Choke: What the Secrets of the Brain Reveal About Getting It Right When You Have To

Very informative, Will keep it around for a long time for references. Applicable to anyone that is a human.

This engaging book not only answers the question, "What makes us choke?" it prescribes proven methods for improving performance under pressure. This is not one of those Rah!Rah! feel good books from the popular press. Dr. Beilock supports her recommendations with a wealth of scientific research including her own. There are numerous examples of choking under pressure such as Greg Norman's famous meltdown in the fourth round of the 1996 Masters, and even very current events like tennis player Serena Williams' blowup that led to her loss in last year's US Open. The book is not limited to crashing and burning in sports. Choking on tests, in interviews, during speeches, and on the stage are also discussed at length.Though she is an academic, Beilock writes in an acessible first-person style that makes this book a great read. Be prepared to get a double dose of material discussing myths and biases with respect to performance variability by race and in particular gender. It's all good, and I found it fascinating. However, it didn't always appear to be on point and relevant to the topic of choking. Buy this book to cure your yips on the golf course, to prepare for an important business presentation, or just to get an understanding of how to improve your perfromance under pressure.

This book gives great insight and pointers on speaking in many areas. My son suffered from stage fright during a spelling he being televised. This gave very good understanding to what makes a person anxious about speaking in front of others including CEOs of companies. Very good read!

I'm a competitive fencer. I was hoping this book would help me in my sport. Fencing requires a great deal of ability to react instantaneously to the opponent's action, and to flow from one action to another without ruminating on the previous microsecond's mistake. A lot of Beilock's book seem to be taken up with how to not choke from a start position when doing a one-on action where the player gets a chance to poise herself and then, GO! executing an action perfectly. Fencing isn't like that. The only time a fencer is in a start position, ready to execute an action, is just before the referee says "Fence!" Even then, I don't know what action I will take. I have to make an instantaneous decision based on what I know about my opponent and what my opponent does--or does not do--as an initial, inciting action. From then on, the play is a series of lightning-fast decisions about how to attack (and there are hundreds of attacks any good fencer knows) or how to defend (and again, there are multiple defenses to the hundred attacks I might have to counter) . The play is very fluid, very fast. I don't do karate or other martial arts, but I suspect the same would be true there. Do I worry about choking??? Obviously! I could suddenly freeze instead of attacking into an opening, or parrying an attack. But Beilock does not cover these situations. There might be some overlap with tennis, which is more interactive, but she does not cover these. There are dozens, maybe hundreds of books on the psychology of the competitive fencer, and they all deal with the incredible velocity and decision-making of the sport. For example, I would recommend Peter Westbrook's HARNESSING ANGER, and although it is not a book about fencing, but about the psychology of chess and martial arts, Josh Waitzken's THE ART OF LEARNING. Although Beilock's book may be helpful for players in music, gymnastics, or golf, it will be a waste of time for fencing.

My interest is about stress management, concentration and performance. I have read many books on these topics and use golf to experiment with what I read. Because of her research on golf I have been waiting for the first book of Sian Beilock for over a year. And it has been very worthwhile. Her explanation on how we choke is great, the way she explains working memory and the prefrontal cortex brought me new insights and a better understanding. Not all conclusions and advice in the book are new and surprising but many are. And yes the tips do make a difference. To prove my point, using her tips on my last round of golf brought me my second birdie of the year.For a next book I hope Ms. Beilock will focus more more on personalized analysis.

Do you want to ace the big test, make the game winning shot or close the biggest deal of your career? Or does the fear of failing when it matters most hold sway over your thoughts everywhere from the classroom, the playing field and the boardroom? Either way, Sian Beilock's Choke will show you not only why we choke under pressure, but more importantly what we can do to steel ourselves and prepare to succeed when it's crunch time.Based on research from the fields of psychology, neuroscience, sport science and human performance, Beilock presents the latest research to help readers prevent choking, which she describes as not only poor performance under pressure, but suboptimal performance. This is an important distinction that informs the rest of the book.Just the tips on pages 174, 232 and 257 of the paperback edition on ensuring success under stress, combating performance flops and preventing choking respectively are worth the price of the book. But after discussing the role of practice (especially under stress), tactics to overcome stereotypes (the power of writing) and even meditation, Beilock has written a great book that can help anyone achieve the success they know they have earned, but have struggled to achieve because of choking when it counts.

Great little read with a powerful story and motivational messaging

Execelent a book to learn from.

Good insight into brain function during stressful events whether it be sport or work. A good read for anyone looking for a mental edge in their game/field.

Awesome book, very interesting author, loved it

Everything I expected