Skill Breakdown and Symbolic Relating: A Functional Contextual Exploration of Choking in Sport

Choking in sport is both a highly researched phenomenon and a colloquial term for performance collapse, which has been at the centre of much debate. The past four decades of study continue to present challenges with its definition that have stifled progression with both research and applied intervention. This study adopted a functional contextual approach, with the aim of exploring how conceptualising choking through this lens might better serve practitioners and researchers, to build more impactful and meaningful processes for behaviour change. A purposive sample of 12 athletes, who identified as having experienced choking, took part in one of four focus groups. Thematic analysis provided four themes that explain choking from this functional contextual perspective, as a process of creating maladaptive personal narratives, responding to symbolic cues, rule-following, and strategies to alleviate the discomfort of challenging inner experiences associated with the experience. Findings provide preliminary support for functional contextualism as a worthwhile research lens for choking, with the suggestion that returning to observable definitions of choking may offer practitioners greater insight into relational processes underpinning choking.