Neuroscience
The next time you're faced with a high-pressure situation in sport, try squeezing your left fist tight for thirty seconds. According to a team of German sports psychologists, doing so will activate your right hemisphere, aiding automatic, skilled performance and preventing choking under pressure, which they say is linked with left-hemisphere activity and conscious deliberation.
Jurgen Beckmann and his colleagues tested their intervention across three studies. In the first, 30 semi-professional footballers aimed penalty kicks at holes in a wall. They did this in a low-pressure situation then competitively in front of a crowd. The fist squeezing was described to participants as a way to boost concentration. Kickers who squeezed a soft ball in their right fist (activating the left hemisphere) for thirty seconds prior to the high-pressure situation choked - their performance dipped compared with the no pressure situation. By contrast, the competitors who squeezed their left fist showed no evidence of choking.
It was a similar story with 20 Taekwondo practitioners who performed kick combinations in a relaxed context and then again in a filmed high-pressure situation. Those fighters who squeezed a ball with their right fist prior to the high-pressure challenge showed evidence of choking. By contrast, those who squeezed a ball with their left fist actually showed improved performance.
The last study involved badminton players performing serves. This time there were three stages - relaxed context, high pressure, and high pressure plus fist tightening. All players showed evidence of choking in the first high pressure situation, but then players who squeezed their left fist prior to the second high-pressure challenge showed a return to normal performance levels while those who squeezed their right fist continued to choke.
Beckmann and his colleagues said their "hemisphere specific priming" intervention has practical applications for athletes. "Squeezing the left hand before performing a task under pressure may become a useful part of pre-performance routines in addition to imagination, deep breathing, or cue words."
These results are certainly intriguing but it seems amazing that such a simple task could have such profound effects (in statistical terms, the effect sizes were large). Scrutinising the methodology, the most serious problem seems to be a lack of blinding. It sounds from the researchers' descriptions as though the person instructing participants knew the purpose and rationale of the study, so it's possible their expectations about left-fist squeezing may have influenced the performers (a study last year showed how important these effects can be). It's also a shame there wasn't a no-squeeze control group.
There must also be question marks over the theory underlying this study. Beckmann's group said there is "a large body of research that shows enhanced right-hemisphere activity facilitates skilled performance." But I looked up a couple of references they cited - including EEG studies with archers and marksmen - and these showed correlations between hemispheric activity and performance, not causal effects. It's also important to remember this study didn't even measure brain activity, so the researchers are asking us to take quite a leap of faith in believing their explanation of the results. I think they realise this. "The exact mechanism underlying the effect of hemisphere-specific priming is still unknown," they wrote.
_________________________________
Beckmann, J., Gröpel, P., and Ehrlenspiel, F. (2013). Preventing Motor Skill Failure Through Hemisphere-Specific Priming: Cases From Choking Under Pressure. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General DOI: 10.1037/a0029852
--Further reading--
A study published in April that linked fist squeezing with memory performance came in for some serious peer criticism.
Post written by Christian Jarrett (@psych_writer) for the BPS Research Digest.
Image credit: zirac
- Practising Self-control With A Squeezy Handgrip Boosted These Students' Grades
It doesn't matter how brainy you are, if you don't make any effort, you're not going to do well at university (let's put aside the annoying few who seem to defy this rule by gliding through their studies). Indeed, psychologists are paying...
- Eye-movement Training Helps Penalty-takers In Football Feel More In Control
One-on-one - the kicker must get the ball past the goal keeperTies in international football tournaments are decided by penalties, in which a series of kickers attempt to get the ball past the keeper in a one-on-one situation. It's a high stress situation...
- Football Players Who Rush Penalty Kicks Are Less Likely To Score
Taking a penalty in an international football competition must be one of the most tense moments an athlete can face. Even though the odds are stacked against the goal-keeper, the world's best attacking stars often under-perform. In psychological jargon...
- How To Practise Penalty Shoot-outs
Footballers should practise taking penalty kicks in front of as large an audience as possible and the results should be published, so as to help recreate the pressure of a real tournament. That’s according to researchers who say the effect of stress...
- Want To Remember Something? Clenching Your Fist Doesn't Help!
