BRIDGE PLAYERS : PANICKERS AND CHOKERS.........( Article by Dr. Sigmund T. Schulelgruber )

In big match situations there are many players who are out of their depth. Techically good, but prone to bouts of panicking or choking, they seem unable to hack it in " pressure situations " , where perhaps the next decision will either mean a glorious victory, or a heart breaking defeat.

Chokers are the complete opposite panickers in the way they respond to the fear factor that begins to overwhelm them. Fearful of making a wrong decision inevitably triggers one of two kinds of brain malfunction.

Whenever tournament players sense they are on the verge of an historic achievement, way beyond their wildest expectations, they simple crack up. Doubt sets in, and with it the fear of wasting all the good work and good fortune they had been blessed with earlier on. This is the moment when players either begin to choke or panic.

The panickers find their brains going into a crazy maelstrom of random, uncontrolled thought processes. Over analysis of a bidding or play problem takes over. Thoughts, ideas, probabilities, risk assessment, alternative solutions all need to be considered .....almost simultaneously. The brain goes into overdrive, but never in a position to provide a sane answer to the problem. Right answers get easily bypassed and overtaken by absurd and illogical ones. Even magical thinking gets thrown into the frenzy of the mix. Complete anxiety denies them the ability to think straight, as their minds wander down all kinds of garden paths. Panickers, like needles, simply get lost in giant haystacks of advanced thinking.

The chokers however suffer from a different kind of brain malfunction. When put under pressure to make the right bid or play of the cards, their thinking simply becomes stuttered and stilted. They succumb to using only the main avenues of analytical thinking, rather than the usual mixture of main channels and their tributaries. So afraid of making mistakes, they tend to freeze and in doing so fall back to bog standard, safe options. They start doubting their judgement, intuition and instinct to be creative and play with flair. They choke...... and as a result their play becomes timid and predictable. Indeed, some chokers have been known to completely freeze as if their thought processes have come to a halt. Then autopilot takes over, when only pre-programmed decisions are put into operation .

So there we have it. The panicker's thought processes accelerate away to a point of self-destruction, whereas chokers seem unable to get their brains into gear. Either way these type of tournament players are destined never to win. They all drown in that ever rising flood water of anxiety, panic, self-doubt and fear, whenever victory is in sight. The realisation that a dream could become a reality is always the trigger which starts the flood.