Archers who ruminate on mistakes choke more often in competition

The summary today

Two different groups asked competitive archers the same question and got the same answer: those who worry about mistakes and doubt their own actions report more episodes of choking in competition. The second study, on a hundred and fifteen licensed Italian archers, also adds where that thinking comes from, since somatic anxiety, social anxiety and trouble concentrating all feed it, and what holds it back, since archers who can take a step back from their own thoughts and those who meet stress by returning to the task report fewer episodes. These are all snapshots taken at a single moment, though: choking and rumination were measured together, with the same questionnaires, by people who remember both. A mindfulness programme with university archers lowers emotional rumination, but it did not look at competitions.

Also phrased as: "rumination and choking in competition"; "thinking about mistakes and choking"; "worrying about mistakes and collapsing in a final"; "concern over mistakes in archery"

Evidence

• 2020
  For Archers Published later

  A mixed sample of 155 competitors, 69 archers and 86 golfers, with questionnaires on choking, traits and perfectionism: those who report choking episodes score higher on concern over mistakes (2.47 against 1.89; F = 10.57, p < 0.001, partial eta squared 0.07), on doubts about actions (F = 6.57, p < 0.05) and on parental expectations (F = 9.9, p < 0.01). The comparisons are reported on the pooled sample of the two sports, not on the archers alone.

  Personality Predictors of Yips and Choking Susceptibility · Philip Clarke, David Sheffield, Sally Akehurst

• 2021
  For Archers Published later

  115 competitive archers licensed in Italy, questionnaires at a single moment with regressions, mediations and a structural model: worry predicts how often choking happens (beta = 0.230, R squared change 0.101; weight 0.227 in the model, p < 0.018). Decentring, the ability to take a step back from one's own thoughts, runs the other way (beta = -0.250; weight -0.229, p < 0.007). Rumination in turn is fed by somatic anxiety (beta = 0.216), trouble concentrating (0.295) and social anxiety (0.189), with a model accounting for 63.8% of worry. Archers who meet stress by returning to the task report less choking (r = -0.33) and far less rumination (r = -0.58), while an avoidant style is not directly linked to choking (r = -0.14, not significant). Four things to add on the weight of this result. The model predicting choking frequency accounts for 19.3 per cent of the variance, 17.2 adjusted, and decentering is worth 4.7: the abstract calls it able strongly to limit choking. The dependent variable has no zero, since the declared minimum is one episode, so the model accounts for how often a group in which everybody declares choking does so. Coach support, the article's new element, is worth -0.151 in the correlation table and is marked as significant, while with 115 cases that coefficient gives p around 0.11. And in three regressions out of three the denominator degrees of freedom are printed as 114 where they must be 109, 110 and 111: the F values recompute exactly with the correct ones, so it is a printing error and not an arithmetic one.

  An Exploratory Pilot Study on Choking Episodes in Archery · Pierluigi Diotaiuti, Stefano Corrado, Stefania Mancone, Lavinia Falese, Fábio Hech Dominski, Alexandro Andrade

• 2021
  Context Archers Published later

  23 competitive university archers, eight one-hour sessions over four weeks, before and after with no control group: emotional rumination falls from 3.29 to 2.81 at the midpoint and to 2.40 at the end (p < 0.001, partial eta squared 0.43), and rumination about searching for meaning follows the same course, while instrumental rumination does not move (from 4.04 to 3.94, p = 0.650). The study does not measure choking episodes in competition.

  The Effects of Mindfulness-Based Intervention on Shooting Performance and Cognitive Functions in Archers · Tsung-Yi Wu, Jui-Ti Nien, Garry Kuan, Chih-Han Wu, Yi-Chieh Chang, Hsueh-Chih Chen, Yu-Kai Chang

Status history

1. 1984 Not studied No one in the registry's bibliography had yet asked competitive archers how much they ruminate on mistakes and how often they have found themselves choking in competition.
2. 2020 Reported First evidence: among a hundred and fifty-five competitive archers and golfers, those who report choking episodes worry more about mistakes and doubt their own actions more. It is a cross-sectional association, collected with questionnaires and in a sample pooling two sports, so the status starts at reported.
3. 2021 Reported The second line of evidence is on archers alone and points the same way: among a hundred and fifteen competitive Italian archers, those who ruminate more on doubts and on the fear of missing report more choking episodes. The study adds where the rumination comes from, since somatic anxiety, social anxiety and trouble concentrating feed it, and what holds it back, since archers who take a step back from their own thoughts and those who respond by returning to the task choke less often. In the same year a mindfulness programme lowers emotional rumination in university archers, but does not measure competitions. These remain associations all collected at the same moment: the status does not rise.

Related

Related articles

• Choking in archery: how common it is, who it happens to and what goes with itHow many archers say they fall apart in competition, what those who choke most often have in common, and how much pressure costs on measured scores.

Research lines

• 8 studiesChoking and competitive pressure in archers
• 56 studiesAnxiety and confidence in archery competition since 1986

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