Why defining “pressure” can help you de-stress like an elite athlete
- We all have our own definition of pressure.
- People under pressure nearly always betray symptoms. Some are better than others at managing them but we recognize their imprint.
- Here, performance coach Dave Alred offers a clear and simple definition of pressure based on the knowledge that pressure itself isn’t the problem: it’s the impact it has on us.
At the end of a long and stressful week at work, you’ve finally completed your report. You gather up the crumpled pages of notes that have been your crutch for the last few days and screw them into a ball before leaning back in your chair and tossing them towards the waste bin on the other side of your office.
Bullseye! You congratulate yourself on a perfectly judged throw. Everyone’s a champion when no one else is looking.
Jack, a colleague, walks in, smiling mischievously. ‘A pound says you can’t make that throw again,’ he says.
‘You’re on.’ The stakes are low, your confidence is high and the shot is makeable. You take aim . . .
‘Woah, not so fast, hot shot,’ interrupts Jack. ‘Let’s make this a bit more interesting.’
Jack heads down the corridor to summon everyone on your floor, offering them bets on the throw, telling them it’s easy money — that you’ll never make the shot from twenty feet. Soon, your office has more people in than ever before and the jar containing the stake money is half full. It doesn’t stop there.
In his new role as bookmaker, Jack spreads the word — news travels fast in this company — and before long it’s out of control: your office is rammed, people are crowding the corridors and pressing up against the windows and bets are being laid thick and fast.
‘I’ve got a fiver on this,’ pipes up someone. ‘Put me down for ten,’ says another. Of course, you can’t back down, so you take every bet thrown your way. Even the CEO gets in on the act, wagering a cool fifty quid that you won’t make it. The chatter is incessant, the tension palpable and the pot is swelling at just over a thousand pounds as Jack finally closes the book and, like an admonishing umpire at Wimbledon, calls for, ‘Quiet, please.’
A hush descends. All eyes turn to you. One shot for glory.
You take the paper ball — it feels alien and unfamiliar between your palms — and roll it tighter, thinking about how best to make the throw, about what happens if you don’t. A thousand pounds! Your palms feel clammy, your chest is tight, your heart pounding.
The eyes of your colleagues bore into you. This is it: your putt for victory in the Ryder Cup, the last-minute penalty to win a World Cup final. Your chance to make office history.
With dry mouth and knotted stomach, you take back your arm. How did I do it before? You try to visualize it going in the bin as you bring your arm forward and release the paper ball. It leaves your hand and the room draws breath as it arcs through the air . . .
Pressure defined
We all have our own definition of pressure. For some it’s the pressure to present to a new client at work. For others it’s the stresses involved in running their own business. Many of us face the pressure to juggle long hours at work with being a good parent at home and plenty know all too well the pressure to make ends meet. It’s not just this objectively serious kind of pressure we can relate to. We can feel pressure when we’re meeting people for the first time, be they new colleagues at work or a partner’s social group, or even in moments when we might feel silly for getting worked up, such as waiting at the start of our own birthday party for people to arrive. We can put ourselves under immense pressure to achieve when we tackle things like running a marathon or performing in an event that matters to us — whether in a five-a-side football tournament, a local play or even throwing a ball of paper into a bin. Pressure can create a very personal kind of pain.
Yet although it means different things to different people, and can affect us in a variety of ways, we all recognize its effects in ourselves and others. People under pressure nearly always betray symptoms. Some are better than others at managing them or hiding them, but we recognize their imprint. And outside our own social sphere, when we watch sport and films and television programmes, we can see it there. We’re familiar with the toll it takes — be it on a player trying to pot an easy-looking black to win the World Snooker Championship or an onscreen hero trying to defuse a bomb — because we feel pressure in our own lives, albeit usually on a more modest stage and in less perilous circumstances. Sport and drama magnify the tensions we know all too well from first-hand experience.
Pressure means something different to everyone, so how might we begin to define it clearly as something we can all understand? You might think a dictionary would be a good place to start, but it’s easy to become lost in the many definitions that don’t quite tap into the core of what it is that we all feel when facing pressure. And that is where our attentions should be directed. It is the effects of pressure that concern us, that inhibit us. How is it that some of us can deliver a great performance when it matters most while others visibly wilt under the strain?
Anxiety, elevated heart rate, sweating, feeling ‘tight’ in the shoulders or neck, headaches, butterflies and nausea are just some of the physical symptoms we can experience as a result of pressure. The mental effects can be just as pronounced: our confidence, concentration, memory, emotional control, decision-making, sense of perspective, ability to remain present and in the moment can all be compromised when we’re under pressure, preventing us from doing something we might manage easily in a more relaxed environment.
Top-level sportsmen experience these effects just like the rest of us, and professional sport is littered with expressions such as ‘performance anxiety’ and ‘choking’. Of course, they have learned how to manage these effects better than many — performing in front of thousands of people regularly will do that to a person. But anyone who has watched a penalty shootout will know that no one is immune to pressure — not even the very best.
It is the effects of pressure that concern us, that inhibit us. How is it that some of us can deliver a great performance when it matters most while others visibly wilt under the strain?
Pressure gets the better of everyone at some point. Which of us can honestly say we haven’t underperformed in an exam, interview, social engagement or at work because of nerves? Pressure on us when we do these things, whether for professional, social or simply survival reasons, inhibits and challenges our ability to make decisions. So let’s take a clear, simple definition of pressure, in the knowledge that it isn’t pressure itself that’s the problem – it’s the impact it has on us:
PRESSURE: The interference with the ability to concentrate on a process, consciously or subconsciously, causing deterioration in technique and decreasing the level of performance.
So in your efforts to throw the ball into the bin in your office, the pressure arises from (a) the thought of losing a lot of money (you had over £1,000 resting on the outcome); (b) having to perform in front of a large audience, many of whom you don’t know; and (c) having to deliver in front of your CEO — effectively, the pressure of being able to deliver under pressure.
The fact that you succeeded when you thought no one was looking is of little help when faced with such a crowd of people. You’ve had no real practice in these conditions, no conscious process or learned technique that will give you the best chance of success. You have to get it right first time.
