Clutch (sports)

Clutch performance in sports is the phenomenon of athletes under pressure, often in the last minutes of a game, to summon strength, concentration and whatever else necessary to succeed, to perform well, and perhaps change the outcome of the game. It occurs in basketball, hockey, football, and other sports. The opposite is "choking": failing to perform as needed, when under pressure.

It is a phenomenon that is studied in psychology and in the more specialized area of sport psychology. The term gained popularity due to repetitive use among sports commentators, particularly baseball announcers. Consequently, a portion of the academic literature is focused on baseball, more specifically on clutch hitting, and addresses the academic issue of whether it exists or not.

A great deal of the academic literature shows that is important for athletes to be able to control their anxiety if they are to produce peak performances in clutch moments.

Early academic literature presents evidence for the clutch player in the Yerkes-Dodson Law. In this 1908 study, psychologists, Robert Yerkes and John Dillingham Dodson, found that Stress, or arousal (pressure), increases performance to an extent, but too much or too little stress causes a decline in performance. The level of pressure necessary for maximum efficiency increases due to task, with those tasks requiring endurance and stamina being completed with higher levels of arousal. A bell curve is often used to represent the relationship between pressure and performance as indicated by empirical evidence. The Yerkes-Dodson Law suggests that arousal has positive effects on cognitive processes such as motivation, attention, and concentration. In effect, an athlete should be able to play at an elevated level with adequate amount of pressure. Further research is necessary in order to more clearly define the effects of momentum on a player′s in-game performance.

The Yerkes-Dodson Law spurred further research into its direct application in athletics. As a result, Sport psychologist, Yuri L. Hanin, developed the Zone of Optimal Functioning theory, which states, ″In order for an athlete to perform to their highest capability, they must experience their preferred level of anxiety.″ Hanin used a sport-specific version of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory to measure the cognitive and somatic anxiety levels of each player before his or her performance. Hanin determined that each player has a certain range of pre-performance anxiety which leads to optimal performance. Hanin later postulates the functional relationship between emotions and optimal performance differs between each individual based on emotional factors, thus the revised version was called the Individual Zone of Optimal Functioning (IZOF). The newer model better accounts for ″the multidimensionality of emotional constructs″ by accounting for both positive and negative affect in athletes prior to the beginning of the sporting event. The study confirmed the existence of an ″association of the intensity of pre-competition state anxiety to optimal athletic performance.″

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Wikipedia