Working in Movement

Performers of all sorts (athletes, musicians, actors, speakers, etc.) sometimes "choke," misperforming tasks in which they are well trained. Can this choking under pressure be confronted? A couple of researchers at Michigan State decided to find out a couple of years ago. (See Why Do We Choke Under Pressure.)

They trained people to putt golf balls as the performance to be tested. Presumably, none of the participants knew how to putt beforehand, so the skill could be built up from scratch. The would be putters were separated into three groups to learn putting. One group learned to putt with no distraction. Another while performing a secondary task of repeating word. The third group learned to putt in front of television cameras.

Once trained, the researchers tested the putters under low and high pressure (money was involved) situations. The groups performed about equally under the low pressure situation. But under pressure, those who learned in front of the cameras did significantly better. Says one of the researchers:

"This suggests that adapting to an environment where one is forced to attend to performance from the initial stages of learning may provide immunization against the negative effects of performance pressure."

The idea is not to think too much about what you are doing so that you don't choke.

So where does Chuck Berry come in? At the golf driving range earlier today, I began hitting shots even more poorly than my usual hacker worst. Usually I try to correct my swing with pretty negative results. But today I decided to put on my headphones and listen to an MP3 player as I hit the remainder of a bucket of balls, so I dialed up some of Mr. Berry' biggest hits. Of course, my swing seemed to improve almost immediately, the ball zooming into the crisp, blue sky.

So, I suppose the idea is instead of thinking too much while performing a skill, just go "Cruisin' and Playin' the Radio with No Particular Place to Go" and don't think about it.