The Science of Choking Under Pressure

Up to a certain point, pressure is beneficial and pushes us to surpass ourselves. But we all have a maximum threshold beyond which it overwhelms and paralyzes us, and makes us underperform. Top athletes know and fear this phenomenon. They work assiduously to push this limit back. This short article collects their testimonies. How did they experience episodes of excessive pressure at the start of their careers and what did they retain from them? What defenses did they subsequently deploy? How do they practice recentering, visualizing, and attention refocusing techniques to channel their stress? A concentrate of good practices.