A golfer puts the ball on the tee, scans the terrain and consciously makes a statement to self – “keep it away from the water”
Research has shown an interesting way golfers often make the exact error they are specifically trying to avoid. When a golfer places the ball on the tee, they often tell themselves to aim in a certain direction while being conscious not to miss either left or right due to water hazards or bunkers. In a non-pressurised situation, a skilled golfer would invariably succeed in executing what they wanted to do with the ball.
However, in a competitive game with high levels of pressure, the daunting task of avoiding the water can become too great (article on mastering the yips). Too often, the net result is that the golfer plays the ball to exactly where they were trying not to hit it. Since this is the thing they set out not to do, we call it the “ironic error”.
So what is happening?
When the brain seeks to make the body perform in a specific manner, it relies on two mental processes – an operating process and a monitoring process.
The operating process is responsible for identifying all the steps required to achieve a desired outcome. If you are going to hit a drive down the fairway, this might include taking a practice swing, picking your exact target, setting your feet in the desired spot relative to the ball, and executing the shot. Simple, right?
Simultaneously, a monitoring process is subconsciously at work. This works like a radar sweep for information on what could go wrong. In relation to a tee shot, that might be missing right or hitting the water. It might be avoiding a tree or a bunker on the edge of the fairway. Once the monitoring process has identified these dangers, it informs the operating process to try harder to find key information that will help the athlete execute their desired outcome; i.e., hit the drive straight. Both processes work under one control system and operate together as part of a feedback loop.
The system normally works reasonably well and provides us with the effective mental control to do what we intend. It means that a golfer driving under zero pressure will generally succeed in putting the ball very accurately to the desired target and will be generally satisfied that the ball went exactly where it was intended.
What can go wrong?
However, in a high-stakes competition where a golfer feels pressure, e.g., any golf major, a golfer may succumb to pressure induced by performance anxiety at key moments. When a player is on the cusp of eternal glory or crushing defeat, the mental space required in their brain for the operating process to function can often be consumed by the mental load or anxiety from feeling under pressure. When this happens, the operating process (“I know what I need to do”) and anxiety (“I am worried”) compete for the same limited mental space. When this occurs, the operating process becomes much less effective at making the player aware of the desired result.
Concurrently, the monitoring process remains largely unaffected under pressure. This is because it works on a subconscious level, and it doesn’t take up any cognitive space. This means that by being anxious and feeling under pressure, the monitoring process becomes more prevalent than the operating process. When it carries out a sweep for information on what could go wrong under pressure – and here’s the irony in all this – it brings what could go wrong to the forefront of the person’s consciousness.
In other words, the very mental process that should help the player not to hit the ball right is the very reason that they ends up being more likely to hit it too far right. By attempting to avoid the error, the mind is drawn ever closer to focusing on it.
Recent research has found that more neurotic players are more prone to such ironic errors. However, those most susceptible to the incidence of ironic error are those who mask their performance anxiety under pressure while trying to look nonchalant or “cool”. The reason is that their brains can become overloaded by statements that limit their behaviour, such as “be cool” and “don’t show that you’re anxious”.
The fix
How can players avoid poor skill execution due to the incidence of ironic errors? Anxiety control is central to alleviating the pressure, and this may be addressed by using specific relaxation strategies. Reducing the anxiety increases the scope of the operating process to be more in control!
A player could use techniques to control breathing (during competition) or “progressive muscle relaxation” (ideally pre-competition), which involves a series of muscle tensing exercises followed by intervals of relaxation at short intervals, allowing the body to feel relaxed.
An additional strategy might be to boost one’s confidence with the use of positive self-talk to buffer the level at which the anxiety might have such an impact. An alternative might be to rephrase negative instructions positively. Instead of a player telling themselves, “don’t hit the ball right”, they should be instructing themselves to pick the precise point where they want to hit the ball and focus on that.
This research may also apply to any athlete contending with a closed skill scenario; i.e., place kicking or restarts in rugby, free taking in GAA, penalty taking in soccer, etc. This article is reliably informed by the research work on the incidence of ironic errors in sport by Dr. Recep Gorgulu & Dr. Tim Woodman (Lecturer in Sport Psychology at Bangor University)
Biography
Keith Begley is an accredited Sport and Performance Psychology Consultant with ISESA. He provides psychological support, performance coaching, and leadership development to a variety of groups, teams and individual athletes across various levels up to and including elite international level. He has worked extensively with GAA teams up to inter-county level and a wide range of other sports, including golf, boxing, rugby, athletics, soccer and racquet sports.
www.performancepsychology.ie