The Yips: Overcoming Performance Anxiety

Have you ever had a case of the Yips? You're not alone. The Yips can happen to the most high-performing, skilled, and seasoned experts in any craft or context. In this engaging talk by Dr. Megan Kirk Chang, we discuss overcoming performance anxiety and having to navigate those all-too-awkward moments where we slip up, mess up, or fumble despite countless hours of practice or preparation - known as having the Yips.

Dr. Kirk Chang, a rising scholar at the University of Oxford, shares her own experience of having the Yips in academia to ground us in our common humanity, she shares the science behind the Yips and leaves us with strategies on how to manage performance pressure no matter what context we find ourselves in. This talk ends with a 10-minute guided practice, The 5 Senses, to bring us into the present moment so we can feel ready and prepared to navigate life's challenging moments.

Background music, "Slow Motion Dreams" by Todd Peterson

Transcript

Hello and welcome.

My name is Megan Kirk-Chang and I'm so glad that you joined me today as we talk about overcoming a case of the yips.

Maybe you've heard of having the yips in sports-related contexts or in the popular TV show Ted Lasso.

Or maybe you're coming to this talk having absolutely no idea what the term having the yips means.

And so my hope regardless of how you're arriving to this space is that there's something new that you can discover and take away with you in your own respective life.

Now as I talk about the performance yips I'm specifically referring to my own lived experience as an academic researcher at the University of Oxford and I recognize that my perspective and my experience might not reflect or represent yours and that's okay.

You might be coming to this talk newly hired in a new position in business or as a frontline worker or hospitality and tourism.

Perhaps you're coming to this talk newly retired or maybe you recently have found yourself unemployed.

When I talk about overcoming the yips see where this might be relevant in your life regardless of your work-related context.

Maybe this is better suited in your own personal relationships with friends and family.

And so I always approach talks with the philosophy take what works and leave the rest.

It's impossible for me in this short talk to meet every single person's needs but as I said I do hope there's one small takeaway that you can take into your life moving forwards.

So as I record this talk we have newly entered a new year.

It's January 2024.

January really is a time for many of us to reaffirm for ourselves what our intentions are for the year ahead.

And I know for myself usually my intentions revolve around the same kind of things every year.

Better work-life balance,

Way more joy,

And more self-compassion when pressures get the best of me.

And so I start today with a quote by Theodore Roosevelt called The Man in the Arena.

And please note I'm swapping out man for person so that this is inclusive for everyone.

It's not the critic who counts.

Not the person who points out how the strong person stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.

The credit belongs to the person who is actually in the arena,

Whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood,

Who strives valiantly,

Who errs,

Who comes short again and again because there is no effort without error and shortcoming.

But who does actually strive to do the deeds,

Who knows great enthusiasms,

The great devotions,

Who spends themselves in a worthy cause,

Who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement,

And who at the worst,

If they fail,

At least they fail while daring greatly.

One of the things I've realized in my own experience with having a case of the yips is that this really has meant that I am in the arena of my life.

And so I share that quote with you as a reminder that when certain pressures get the best of us and we have a case of the yips,

It actually means that we are full on and playing full out in our own lives.

So in my context in academia,

It's well understood that this work environment can feel very high pressure,

And I'm aware that this can be both self-imposed pressure and external pressures.

Typically,

In academic institutions,

It's not uncommon to have this publish or perish ethos.

And the prominence of metrics like the number of publications per year in high-impact journals,

Or your H-index,

Which is like a measure of your popularity in terms of how many people are citing your work,

Or your number of followers on social media,

And even something known as your altmetric score.

That's another measure of your popularity with how many people are reading and circulating your work.

It seems in academia more and more that these metrics have more weight as the measures of your worthiness than ever before.

And it makes sense.

As human beings,

We are designed to see tangible evidence.

And sometimes this means at the expense of your character or your quote-unquote soft skills,

Your ability to empathize with your team,

Your ability to facilitate conflict resolution,

Seemingly have less weight than these arbitrary metrics.

And this can create a high-pressure environment.

This pressure intensifies in the presence of workplace communication breakdowns or dysfunctional team dynamics.

And I don't know anyone,

Regardless of the work background that they're coming with,

That hasn't experienced at least one kind of breakdown in communication with their teammates or a season of dysfunction.

This pressure can intensify when we're navigating complex life transitions,

Like returning to work after maternity leave and navigating the identity of now being a new parent,

As well as your identity in your workplace,

Or returning after bereavement leave or a deeply painful loss of a loved one.

This pressure can intensify when you're an international scholar,

Like myself,

Who's had to navigate acclimating to cultural and institutional differences.

And I think about my colleagues that don't speak English as their first language.

That's another added layer that can intensify the pressure of succeeding in academia.

And particularly in my field,

The struggle to secure funding,

Job security,

To stay employed,

Largely requires on how much money you're bringing in to support research.

