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- In sports, choking is the failure of a person, or persons, to act or behave as anticipated or expected. This can occur in a game or tournament that they are strongly favoured to win, or in an instance where they have a large lead that they squander in the late stages of the event. It can also refer to repeated failures in the same event, or simply imply an unexpected failure when the event is more important than usual. Most athletes experience physical and mental changes during stages of increased tension in competition. They may change their strategy as a coping mechanism, and play more cautiously as a result. In instances where this strategy fails, a player or team many lose confidence to the point of panic, where they are incapable of completing the most rudimentary of tasks. Choking in sport can be considered a form of analysis paralysis. The term itself is often an over-used, or even derisive term in the sports world, where "choke" status is assigned to a team or player that was simply unlucky. The term "clutch" is gaining popularity to describe the opposite of choking. Outside of North America, other terms, such as 'bottling it', 'lose one's nerve', or 'panic' are more widely used. (en)
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