Choking in sports is when an athlete underperforms in competition relative to their demonstrated ability in practice. It is caused by pressure-induced overthinking — fear of failure, outcome focus, and social anxiety that trigger conscious overcontrol of skills that normally run on autopilot. Athletes who choke play tentatively, tighten up, and lose the trust in their abilities they show every day in training.
Most athletes choke for the same reason: they practice their sport but not their mental game. Dr. Patrick Cohn, Ph.D., a sports psychology expert with over 30 years of experience coaching athletes, explains why athletes choke under pressure and what to do about it.
Why Athletes Choke Under Pressure
Many athletes perform well in practice but fall short when it counts. If you can execute the skill in training but not in competition, the gap is mental. Anxiety, tension, and fear get in the way. Closing that gap is the foundation of mental performance coaching.
High-Profile Chokes in Sports History
Choking under pressure happens at every level, including the highest. Jean van de Velde held a three-stroke lead at the 1999 British Open heading into the final hole. He needed only a bogey to win. He made triple-bogey and finished second. In 2004, the New York Yankees blew a 3-0 series lead to the Boston Red Sox in the ALCS. In 2018, the No. 1 seed Virginia Cavaliers lost to No. 16 seed UMBC by 20 points in the first round of the NCAA tournament. Elite athletes and teams choke. The question is why.
Fear of Failure Is the Core Driver
Fear of failure is the biggest reason athletes choke under pressure. Athletes worry about outcomes — what will happen if they fail, what teammates will think, whether they will embarrass themselves or let someone down. That worry creates pressure, and pressure triggers the mental patterns that derail performance.
Scott Hoch had a short putt to win the 1985 Masters. A fan called out that he needed just two more pars to take the green jacket. Hoch later said it pulled his mind away from what he had been doing. In the playoff, facing another short putt to win, he was thinking about winning a major rather than making the putt. He missed. That is outcome thinking in action.
The same pattern affected Scott Norwood of the Buffalo Bills, who missed a game-winning field goal in Super Bowl XXV. Worrying about the result of the kick, rather than executing the kick, raises the chance of exactly the outcome you fear.
What Research Shows About Choking Under Pressure
Cognitive psychologist Sian Leah Beilock studied why athletes choke and what helps them avoid it. Her research found that athletes under pressure intensely focus on the details of what they are doing — a batter overthinks their swing mechanics, a golfer analyses their putting stroke mid-putt. That conscious attention disrupts skills built for automatic execution.
Athletes perform better under pressure when their performance runs on autopilot. Tim Gallwey made the same point in The Inner Game of Tennis decades earlier: athletes get in their own way through too much self-coaching. Suspend conscious thinking, and you perform closer to your ceiling.
Beilock put it this way in her TED talk: “We often get in our own way. Precisely because our worries cause us to concentrate too much. We pay too much attention to what we are doing. When we are concerned about doing our best, we often try and control aspects of what we are doing that are best left on autopilot, and as a result, we mess up.”
She also identified a training gap: athletes spend most of their time honing skills but rarely practice under competitive pressure. “Rarely do we practice under the conditions we perform in. When all eyes are on us, we sometimes flub our performance.” Competition is, as Dr. Cohn says, a closed-book test — athletes must rely on what they have already locked in.
How to Stop Choking: 5 Mental Game Strategies
The following strategies are drawn from sports psychology research and Dr. Cohn’s work with athletes across all sports and levels.
1. Close the Gap Between Practice and Competition
The more familiar competition feels, the less pressure it carries. Train in conditions that mimic game pressure — time yourself, add an audience, raise the stakes in practice. Getting used to the feelings of competition before you arrive at competition reduces the novelty that triggers anxiety. Beilock notes that exposure to high-pressure situations in training helps athletes perform when those situations are real.
2. Download Pregame Worries Before You Compete
Pregame anxiety and doubt are normal. Left unchecked, they surface at the worst moment. Beilock found that writing down worries before competition, a technique called expressive writing, reduces the mental load those thoughts create. Getting concerns on paper makes them less likely to intrude during performance. Build a pregame routine that includes five minutes of writing.
3. Model Composure as a Coach or Parent
Beilock found that anxiety is contagious. When coaches and parents are visibly anxious before or during competition, athletes absorb that anxiety and mirror it. Coaches and parents who show composure give athletes permission to stay calm. John Wooden said it clearly: “If you’ve done your job as a coach, you shouldn’t have to jump up and down. If you’re the teacher, the game is the test — and you never see teachers running around the classroom during the test.”
4. Stop Mind-Reading and Manage Fear of Judgment
Most choking is driven by social anxiety: athletes make assumptions about what others will think if they fail and perform accordingly. Beilock describes this as performing with “all eyes on us.” Athletes must stop assuming the worst and replace those assumptions with facts. Others are rarely watching as closely as athletes fear, and their reactions are rarely as severe as athletes imagine. Focus on the actual performance cue, not on predicted judgments.
5. Let Go of Strict Expectations
Expectations create pressure. Perfectionist standards and outcome targets pull focus away from the next play and toward results that are not yet in an athlete’s control. Athletes perform at their best when they stay in the process — one pitch, one stroke, one rep at a time. Replace outcome goals during competition with process cues that keep attention on execution.
Frequently Asked Questions About Choking in Sports
What causes athletes to choke under pressure?
Choking is caused by pressure-triggered overthinking. Fear of failure, outcome focus, and worry about others’ judgments shift attention from automatic skill execution to conscious control of movements that work best on autopilot. That shift degrades performance.
Is choking a mental or physical problem?
Choking is a mental problem with physical symptoms. The physical tightness, poor timing, and execution errors athletes experience are caused by anxiety and overthinking, not by a loss of physical skill. The skill is there. The mental game blocks access to it.
Can you train yourself not to choke?
Yes. Mental game training teaches athletes to manage pressure, trust their skills, and stay process-focused under stress. Techniques include pressure simulation in practice, pregame routines, expressive writing, and work on fear of failure and social approval. These skills improve with practice the same way physical skills do.
Why do elite athletes choke?
Elite athletes face higher stakes and more public scrutiny, which amplifies the mental pressures that cause choking. The higher the profile of the event, the greater the social approval pressure. Elite athletes who have not built a strong mental game are more exposed to choking, not less, because the consequences of failure feel bigger.
How is choking different from a slump?
Choking refers to a specific underperformance in a high-pressure moment. A slump is a sustained drop in performance over time. Both often have mental roots, but choking is situational and tied to acute pressure, while slumps typically involve accumulated confidence issues, loss of trust in skills, or burnout.
Peak Performance Sports helps athletes stop choking in competition through one-on-one mental game coaching with Dr. Patrick Cohn. If you perform well in practice but lose it under pressure, mental coaching gives you the tools to compete at your ceiling.
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Last Updated on July 28, 2026