What is the difference between panicking and choking

It is a skill that can be learned and is part of understanding emotional intelligence. Panic is a bit different. It is the abandonment of everything an athlete has trained to do and relies on instinct. An athlete seemingly just loses some would say their minds control and panic sets in.

Often time I have seen athletes break down completely. All of their strategy or tactics goes out the window. Dependent on their skill level they can sometimes play OK, but their focus is gone and they often react contrary to game plans. Either way choking or panicking issues remain similar in that performance degrades completely.

Elite athletes may rely on their greater experience and find a way to overcome panic and settle in. This is where experience plays a role and why coping behavior is so important. If we remember that practice does not make perfect, that perfect practice makes perfect it is easier to understand what happens during competition.

If an athlete panics, the more ingrained perfect practice is, the more likely they rely on that experience. It is why I emphasize the use of guided imagery to enhance the practice competitive experience. If an athlete uses imagery rehearsal and practices stressful situations with positive results, when stressed they will relay on the system that is highly practiced and trained, resulting in a better performance.

Another way to discourage explicit monitoring is to allow officials to learn by doing. Through repetition, practice and experience, officiating becomes automatic, thus it is done implicitly. Finally, the best way to prevent a panic or choke from occurring is to get as much experience as possible. When an official feels scared and full of self-doubt rather than confident and in control, the stage is set for a panic.

Self-confidence comes from past successes. When we have previously demonstrated mastery of an activity — even if it is in scrimmages — we feel more confident in competition. In short, success breeds success. And since novice officials are more likely to freeze in stressful situations, assigners should be especially careful to match up seasoned officials in games of high importance. Sports are wrought with classic examples of choking, mainly because of their very public stage and because athletes are thought to have only one shot at their goal.

While players have to rise to the occasion to perform in highly stressful performance situations, the officials must also be prepared to handle the stress of the situation. Whether an official chokes due to over-thinking or goes blank and panics, the result may be the same: a missed call, an improperly worded explanation to a coach, swallowing the whistle during a crucial play.

But understanding the different characteristics and the different prevention techniques can help improve concentration and reduce the tendency to choke or panic in high pressure situations. Note: This article is archival in nature. Rules, interpretations, mechanics, philosophies and other information may or may not be correct for the current year. The article is made available for educational use by individuals. Sign in. Forgot your password? Get help.

Password recovery. They also prevent him from choking on the call or panicking before making it. Photo Credit: Dale Garvey. Regardless of your thoughts of Gladwell, this is a good summary, full of insight and explanation. Under conditions of stress.. Panic, in this sense, is the opposite of choking.

Choking is about thinking too much. Panic is about thinking too little. Choking is about loss of instinct. Panic is reversion to instinct. They may look the same, but they are worlds apart. So choking, a fascinating area of sports psychology and performance, is a very specific kind of failure, and to blame it for defeat especially surprise defeat is too convenient and easy to do.

They too have been labeled as chokers because they are consistently the best team in the world, but have failed to win the knock-out games in the World Cup.

Have they choked every time? The only exercise that is effective again, this is in my experience from the SA Sevens setup is that every single person must shoulder responsibility, ask themselves what they needed to do differently and then aim to address it.

Were the best decisions made? Was the team prepared optimally? Were there problems for many months leading into the tournament that were glossed over deliberately, or ignored because it was inconvenient to confront them?

Difficult questions, but lessons learned in failure are often the best ones.