The Cognitive Coach
I am often asked by coaches and mentors for tips on “how the mind really works” that can help the folks they support. Scientific American Mind has an excellent article filled with good cognitive tips on How to Avoid Choking Under Pressure.
A key tip: If you have practiced extensively avoid self monitoring during performance. This is great advice because the cognitive processes of conscious monitoring can collide with processes that are automatic. This has nothing to do with performance anxiety or fear, it is more like a “senior moment” created when we ask two very different regions of our brains to work together…. and they don’t.
Coaches sometimes suggest tactics that involve conscious self monitoring. Unfortunately, these can be a prime cause of choking under pressure.
If you are well-practiced just let the learning you have done unfold under the force of unconscious rather than conscious thinking.
