Choking

“Choking” is a really bad habit if you ever want to win the Masters. Those little three foot puts that you can put in the cup 999 times out of a thousand—they rim out or stop short. It makes you feel bad that you missed the shot, but you feel a lot worse because you can’t escape the feeling that you were the weak link. The ball was good, the green was good, the putter was good; the bad part was you. You choked.

That’s a bad thing, no doubt about it, but let me offer another line of work by contrast. I’m thinking of gunfighting. You choke there and you won’t have to worry about the Masters next year or the press coverage this year. For the last couple of days, I have been reading Blue-eyed Devil, by Robert Parker. Virgil Cole (Ed Harris) is the principal gunslinger in these books and his deputy, Everett Hitch (Viggo Mortensen), is the narrator. Here’s his assessment of Virgil’s state of mind at the crucial moment. "Virgil was in the place he goes when it might be time to shoot. Everything registered and nothing mattered." That sounds just perfect to me. If Virgil golfed, I’ll bet he would be a superb putter.

.
It turns out that a lot of work has been done on the choking phenomenon. Today’s (June 13) New York Times reviewed the work of Sian Bielock at the University of Chicago. It won’t surprise any of you, I imagine, that it is the activity in the prefrontal cortex that causes the problem. When you get to thinking too much about an activity that you can do well only without thinking about it, it’s the prefrontal cortex you are using. Well, overusing.

Bielock says that are ways to train yourself not to overthink. She says you can train your brain to react more productively. You can give it something else to do, just to keep it busy and out of your way. You can practice under pressure. You can act promptly, rather than delaying and analyzing too much.

But I think Virgil has it right. There is a place you can go when you might need to shoot. It’s quiet there. You are aware of everything, but you really don’t care all that much.