How to perform under pressure according to a sports psychiatrist

In an interview with Dr. Michael Lardon, a clinical psychiatrist and performance coach who has worked with NFL kickers, PGA golfers, Olympians, and Fortune 500 CEOs, he discusses the similarity between the pressure experienced by high-performance athletes and company managers and, very surely, the same tension experienced by people during their doctoral and postdoctoral studies.

By understanding how the human brain works, Dr. Lardon teaches his patients to learn how to enter a state of flow. The key question for him is why, in high-pressure situations, some athletes excel while others give up.

In an interesting interview published on the Fast Company site, Dr. Lardon shares that “there are certain patterns in the brain where there is synchronicity and everything connects.

Some people call this “flow state” or being "in the zone". Generally, in this state, the use of the cerebral cortex, where thinking is done, is minimal, and the athlete relies on instinct and rhythm. When the nervous system is working at such a high level, the circuitry is much faster. So the brain picks up on stimuli more quickly, which is why you hear some athletes talk about how the game “slows down” for them.

It is a state of mind in which athletes perform at the highest level because they are not thinking.

Now when you start thinking about your own performance, that goes away. So once a kicker starts thinking about the kick they just missed, or whether they're going to take the next kick, or what if they don't, the cerebral cortex kicks in at the expense of instinct and timing".

It is in rhythm and coordination that both high-performance athletes and leaders achieve success in their actions. It is in the routines where these characters find that bubble that allows them to act without being affected by the external. When this does not happen, they fail.

“Another strategy that is used is thought substitution. Let's say you're a professional golfer, and you're going down the stretch to win a tournament, and on the 18th hole, there's water on your left, and all you can think about is hitting it against the water. In this case, we would use thought substitution, where we give you something to think about as a placeholder, so you don't think about that negative thought. It's always something non-technical, too".

So what strategy can you use to better handle high-pressure situations and perform when it matters most?

“I use a system in golf called 'the mental scorecard'. So instead of a player coming in after a round and telling me that he shot a 68, he'll say, "I got a 98 on the mental scorecard". That means that in 98% of all their shots, they went through the process: left brain, right brain, no brain. And we know that there is a very high correlation between being engrossed in the process and achieving a good result,” concludes Dr. Lardon.

The goal is the focus. If it strays into the future, everything is compromised. That is, you must focus on the process and the result will be a consequence of the execution of the present. The important thing is always in the process.

This approach is very useful for doctoral and postdoctoral students since it teaches how to manage stress by focusing on the present to achieve a rhythm of research or study with which you can avoid stress or anxiety about the future, one of the main ills of high-level study students.