As a fan of sport, I love to see success. The grace, grit and grunt required to win are attributes I'll never possess. So to watch a top class athlete, on the verge of winning, crumble, shake and ultimately choke, can be very uncomfortable to watch.
The most recent example of this was Sam Stosur at the Aussie Open, who went from leading 5-2 in the third set and serving for the match three times, went on to lose 6-5.
So why do athletes choke? Stosur has said on numerous occasion's that the public pressure performing at home is too great - it "gets" to her. She even requested that her second round match at the Aussie Open be played in the afternoon, and not the prime time evening slot, to ensure a smaller TV audience and therefore less pressure.
Neurophysiology suggests choking is triggered when the athlete gets so anxious that they seize conscious control over a task that should be executed automatically.
Take Rory McIlroy at the US Masters in April 2011. He went from being within a whisker of winning the green jacket to equalling the worst final round in Masters history. All because his swing abandoned him.
The battle of the mind is the greatest battle any athlete will face and it is those win that battle that take prize. As a sports fan, to those athletes who worry about choking - don't. Your true fans want you to succeed and those that don't, don't matter anyway.
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