place one hand on your belly and one hand on your chest to help with this. Breaths should also be slow and rhythmic, with a longer exhalation than inhalation. For example, try breathing in for four seconds, and out for six seconds.

When faced with a high-pressure situation, such as a penalty or an important race, take the time beforehand to take a few deep breaths using the techniques above. This will help you remain calm and focused, to perform your best.

Pre-performance routine

Often when there is a lot of pressure to perform an action well, we find ourselves focusing our attention on the process of completing every individual skill that make up that action, in an attempt to control what would be an automatic movement through conscious effort. For instance, a footballer might focus on swinging their leg with the right amount of power, ensuring the ball hits their foot in the right place, and following through at the right trajectory, instead of simply kicking the ball. Trying to process all the individual parts of the movement can overwhelm the brain, which leads to more mistakes and choking. For example, have you ever tried to focus on the way you walk? As soon as you focus on walking in a certain way, you’ll find your movement becomes stilted and it actually makes things worse!

A great deal of research suggests that going through a pre-performance routine can be beneficial to prevent choking, as it allows you to focus your attention on the task as a whole, rather than on the breakdown of each action, which helps your movement flow naturally.

A pre-performance routine is a sequence of planned and systematic thoughts and actions that are related to the task at hand. Here are some things that could be incorporated into a pre-performance routine:

• A consistent action
• Deep breathing
• Visualising your goals

For example, a tennis player about to serve match point might bounce the ball twice, take three deep breaths from the belly, and visualise themselves hitting the ball out of reach of their opponent. Play around with different sequences of thoughts and actions to see what works for you. A pre-performance routine can easily be integrated as a mini ritual right before you perform, or as part of your warmup (e.g., using a warmup drill as the consistent action).

In summary… 

Pressure refers to our increased perceived importance to perform well and can come from many sources. Successfully managing pressure can be the difference between a choke and a clutch performance. There are four techniques to help manage the pressure to perform:

• Adding pressure to training
• Distracting the mind
• Deep breathing
• Having a pre-performance routine.

N.B. All recommendations provided are taken from existing empirical research. 

If you are interested in learning more about managing performance pressure, we recommend the following paper:

• Balk, Y. A., Adriaanse, M. A., De Ridder, D. T., & Evers, C. (2013). Coping under pressure: Employing emotion regulation strategies to enhance performance under pressure. Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 35(4), 408-418.

Or these links for some lighter reading:

• Sources of pressure in sport, and strategies to deal with these pressures
• Five tips to deal with pre-competition nerves

Or this 10-minute podcast episode on preparing for and staying claim in high pressure situations

CLICK TO LISTEN