Clutch: Why Some People Excel Under Pressure and Other Don't by Paul Sullivan

Author:Paul Sullivan
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Non-Fiction, Sociology, Psychology, Business, Social Studies, Retail, Social Science
ISBN: 1591843502
Publisher: Penguin Group USA
Published: 2010-01-01T15:00:00+00:00

WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?

How Billie Jean King prepared to play Bobby Riggs was a lesson in combining the five key traits of being clutch. While I pointed these out earlier in the chapter, they bear repeating because they show what a true clutch performer needs to do. One, King was focused on preparing for the match as if she were playing a top female competitor, not an old man. Two, she showed tremendous discipline in the shots she hit, picking the ones that would put Riggs at a disadvantage. Three, she had a plan to tire him out, but if after the first of five sets that plan was failing, she was prepared to adapt it. She was concentrating on winning the match, not winning it in any particular way. Four, after she had prepared, she put herself in the present, embracing the moment but never getting ahead of herself. Five, she was driven not only by the fear of losing to Riggs and the setback that would have been for women’s rights but also by the desire to shut Riggs up. This was the total clutch package.

The flip side of this was Riggs, who made two of the three cardinal errors of people who choke. These will be examined fully in the next section. First, Riggs was shockingly overconfident—a trait more fully explored in chapter 9. He had beat Court and thought he would beat King just as handily. Second, he was already thinking of the accolades that would be bestowed on him when he beat her—before they had even played. This will be looked at in chapter 8. While he was talking, he was not training, and that showed in how quickly he tired out. Yet after his defeat, he did what many chokers do not or cannot do: He took personal responsibility for his loss. As King threw her racquet in the air to claim victory, he leaped the net, and in congratulating her, he said, “I really underestimated you.” He expanded on this in a Tennis Channel interview toward the end of his life in 1995. “I made the classic mistake that anyone can make when they think they’re so good and they underestimate their opponent,” he said. “If you underrate your opponent and overrate yourself, you’re in trouble right away.” Accepting responsibility as he did is the subject of the next chapter.

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