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I had to read this article from Malcolm Gladwell for a class last semester, and really found it both interesting and helpful for things in a competitive environment.
I wasn't sure exactly where to post it, so I figured this is the best place?
The article can be found in Gladwell's archives at:
http://www.gladwell.com/2000/2000_08_21_a_choking.htm
It discusses the difference between panic and choking in a few contexts, and how they are in some ways the opposites of one another. It also talks about the ways in which we, as humans, react to these situations and what can be done to prevent/avoid them.
I just thought in fairly competitive eSports/Gaming, it would be an interesting read for others, and might foster some interesting discussion as I'm sure we've all had moments of both.
EDIT: It occurs to me I should have provided further context.
The basic gist is that we learn things two ways, explicitly in remembering and walking through the steps to do things, and implicitly, the whole 'muscle memory' thing to some degree, just doing the things we need to do without thinking too much about the specific steps.
When we choke, it is usually a result of beginning to think too much and falling back on our explicit learning, thinking on the steps and no longer just doing and going on that feel. But when we panic, we lose our awareness of anything beyond what is right in front of us and act almost on instinct, instead of rationally.
It's a very good read overall.
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I've found a lot of sports psychology especially in 1v1 competition (Tennis, wrestling, etc) is VERY applicable to Starcraft so thank you very much for posting this! Quite interesting
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I started reading the story and it was really entertaining. Then, the author starts talking about the different terms.
I looked on the right side of the screen and realized it was long... really long.
I choked.
Can someone sum it up? :p
EDIT: Main post was edited while typing. Thanks for the info. ^^
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I managed to get half way through it, but sadly I have a train to catch. It's still pretty interesting. If you were to apply it to a starcraft player, when one is choking, they're falling back on basic technical, trying to remember the steps to a certain task, whereas, normally, because of all the practice they have, the play instinctively. What ends up happening is that their minds and bodies have adapted to play one way, but once they start choking, regardless of how many times you've done that build before or that type of micro, it's like you're a beginner again. Your APM drops and your play isn't as good.
Now if you were to panic, that's where you start to get tunnel vision. You are too busy focusing on an immediate and obvious solution when it can mess you up even further that you may forget to do something that you've practiced many times that would save you.
That would be the basic outline of an SC2 player. I would like to see a progamer's input on this because to me, SC2 is a game where you are constantly under stress and you have to be able to control those emotions and instincts that would cause choking or panic. It's almost all about reacting to stressful situations
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An example of panic for me, recently;
I played Zerg originally, but after an extended time away from playing the game, I decided to just start playing Random so I could get a better feel for the different races.
I was playing Terran vs Protoss, and he rushed with DTs. I managed to scout it, but panic set in. Instead of realizing I could save up scans, I immediately started trying to rush out a Raven. Because I'd played so much Zerg, my instinctual response was to make a detector, a flying detector, instead of using the most obvious solution.
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This was a great article and provided useful insight into the nature of human failure in competition. I'll work harder to recognize these symptoms and ensure the strength of my calm going into any situation. Thank you.
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This is one aspect of playing, among many, that separates professional players from even the "A" class players. With experience, knowledge, and ability to adapt to the stress of a situation can be the difference between a few victories and a career.
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This applies directly to me when I play Super Meat Boy. There are a set of extremely difficult Steam Achievements given for completing all 20 levels of a particular world without a single death. When I get to the final few levels without dying, my instinct is to 'slow down' and be cautious because I don't want to make a silly mistake which will cost me all my hard efforts. However, in a game like Super Meat Boy which demands finesse and quick precise movements, slowing down is possibly the worst thing you can do. You need to fly through those levels because they're designed in such a way to reward quick impeccable play, not slow methodical play.
edit: From my experience, the first step to overcoming choking is to understand the nature of choking. Then, you must allow your brain revert back to its intrinsically learned motor skills so that you can focus on more important things rather than the rudimentary muscle movements required to achieve certain goals.
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EPT
