“A kind of queen of choke…, she has spent much of her time exposing and exploring mechanisms [of choking]. Her labs include a putting room where she can find a way to make virtually anyone screw up putts that were easy just moments before. ‘Choking is so clearly mental.’ says Beilock. ‘It’s a lot more complicated than just ‘Don’t think about it.’
There are chokes that rise not from overthinking but from poor thinking. She offers evidence both anecdotal and experimental. Faulty thinking amounts to a different sort of choke: a disruption of quick but vital data-checks, calculations, and recalibrations–a failure of cognition… Call it a cognichoke.
[Her work] is a vision of athletic performance both alluring and daunting. Sports start to look a lot more like real life – and much more demanding.”
