Handling Pressure: What professionals can learn from elite athletes

It’s April 11th, 2018. In Madrid it’s a balmy evening. Inside the stadium of the city’s most iconic sports team, it’s a little warmer. Real Madrid, the current European Champions, are losing 0-3 to a spirited Juventus side. It’s the second leg of the quarter finals; the tie stands at 3-3 and looks set for extra time.

The match is in its final minute of additional time and Madrid are awarded a penalty. The whistle blown to give it sounds with the match clock reading 92:23.

A furore erupts. The referee is surrounded, berated, and harassed from every angle. Juventus’ goalkeeper, Gianluigi Buffon, is shown a red card. He remonstrates, indignant. So too do his teammates. Kicking and screaming, he leaves the field at 93:38.

The replacement goalkeeper, Wojciech Szcz?sny, takes his time heading to the goal. His teammates still argue with the referee.

By this point, Cristiano Ronaldo, Madrid’s greatest ever-goalscorer, has been long waiting. He’s patiently stood with the ball by the penalty spot. He’s bumped into and subject to many a Juventus insult. Opposition players endlessly goad him. He remains calm.

Juventus players take their time to leave the penalty area as they continue in their attempts to enter the mind of Ronaldo.

Eventually, the 18-yard box is cleared. In it stand the referee, Szcz?sny, Ronaldo, and the ball.

The whistle is blown. Ronaldo takes one last deep breath of the air seeped in boos.

An explosive yet controlled run up follows. He strikes the ball. The clock reads 96:55. It’s been the longest 4 minutes and 32 seconds of his life.

But it doesn’t matter. The ball travels at 139km/hr into the top corner. If Buffon was also in the goal with Szcz?sny, it wouldn’t have made a difference.

Ronaldo whips off his shirt and runs towards cheering supporters. The next minute feels one hundred times faster than the previous five and the final whistle of the match soon blows.

What Ronaldo has just performed is what’s known as a “Clutch Performance”, the phenomenon of athletes under pressure, usually in the last minutes of a game, to summon strength, concentration and whatever else necessary to succeed.

We often hear of certain individuals thriving under pressure. In comparison, many seemingly crumble under it. Yet we often misinterpret that such responses are inevitable. No person, no matter how gutsy, can naturally feel not a flicker of nerves when being tasked with taking a game winning shot in front of tens of thousands of people.

What separates the thrivers from the crumblers is not what they feel but how they interpret such feelings.

And the fortunate thing is that such interpretations can be learned.

It’s all about control

When it comes to performance anxiety we are all familiar with the physical characteristics - the increase in heart rate, the rush of blood to the head, and the involuntary shaking.

Presenting to the board, calling a client with bad news, or showcasing our talents in a job interview all cause such symptoms. What fewer of us are familiar with though, is the fact that such physiological changes are themselves not inherently bad. Feelings of worry, when considered from a biopsychological perspective, are fundamentally useful. They act as an alarm system to direct our attention towards a perceived ‘threat’.

An issue arises in that too many of us become transfixed on the threat and the physiological symptoms we experience when faced with high pressure situations. We fail to acknowledge that such changes also allow us to anticipate a threat and take steps to mentally prepare for tackling it. Such changes allow us to reframe threats as challenges.

Psychologists have found that elite athletes often experience the same physiological symptoms of anxiety in high pressure scenarios as amateurs yet they are better able to cope with such symptoms through holding a perceived sense of control. Having a perceived sense of control over a challenge allows one to predict the stressful response i.e. recognise it’s part of the performance process, and subsequently direct attention to successful future outcomes instead of one’s physiological symptoms.

The issue for most amateurs, within any performance domain, is that they too often focus on uncontrollables and task-irrelevant stimuli, such as the opinions of others, ‘what-ifs’, and general self-doubt. A pressurised situation in their eyes remains categorised as a ‘threat’, whereas the elite, through recognising their control, come to view the situation as a ‘challenge’.

Those who make ‘challenge’ appraisals in high-pressure environments i.e. as an opportunity to achieve positive outcomes, are fundamentally better poised to take control over a stressful situation and reach desired levels of performance. In contrast, those who make ‘threat’ appraisals i.e. the objective is to avoid negative outcomes, are much more likely to crumble and see performance detriments.

So how do I change?

Developing a perceived sense of control within pressurised situations is by no means an easy feat. It requires the development and repeated practice of a personalised set of routines and rituals.

However, there are two core elements that underpin the idiosyncratic approaches professional athletes often take: Raising Self-Awareness and Practice of Coping Skills.

For the former, performers need to reflect on previous situations whereby they felt pressured or a sense of anxiety. When reflecting on these situations, the performer needs to become aware of both the trigger of the pressure and the thoughts they had about that trigger. Understanding these will allow the performer to make sense of the behavioural decisions they took (or in many cases, didn’t take) and how these led to specific outcomes.

The point is to reach a point whereby one recognises that the same trigger can be paired with different thoughts and these can subsequently lead to different behavioural outcomes.

An example:

Presenting to the board + Risk of looking stupid = Stumbling over words and forgetting order of slides

Presenting to the board + Opportunity to make an impression with key decision makers = Confident and seamless delivery

The above is grossly oversimplified but the key thing to note is: Anxiety is a natural response to competitive pressure but we can socialise responses to use it proactively.

Socialising new responses to anxiety can then only occur through planning out and practicing alternative courses of action when someone is met with similar situations in the future. Coping strategies can vary wildly in their effectiveness depending on the individual using them. Choice of strategy is also dependent on context (i.e. proximity or how imminent the threat is). Some examples include:

• Visualising the desired outcome
• Imagining oneself to be a situation specific role model (e.g. their sporting idol or favourite public speaker)
• Deep breathing
• Finding humour
• Repeating a personal mantra

Once one’s strategies have been decided, these should be practiced and continually reflected upon to fully condition the new responses. Role-play is a fantastic outlet to use so that mistakes and adjustments can be made in a safe environment. Over time, the most effect strategies will become habitual and previously threatening situations will be seen challenges to overcome in the pursuit of desired goals. The resulting sense of control gives a performer the best chance of reaching peak performance.

Summary

The processes of raising self-awareness and the habituating of coping skills are in some ways never complete. The very best of elite performers will continue to monitor and adjust where necessary to ensure that they remain in control in the face of unique threats that come with ever-evolving performance domains.

But the simple cognitive act of choosing to see such threats as challenges to overcome is something any performer can instantly engage with. Focusing on one’s controllables is the first step we can all take to handle pressure and maximise performance.

#stressmanagement #resilience #performanceanxiety #performance