Choking occurs when an ingrained/unconscious skill is interrupted by conscious thought, like a professional athlete who chokes in the big moment. Panicking occurs when conscious thought is interrupted by the unconscious, like a pilot who can't respond to a correctable airplain failure.
Well, the article says that there may be underlying neurological causes. Of course, an archer would probably lose their confidence and focus once they know their arm muscles might lock up at any time and make them fire before they can aim properly.
A similar story in sports is that of Rick Ankiel. He was a top pitcher in 2000 but he experienced some kind of panic in a playoff game that prevented him from throwing the ball over the plate. His story ended in success as he quit pitching and went on to become the great hitter and position player that he is now. It's really an interesting story: http://awurl.com/xqsndl148973
Man, I remember when that guy first came up. He was a monster. Should have seens his Triple A stats that year. It was to the tune of 40 walks and 200+ strikeouts. The guy had velocity and control...but went out like smoke afterwards. Tsk tsk
The terminology sounds quackish but I think they might be on to something -- if you do the same exact thing every day for your whole life, maybe one day you snap and can't do it anymore.
If this is true, I would expect it to affect baseball pitchers (not hitters as much, since they are reacting to something), bowlers, archers, rifle competitors, people who do the same job on an assembly line for 20 years, etc. etc.
Back in the day, papermaking depended on a certain twist of the wrist to set the fibers of a new sheet. People would practice for years to get the proper "knack". Experienced papermakers would often "lose their knack" and could no longer do it. Whatever the mechanism, it's a real phenomenon.
“Do not focus on results,” he said. “When you focus on results, it builds anxiety. And anxiety is the kiss of death.”
That sounds a bit like the Kyudo (the Japanese art of archery) philosophy. They say not to worry about where the arrow goes, only how you shoot it. To hit your target, you focus on it until there's nothing else in your universe, and then it's not possible to miss.
Watching these folks shoot is quite amazing. They ride past past a series of targets around 8 inches in diameter, on horseback -- at full gallop -- and pick them off one after another almost casually.
I wonder if there's any connection between this and some types of RSI-like symptoms. I know it's a bit of a strange comparison, as with typing any focus would be on content and not aim, but the paragraph about others (e.g. musicians) getting "focal dystonia" from when neurons that guide a particular movement [...] become worn from overuse reminds me of people whose hands seem to cramp up at the mere thought of typing.
That's nothing. Apparently there are some out there who still do things like ride horses, make their own bread, sing songs, and drink alcoholic beverages. Join the 21st century already, people!
You wouldn't have the hydrostatic shock that a bullet provides, but if the grey matter disruption of a small-calibre round to the head is sufficient to drop a zombie, a heavy draw bow and a broadhead oughta work, too--and the arrow might be more re-usable than a bullet.
Choking occurs when an ingrained/unconscious skill is interrupted by conscious thought, like a professional athlete who chokes in the big moment. Panicking occurs when conscious thought is interrupted by the unconscious, like a pilot who can't respond to a correctable airplain failure.