Practice with anxiety improves performance, but only when anxious: evidence for the specificity of practice hypothesis

Creating pressurised training environments in elite sport

“…With this in mind, there is a need for alternative interventions to be advanced. Along these lines, recent research (Bell et al, 2013;Lawrence et al, 2014;Sarkar et al, 2014) indicates that stressor-exposure programmes could be distinguished as a more ecological, popular, and effective preventative intervention that overcomes many of these limitations. The following section explores this suggestion by examining the extant stressor-exposure literature.…”

“…However, recently stressor-exposure programmes have developed into interventions specifically aiming to expose individuals to performance pressure (e.g., Kinrade, Jackson, & Ashford, 2010;Lawrence et al, 2014Oudejans & Pijpers, 2009Reeves et al, 2007). Termed pressure training (e.g., Beaumont et al, 2015;Bell et al, 2013;Sarkar et al, 2014), recent research into this approach may provide a more effective intervention for reducing choking and enhancing performance in sport than implicit learning, analogy learning, and process thinking.…”

“…In providing a training framework that incorporates specificity of practice principles, pressure training is indicated to enhance generalisability and ecological validity (cf. Lawrence et al, 2014). In addition, evidence suggests that pressure training interventions provide both skilled and novice performers with performance benefits and a solution for both distraction and self-focus theories of choking (e.g., Oudejans & Pijpers, 2009;Reeves et al, 2007).…”

“…The study found that the intervention eliminated choking for the experimental group as performance only deteriorated for those trained without pressure. Lawrence et al (2014) concluded that the intervention should be adopted as a process for eliminating choking. Bell et al, 2013).…”

“…More recently, pressure training has been highlighted as an effective intervention for preventing self-focus (Reeves, Tenenbaum, & Lidor, 2007) and distraction 4 (Oudejans & Pijpers, 2009) methods of choking that could be more ecological (cf. Lawrence et al, 2014), popular (Beaumont, Maynard, & Butt, 2015;Bell et al, 2013;Sarkar, Fletcher, & Brown, 2014) and helpful for both novices and expert sporting performers (Oudejans & Pijpers, 2009;.…”