Are You Ready to Take the Game Winner?

Michael Jordan was the ultimate game winner.  Can performance in the clutch be learned? (Photo source: NBA.com)

 The clock ticks down in what seems like slow motion.  The score is tied.  The ball swings and, for a moment, the player stands open.

After an exhausting 90 minutes (plus overtime) it’s a shootout.  The player stands a few yards from the adversary – the goalie.  The game is on the line for each. 

Why do certain competitors crave that defining moment during a game when victory is sealed or snatched?  Are they simply wired that way?  Or, is this toughness something that can be learned?

The Washington Post’s Sally Jenkins explores this very question in an article entitled Secret to buzzer-beaters, especially on biggest of stages, is all in (mental) release.  It’s a wonderful read and incredibly timely as we are now in the throes of college basketball’s championship tournaments.

Here are a few interesting quotes from the article:

Sports psychologist Graham Betchart uses a variety of cognitive techniques, including yoga and meditation, to attain presence, that alert but restful state.

Somewhere along the line, stress got a bad name.  But stress is interesting and complicated, and the arousal it causes is a potential enhancer if you learn to use it.

A lot of people with a strong fear of performance ultimately become excited and good at it.  It’s a power a lot of people don’t realize they have.