An Investigation Into Handedness and Choking Under Pressure in Sport

Abstract

When athletes fail to perform at an expected level during an important moment, it is implied the athletes have experienced "choking under pressure" (i.e., choking). Researchers have reported that persistent left-hemispheric activation patterns occur when an athlete experiences considerable performance deteriorations under pressure. Researchers have also observed differences in brain activation patterns between left-and right-handed people on a variety of physical and cognitive tests, with the left-hemispheric activation more pronounced in right-handed participants. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate whether athletes' handedness may be linked to choking-susceptibility (i.e., likelihood to experience performance decline under pressure). Method: Twenty right-handed and 13 left-handed experienced Australian football players completed 15 shot attempts, in both a low-pressure and a high-pressure condition. Both groups displayed equal state anxiety increases due to the pressure manipulation, indicating similar increases in anxiety in both handedness groups. Results: Results also indicated differences in performance between the left-and right-handed groups during the high-pressure condition, with the left-handed group maintaining, and the right-handed participants declining, performance. Conclusion: Future electroencephalogram (EEG) research investigating this link may clarify the effect between handedness and choking.

The Impact of Hemispheric Activity Priming on Choking Under Pressure in Badminton Tasks: A Study of Three Fundamental Skills

“…Prior to their performance, somatic and cognitive anxiety were induced and measured. Somatic anxiety ( Mesagno et al, 2019 ) is characterized by physiological symptoms such as an increased heart rate, rapid breathing, sweating, trembling, and muscular tension. It is typically triggered by various stressors, including physical exertion, social situations, or performance tasks.…”

“…Some researchers ( Mesagno et al, 2019 ) suggest choking interventions must be adapted to the task demands of the sport. For example, badminton involves skills that must respond to an external stimulus (the shuttle) and being distracted or paying attention to the wrong cue can result in poor performance ( Mesagno et al, 2019 ).…”

“…Some researchers ( Mesagno et al, 2019 ) suggest choking interventions must be adapted to the task demands of the sport. For example, badminton involves skills that must respond to an external stimulus (the shuttle) and being distracted or paying attention to the wrong cue can result in poor performance ( Mesagno et al, 2019 ). Due to the unique characteristics of each sport, researchers such as Beckmann and colleagues (2021) recommend further research to examine the effect in a range of sports and specifically the sport of badminton due to the inherent pauses in the game, such as before serving, that may allow priming to occur.…”

Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis BB-12 Improves the State Anxiety and Sports Performance of Young Divers Under Stress Situations: A Single-Arm, Prospective Proof-of-Concept Study

“…According to the actual situation, athletes marked their own suitable situations on the line. This scale had a high homogeneity with the commonly used Competition State Anxiety Inventory-2 (CSAI-2), among which the consistency coefficients with CSAI-2's body anxiety scale and cognitive anxiety scale were 0.69 and 0.76, respectively (Mesagno et al, 2019). In this study, only the physical and cognitive state anxieties of athletes were measured.…”

A Qualitative Exploration of Choking Under Pressure in Commercial Airline Pilots

“…The phenomenon of choking under pressure has gained a lot of attention in sports psychology in recent years (e.g., Mesagno et al, 2019; Morgulev & Galily, 2018). Existing research gave rise to four main groups of perspectives for explaining choking, including over-arousal, distraction, self-focus, and self-presentation.…”