Stress-Testing Swing Changes: How to Prepare for High-Pressure Situations
Allostasis, stress-testing swing changes, pressure training
Allostasis vs. Homeostasis
Allostasis enables an organism to adaptively respond to its physical state…and to flexibly cope with its physiological state and external demands. — Arash Mirifar1
This is different than homeostasis.
Homeostasis is simply the maintenance of a stable internal environment in an organism despite the changes that occur in the external environment.2
Let’s analyze these biological processes from a golf performance/development perspective.
The ability to “adaptively respond to our physical state” and to flexibly cope with our “physiological state and external demands” are crucial for developing skills that hold up under pressure.
Striving for “the maintenance of a stable internal environment” while ignoring external demands is counterproductive for golfers.
Resonance frequency breathing is one way to manage your physiological state and respond to the external environment and pressures that are associated with competitive golf.
Allostatic — able to achieve stability through change3
We want to deliver stable performances, by being equipped with the tools and mental framework to respond to the biological, psychological, and social demands of competition.
We want to be an “allostatic golfer”.
Achieving stability in our performance through adapting to the internal and external environment changes that we experience.
Stress-Testing Swing Changes
When undergoing a technical change, it is sometimes not until this “moment of truth” that an athlete sadly realizes their hard work was simply not enough. Failure to securely fixate/diversify a recent modification can often be the underlying reason behind a collapse in technical performance. — Howie Carson4
Many golfers struggle with transferring their swing changes from practice to tournaments.
Despite consistently achieving the desired movement in a controlled environment, the changes don’t hold up under pressure.
The lack of variability in biological, psychological, and social experiences is a hindrance to adequately preparing for a performance.
Once the golfer faces a “moment of truth” (eg. first tee shot), the experience has drastically changed:
Heart rate is elevated (biological)
Uncomfortable thoughts arise (psychological)
Perceived judgment from spectators/playing partners (social)
Due to inadequate practice and preparation strategies, the golfer isn’t able to flexibly cope with changes in their psychophysiological state and external demands.
The solution isn’t hitting more golf balls.
Rather, training periodization and pressure training are required.
This includes creating opportunities to perform the desired movement in low and high-pressure situations.
This allows golfers to understand when and how their performance breaks down.
lower levels of pressure can still be beneficial and even desirable when athletes are in the early stages of developing coping skills. For a complex task, training under a mix of low and high anxiety has improved performance better than training under only high anxiety — William Low5
While this type of training may not be “fun”, experiencing a variety of emotions is an important aspect of effective training periodization.
deliberate planning of variations in emotional load to support the skill development of action sports athletes, a feature that they termed emotional periodization — Jamie Taylor6
If golfers never (or rarely) experience thoughts and feelings during practice that normally arise under pressure, it is unlikely that their training is preparing them for competition.
when learners train while feeling emotions of competition, they may be more engaged and also discover the emotions, thoughts, and behavior that they need to perform optimally - William Low7
Mirifar, A., Keil, A., & Ehrlenspiel, F. (2022). Neurofeedback and neural self-regulation: a new perspective based on allostasis. Reviews in the neurosciences, 33(6), 607–629. https://doi.org/10.1515/revneuro-2021-0133
https://www.differencebetween.com/difference-between-allostasis-and-vs-homeostasis/
https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/allostatic
Carson, H.J., & Collins, D. (2011). Refining and regaining skills in fixation/diversification stage performers: the Five-A Model. International Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 4, 146 - 167.
Low, W. R., Freeman, P., Butt, J., Stoker, M., & Maynard, I. (2022). The role and creation of pressure in training: Perspectives of athletes and sport psychologists. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1080/10413200.2022.2061637
Taylor, J., & Collins, D. (2020). The highs and the lows—Exploring the nature of optimally impactful development experiences on the talent pathway. The Sport Psychologist, 34(4), 319-328.
Low, W. R., Sandercock, G. R. H., Freeman, P., Winter, M. E., Butt, J., & Maynard, I. (2021). Pressure training for performance domains: A meta-analysis. Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology, 10(1), 149.