Rolling is all in your
mind … Why you should know about “Choking” in sport.
How many people do you
know who have lost their roll just before an assessment? Maybe
it’s happened to you? If so you probably experienced what is called “choking” …
Intrested, then read on to find out what happens in your head and how to
prevent it …
I have a pretty good roll
in my sea kayak. Last year I swam just twice, once pinned against a wall at the
Falls of Lora and once surfing. I lost count of the many rolls I did in anger,
mostly in the surf.
I decided it was time to
go for my 5* sea assessment … I worked hard in preparation … practicing things like
map reading in the dark and surfing, and I took countless friends off around
Ramsey Island, St David’s Head and to the Bitches tide race (thanks all!). Last winter I
got Roger to run some 5* weekends based around mock assessments. Everything
felt on track.
But one weekend this
February it nearly fell apart: I lost my roll.
It was supposed to be an
“advanced” weekend with another provider. Saturday morning we were deliberately
rolling on both sides while side surfing … some of mine were 2nd or
3rd attempts, I wasn’t thinking much about it – I was up and
paddling again after all.
Then I let the person
coaching into my head … “Hey Tavi, your roll isn’t bomber at the moment, do you
want me to have a look?” Doubt started, after all I was acutely aware I had an
assessment looming. “Ok” … I rolled offside, set up … effortless.
“That was perfect, try
this, I find it usually breaks a roll …” and it did. Within minutes I was over
thinking, trying to concentrate on sweeping, on blade angle, on set up … on whatever
would give me that effortless roll back … and all the time doubts about
assessment and the fear of losing my roll crept into my mind. That day I was a
rolling beginner. I could roll maybe one attempt in 10 on flat water and it wasn’t
my effortless roll at all.
Overnight I was really
stressed. I had an assessment in a few weeks. Maybe I should cancel it? Maybe
I’d lost my roll? How could I enjoy paddling without a roll? Sunday my roll was
worse, so in the end I just got on with surfing …
Monday I was in the pool,
playing polo with the teenagers I’d been coaching. My roll was back, effortless
again. And the next day I took my sea kayak to a pool session, and rolled and
self-rescued maybe 50 or 100 times, no thinking, no pressure, effortless.
Eh?
A chance encounter with
Roger led to an email exchange (I’m in the Coastal Spirit mentoring program –
which I highly recommend!), and in his answer Roger suggested looking at
“choking” in sport. It seems this is what I had experienced. Choking is the
phenomenon that causes famous golfers under pressure to miss easy shots that
will win them major tournaments, and causes footballers to miss the goal posts entirely
during championship penalty shoot outs.
Choking causes loss of automatic
behaviour, turning an expert into a beginner. It is caused by focussing on the
uncontrollables, which includes “am I losing my roll” or the outcome of an
assessment, rather than the “now”. It isn’t helped by thinking consciously
about the process (overthinking) – in fact that makes it worse. But reading
around I found there are research-evidence based methods to reduce the risk of
choking …
One method involves thinking
about a holistic, positive description of your roll (after all it’s impossible
to not think at all!) … For me this would be “effortless” which is what all my
good rolls are. So I concentrate on the word “effortless” as I roll. For you
the description might be very different! I suspect the phrase Roger has
mentioned he uses, “I’m coming up” fits this well.
The other sounds a little
odd to start with … but is to do with activating the right-hand (RH) side of
the brain. This is the part of the brain that controls automatic behaviour such
as an expert undertaking a task (rather than consciously controlled behaviour).
The RH side of your brain also controls movement of the left side of your body.
Before you try and roll squeeze your left hand on your paddle – that should activate
the RH side of your brain and help reduce the risk of choking.
I found the experience of “choking”
pretty scary and very stressful. It was a real relief to discover this wasn’t
just me and that I wasn’t losing my roll. This was a well-known and understood
phenomenon. And what’s more – I passed my 5* assessment last week. My roll on
assessment? It was just fine.
The moral of this story
for paddlers? Think about trying these techniques – maybe one will prevent you
experiencing choking under pressure!
The moral of this story
for coaches? Celebrate every roll you see. Each roll is a victory, and the product of a lot of hard
work, but each one is also a potential trigger to doubt … And think about
informing paddlers about choking and how to prevent it.
The moral of this story
for assessors? Don’t judge too quickly if someone fails a roll … maybe you are
witnessing choking? Maybe suggesting one of these techniques could help trigger
automatic behaviour and success? Maybe if you think you have seen choking you
might point to this information in your feedback?
Happy paddling to you all,
and may all your rolls be effortless (or whichever descriptor you choose)!
You can find further information on choking on the web – if you can’t
get the original papers and would like to read them feel free to drop me an
email:
A quick
search on “choking in sport” will lead you to lots of articles describing what
choking is.
The specific
research I mention above is at:
The holistic
description word technique:
Hand
squeezing technique – there’s a great lay summary here: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2009/jul/26/sports-psychology-choking
The original
research:
You can find information
on Coastal Spirit’s mentoring program (which I highly recommend) here:
And if the psychological
aspects of paddling are of interest check this course out:
Tavi Murray
