Pressure—and What You Can Do About It
Yesterday concluded the 104th PGA Championship at Southern Hills in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the second major tournament of the men’s professional golf calendar.
Chile’s Mito Pereira led the tournament by one stroke after 71 holes. The problem, however, is that there were 72 holes in the tournament. Pereira needed a par on the home hole to close out a one-stroke win and become the first golfer from his homeland to win a major championship. He needed a bogey to force a playoff.
On his tee shot on the last hole, Pereira hit his drive in the creek right of the hole. Instead of making par and winning the major, he scrambled to make double bogey and fell to third place. The eventual champion, Justin Thomas, won in a two-man, three-hole playoff.
“I wasn’t thinking about the water,” Pereira said during his post tournament interview on CBS. “I hit it in the water. It’s weird that it went in. But I guess you have so much pressure in your body that you don’t know what you’re doing.”
"But I guess you have so much pressure in your body that you don't know what you're doing." - Mito Pereira
Some of you might have had experiences with bouts of pressure, choking, or brain freezes during exams in the past.
I recently re-listened to an episode of Hidden Brain titled Stage Fright, in which cognitive scientist Sian Beilock talked about why so many of us crumble under pressure—and what we can do about it.
I encourage you to listen to the podcast or read this article for a more detailed discussion of how to prevent mental meltdowns. But here’s a quick summary of how to prevent choking when the time counts.
Practice meditation: Beilock’s research has shown that meditation “can train your brain not to dwell on negative thoughts.” There are several apps that offer great meditations. I use Peloton’s app, which has lots of five- and 10-minute meditations, but there’s Calm, Headspace, and a myriad of other apps, too.
Distract Yourself: Beilock recommended distracting yourself before the big game or exam. Listen to music. Work on a crossword puzzle. “Singing a song or even thinking about your pinky toe as Jack Nicklaus was rumored to do can help prevent the prefrontal cortex from regulating too closely movements that should run outside awareness,” she said. Ten minutes before the exam is not the time to cram.
Simulate exam conditions: One of the most effective ways to prevent choking, according to Beilock, is to practice under stress. The practice doesn’t have to be as intense as the exam-day pressure situation itself. That is almost impossible to simulate. However, it should be enough to acclimate your mind to performing under those conditions. So don’t just complete those simulated exams or those half-day or full-day practice tests. Make sure you complete them by mimicking test-day conditions, too.
Think out loud: Beilock said one of the ways to trigger a proper brain response is to talk through the solutions out loud. This you can do while you’re practicing questions, which will help you on exam day. While you can’t necessarily talk to yourself during the exam (at least not loudly), you can mouth your thinking and rationales without sounds. According to Beilock, this can train attention on the critical and analytical thinking and off the tension that leads to a brain freeze.
