College Football Upset Of The Week: Why Teams Choke

You've seen it a thousand times, a team that should have done better comes unglued. Fumble fests, botched handoffs, misguided passes and the easy catch that gets dropped, all these mishaps just drive players, coaches and fans nuts. Why do these things happen? What is going on when athletes choke?

A great skier named Mermer Blakesly explains this in her book..."in The Yikes Zone: A Conversation With Fear". In this case, it's not fear of the opposing team, it's fear of failure. When you worry about failure, the voice in your head begins the self-destruction process. "Uh oh, I'm going to blow it on this play" the little voice in your head says. And so, you do. That voice is housed in the left cerebral hemisphere. When the voice is active, your left brain is dominant. The left brain controls gross biomechanical movements. So when you are in left brain mode, your movements are not as precise.

Athletes experiencing their peak performance report an inner calmness and quiteness. There is no voice in their head criticizing them. They are "in the zone". The trick is, how to make yourself get in the zone. It requires silencing the "voice" in your head. That will switch you over to the right brain being dominant and get you "in the zone".

When teams choke, there is ususally a mistake. That mistake then elicits a fear response in the team. Their collective inner voices start screaming "you idiot, I can't believe I dropped that ball". As the internal beratement continues more mistakes follow until momentum shifts and the team comes unglued.

Meanwhile the other team is enjoying every moment of it. The more one team chokes, the more the other team can relax, stop criticizing themselves internally and begin to play "loose".

Its amazing how many coaches don't know this and inadvertantly make things worse by screaming at their athletes who are already screaming at themselves.

A big weekend of college football is upon us and it will be fun to see who chokes and who will get upset. When it happens, now you will know why. BTW...this same phenomenon occurs in all other sports as well! It's widely know in the ski teaching world that you will ski your best as soon as the exam is over!

Michael A. Patmas, MD, FACP

PSIA Alpine Certified Level 3 Ski Instructor

USSA Level 100 Certified Alpine Ski Race Coach

Member, National Coaches Registry