Choking vs. Panicking

To the average viewer, the verbs to "choke" and to "panic" may go hand in hand. In reality, they are two entirely different phenomena. To prove my point, I will embed two videos; the first is of someone choking, the second is of someone panicking. In both instances, their psychological weakness led to defeat. I will then discuss the psychological instances that define and differentiate these two experiences. Enjoy,

 

"Choke"

Jean Van De Velde's epic collapse at the 18th hole of the 1999 British Open Championship. Needing only a double-bogey to win on a par-4 hole, Van De Velde managed to hit into the water, the sand, and the rough on route to a triple-bogey to force a playoff - that he went on to lose.

 

 "Panic"

With 20 seconds left in the 1993 NCAA Championship game, Chris Webber grabs a rebound off of a missed free throw and proceeds to travel (which somehow didn't get called, I suppose the ref panicked as well), dribble downcourt, and call a timeout that his team didn't have. The resulting technical foul led to two more points for the opposing North Carolina Tar Heels, and ultimately a 77-71 loss for Webber's Michigan Wolverines.

A player chokes when they recognize the significance of the moment and begin to think explicitly about the actions that they perform during sport. The human brain has two types of memory: explicit memory, used for consciously remembering experiences and information, and implicit memory, which unconsciously aids in tasks through the use of previous experiences. For instance, when a golfer is learning his swing, they will explicitly think about certain aspects of their swing (keeping their knees bent, rotating the hips, etc...) until they believe that they have the implicit "feel" of the swing. The basal ganglia, where implicit learning partially resides, is concerned with force and timing, and when that system kicks in you begin to develop touch and accuracy, for example, the ability to hit a drop shot in golf. With practice, this system gets stronger and eventually, the golfer isn't consciously thinking about the aspects of their swing, but rather just implicitly swinging the way that feels best for the shot needed. 

However, once that golfer recognizes that they are one hole away from their first major championship, their explicit memory starts to kick in due to the fear of their implicit memory failing them. This is what happened to Van De Velde at the 1999 British Open. Knowing that he had the tournament sealed with a double-bogey, Van De Velde proceeded to hit every shot as if he was a beginner. He explicitly thought through the motions of his golf swing and couldn't hit the ball the way he wanted to. Had he simply trusted his intuitive swing the way he had all 71 previous holes of the tournament, which had him up three strokes with one hole to play, he would have won the tournament. Unfortunately for him, Jean recognized the gravity of the situation and no longer trusted his gut, he wanted to make sure that he accomplished his goal by consciously thinking through every aspect of his stroke

Panic, on the other hand, is an entirely different process. When a person panics, they experience what psychologists call "perceptual narrowing" - they focus on one thing, and one thing only. For example, Chris Webber gets the ball with 20 seconds left and his team down two points. He knows that he has to score and that he has little time to do so. Instead of passing right away or dribbling, he panics and thinks "get me out of here." He takes a few steps, finally realizes that he has to dribble, and calls a timeout, one that the entire country, himself included, knew that they didn't have. In his moment of panic, Webber's one thought was to escape the situation, he forgot entirely about the obvious fact that he didn't have any timeouts left. 

In effect, panic is much the opposite of choking. Choking involves over-thinking, whereas panic involves under-thinking. Choking is loss of instinct, wheres panic is reversion to instinct. The only way to avoid these mishaps is through rigorous practice. Practice in instances of intense pressure helps your mind trust your implicit memory to prevent choking, and will provide experiences for your mind to draw from when experiencing perceptual narrowing, or panic. So fear not, its simply a matter of mind over body mentality.