Thursday, April 15, 2010

Flat Out Like a Lizard Drinking on the Surface of Jupiter

Go read this - about why people choke.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303960604575158122511930684.html

A sample:

Sian Beilock, a professor of psychology at the University of Chicago, has helped illuminate the cascade of mental events that lead professional athletes to fall apart on the fairway. She uses golf as her experimental paradigm. When people are learning how to putt, it can seem like a daunting activity: There's just so much to think about. Novice golfers need to hold the putter properly and keep their shoulders square. Then, they have to make sure that they hit the little white ball with a smooth stroke, making contact at the center of the putter head and letting the club move to the inside after impact. For an inexperienced player, a golf putt can seem like an endless checklist of do's and don'ts.

But the mental exertion pays off, at least at first. Ms. Beilock has shown that novices hit better putts when they consciously reflect on their actions. The more time they spend thinking about the putt, the more likely they are to avoid beginner's mistakes and sink the ball in the hole. A little experience, however, changes everything. After golfers have learned how to putt—once they have memorized the necessary movements—analyzing the stroke is a dangerous waste of time. Ms. Beilock has found, for instance, that when experienced golfers are forced to think about their putts, they hit significantly worse shots. All those conscious thoughts erase their years of practice; the grace of talent disappears. "We bring expert golfers into our lab, we tell them to pay attention to a particular part of their swing, and they just screw up," Ms. Beilock says. "When you are at a high level, your skills become somewhat automated. You don't need to pay attention to every step in what you're doing."


This is what happens when people "choke." Because the performers are nervous, they begin analyzing actions that are best performed on auto-pilot. When playing against Mr. Woods, for instance, golfers might start second guessing their drive, a skill they've honed through years of practice. Instead of elevating their game to compete with the superstar, his intimidating talent makes them think like a beginner. They regress before the crowd."

8 comments:

Unknown said...

Are you blogging for Dojo now or are you just waiting for Sensei to take a hint?

JdR said...

Well, I just thought this was interesting for everyone.

Essentially, when pressure is on, you're tempted to think too much, which disrupts your learned skills.

I think this is especially applicable to Ultimate. The sport gives lots of opportunities for thinking (regular subbing, but also 10 seconds on the disc).

But yes, we here at stately Brisbane Ultimate Blog mansion also like to do our bit to maintain the public perception that Dojo equal chokers.

sensei said...

That's actually really interesting stuff JDR. And I don't mean to sound surprised...

Okay let's write some stuff about this. Actually I think it's a pretty simple phenomenon, apart from the obvious "superstar" effect, which certainly exists.

And here's the summary: Mike is a frisbee superstar and he REALLY wants to win. All the time. If he's not winning right now he's working towards winning next time.

Take a look at the Buggers blog - it's just about winning (and just to be clear I don't mean that as a criticism). There's simply nothing else to report.

Take the Dojo on the other hand. More than any other team, we have lots of older guys for whom frisbee is really just an enjoyable diversion, but who also happen to be pretty decent players by BPL standards and who turn up on Thursday night to play a bit of disc. We take it as seriously as our lifestyles will allow and we seem to win a fair bit - and that's great.

But when you get into a grand final game against Mike and his team (which is something very few teams other than the Dojo have managed for many seasons now), you know that no matter what has happened in the season up to that point, his (and therefore their) focus is purely on winning. No matter what that might mean.

So really it's a battle of will. Sure, Dojo has the deepest roster of any team and we really shouldn't lose to a team with just one superstar. But then the Bugs also have the converse of the "superstar effect", which is that if you actually have one on your team then you actually play way better as well, knowing that you've got someone awesome to bail you out if you go too far over your own limits...

I think everyone knows that Dojo really should have won last season's final, but then knowing now that it was also going to be Jason's (a star in his own way) last game you can see where the impetus for an unstoppable comeback came from. Bugs just played an awesome last 3 points. It happens.

But the fact is that the only grand final Bugs have lost in ages was also the only one where they didn't have their #1. Theory proven? Well, given that everyone seems to think that the Bugs' superstar isn't going to be around at the end of the season, we'll certainly be able to put it to a pretty solid test...

Meanwhile I think I'm going to do some searching for a theory to explain the phenomenon of certain teams that look good on paper but fail on the field...

Reece said...

please send me the link sensei.

Unknown said...

I wonder if Sensei has seen last nights game scores yet? Will his blog be about Dojo's training night? Or will it be about Cobra's apparent choke? Or will he in fact himself be eating the words he just posted on BUB?

sensei said...

Ah these young kids. One win and they think they're gods.

String 'em together for a season boys and then we'll talk.

wetnose said...

I would ask everyone to please not take Jack's opinions as the Cobras opinions.

The Cobras brainstrust are aware that 1 game doesn't make a season, just like winning all the games in a calender year except 2 doesn't deliver any trophies, does it Steve? ;-)

wetnose said...

Sensei, if you are looking for teams that look the goods on paper but don't deliver the goods when it counts then you need look no further than the All Blacks World Cup campaigns over the last 5 Rugby World Cups.

In most cases, they were almost unbackable favourites but failed to make the final on all but 1 occasion.