Image Credits: fist and brain. You might have seen this news story the other day: Want to remember something? Clench your fists! Giving a speech and need to remember what to say? Just clench your right fist while rehearsing. Then, when it's time to...
Neuroscience
Simple fist-squeezing procedure helps athletes avoid choking under pressure
Jurgen Beckmann and his colleagues tested their intervention across three studies. In the first, 30 semi-professional footballers aimed penalty kicks at holes in a wall. They did this in a low-pressure situation then competitively in front of a crowd. The fist squeezing was described to participants as a way to boost concentration. Kickers who squeezed a soft ball in their right fist (activating the left hemisphere) for thirty seconds prior to the high-pressure situation choked - their performance dipped compared with the no pressure situation. By contrast, the competitors who squeezed their left fist showed no evidence of choking.
It was a similar story with 20 Taekwondo practitioners who performed kick combinations in a relaxed context and then again in a filmed high-pressure situation. Those fighters who squeezed a ball with their right fist prior to the high-pressure challenge showed evidence of choking. By contrast, those who squeezed a ball with their left fist actually showed improved performance.
The last study involved badminton players performing serves. This time there were three stages - relaxed context, high pressure, and high pressure plus fist tightening. All players showed evidence of choking in the first high pressure situation, but then players who squeezed their left fist prior to the second high-pressure challenge showed a return to normal performance levels while those who squeezed their right fist continued to choke.
Beckmann and his colleagues said their "hemisphere specific priming" intervention has practical applications for athletes. "Squeezing the left hand before performing a task under pressure may become a useful part of pre-performance routines in addition to imagination, deep breathing, or cue words."
These results are certainly intriguing but it seems amazing that such a simple task could have such profound effects (in statistical terms, the effect sizes were large). Scrutinising the methodology, the most serious problem seems to be a lack of blinding. It sounds from the researchers' descriptions as though the person instructing participants knew the purpose and rationale of the study, so it's possible their expectations about left-fist squeezing may have influenced the performers (a study last year showed how important these effects can be). It's also a shame there wasn't a no-squeeze control group.
There must also be question marks over the theory underlying this study. Beckmann's group said there is "a large body of research that shows enhanced right-hemisphere activity facilitates skilled performance." But I looked up a couple of references they cited - including EEG studies with archers and marksmen - and these showed correlations between hemispheric activity and performance, not causal effects. It's also important to remember this study didn't even measure brain activity, so the researchers are asking us to take quite a leap of faith in believing their explanation of the results. I think they realise this. "The exact mechanism underlying the effect of hemisphere-specific priming is still unknown," they wrote.
_________________________________
Beckmann, J., Gröpel, P., and Ehrlenspiel, F. (2013). Preventing Motor Skill Failure Through Hemisphere-Specific Priming: Cases From Choking Under Pressure. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General DOI: 10.1037/a0029852
--Further reading--
A study published in April that linked fist squeezing with memory performance came in for some serious peer criticism.
Post written by Christian Jarrett (@psych_writer) for the BPS Research Digest.
Image credit: zirac
- Practising Self-control With A Squeezy Handgrip Boosted These Students' Grades
It doesn't matter how brainy you are, if you don't make any effort, you're not going to do well at university (let's put aside the annoying few who seem to defy this rule by gliding through their studies). Indeed, psychologists are paying...
- Eye-movement Training Helps Penalty-takers In Football Feel More In Control
One-on-one - the kicker must get the ball past the goal keeperTies in international football tournaments are decided by penalties, in which a series of kickers attempt to get the ball past the keeper in a one-on-one situation. It's a high stress situation...
- Football Players Who Rush Penalty Kicks Are Less Likely To Score
Taking a penalty in an international football competition must be one of the most tense moments an athlete can face. Even though the odds are stacked against the goal-keeper, the world's best attacking stars often under-perform. In psychological jargon...
- How To Practise Penalty Shoot-outs
Footballers should practise taking penalty kicks in front of as large an audience as possible and the results should be published, so as to help recreate the pressure of a real tournament. That’s according to researchers who say the effect of stress...
- Want To Remember Something? Clenching Your Fist Doesn't Help!
Image Credits: fist and brain. You might have seen this news story the other day: Want to remember something? Clench your fists! Giving a speech and need to remember what to say? Just clench your right fist while rehearsing. Then, when it's time to...