And so this mounting pressure,

Particularly among early and mid-career researchers,

Can lead to tremendous stress,

Can lead to early burnout,

Absenteeism,

Self-doubt,

And yes,

Even experiencing a case of the YIPS.

Have you ever experienced the YIPS before?

Trust me,

You're not alone.

Let me explain.

I had a case of the YIPS a couple of months ago.

I had prepared one of my best applications to date for a very prestigious fellowship at a college at Oxford that I really wanted badly.

It would mean that I would get to support early career researchers and graduate students in their own professional development.

It would mean that I'd get to lead and facilitate engaging events in the field of personalized medicine,

Something that I would love doing because citizenship and contribution are important to me as part of my researcher identity.

Yet that day,

It just wasn't in the cards for me to be successful.

Despite rocking an amazing and engaging PowerPoint slide deck and my new royal blue blazer,

I completely choked in the interview.

My natural born speaking flow just wasn't.

My ability to respond eloquently and even coherently to rapid fire questions just escaped me.

I was mortified when I could feel my face heat up and turn bright red and blotchy as a tomato.

And even my glasses completely fogged over where I couldn't see the interview panel in front of me.

They had to open a window for me,

And they also had to go get water because they were concerned I might faint.

It was mortifying.

I couldn't believe what was happening.

It was a classic case of having the yips,

And it really humbled me deeply.

The yips was originally coined in the realm of sports and refers to an inexplicable and sudden loss of previously mastered skills at a crucial moment that a professional athlete has executed many,

Many times before.

World-class athletes like Charles Barkley from the NBA,

Tiger Woods in golf,

Chuck Noblock in Major League Baseball,

Simone Biles,

A USA Olympic gymnast,

And Anna Kournikova from tennis have all experienced the yips in their craft.

I'm sure we can all even recall a high-stakes,

Game-winning shot or goal or play of our favorite team missed to such a silly error.

A fumble on the court or a golf putt that takes six or seven attempts instead of one.

A complete performance snafu in a very big way that leaves all of us stunned in disbelief and scratching our head.

How could that have just happened?

In academia,

The yips can impact lots of different situations,

Such as public speaking engagements,

Tests and exams,

Interviews,

And crucial conversations with senior researchers or teams.

These situations,

Typically very well-prepared for and well-practiced for,

Become moments of complete surprise where you might stumble your words or draw a blank and have no response,

Or like me,

Your physiology completely goes wild.

And if you're arriving to this talk not in academia,

Recognize where this might hold true in your context.

The yips are linked intrinsically to psychological tension and performance pressure.

Having a case of the yips induces a paralyzing mental block that temporarily impedes cognitive function,

Verbal and physical execution of tasks that we normally execute regularly.

Having a case of the yips may range from something known as focal dystonia,

Such as involuntary muscle tremors,

Spasms,

Or that shakiness,

To mind blanking,

Or an inability to form a coherent sentence.

Research into the yips is still in its infancy,

But there is an outstanding article in the Frontiers in Psychology journal that shows that the yips are linked to perfectionistic traits and one's own internal locus of motivation.

So what that means is when one's internal motivation to avoid failure outweighs their motivation to achieve success,

This is found to increase the likelihood of having a case of the yips.

So I'll say that again.

When one's internal motivation to avoid failing or making a mistake or messing up outweighs one's motivation to achieve success and reach a desired outcome increases the likelihood that a case of the yips may happen.

Now here's the good news.

The yips are not linked to future performance.

That means just because you had a case of the yips doesn't mean it guarantees you will again.

The yips can actually be overcome with specific tailored mindset strategies like cognitive restructuring or mental rehearsal,

Visualization,

And guided relaxation techniques.

And there's no better platform that I can think of to be able to access a large library of mental rehearsal and visualization techniques and guided relaxation,

So you're in the right place.

Experiencing the yips this year has taught me two important lessons.

First,

While daunting and humiliating,

The yips happen,

Like I said,

When we're fully engaged in the arena of our lives.

The yips don't happen when you're sitting on the sidelines.

Number two,

The yips do not define your sense of worth or belonging.

The yips also do not define your character.

Yes,

You may experience judgment or opinions.

Your own inner critic comes out as well.

But having a case of the yips and owning it,

I believe,

Is actually a sign of strength because no one is immune no matter what age,

Stage,

How many times somebody's done a presentation before.

The yips can strike at any time.

And as we start a new year ahead,

I invite you to get radically curious about prioritizing your own self-compassion and kindness.

One instructor here on Insight Timer is Dr.

Kristen Neff,

Who is one of the pioneering researchers of self-compassion research,

And she has several guided exercises and practices here.

One of the things I noticed right away when I experienced the yips was my own sense of self loathing and criticism.

It took me a few practices to really embody what it means to extend myself,

My own grace,

My own sense of humor,

My own compassion.

Regardless of your position in your current workspace,

Whether you are an early or new employee or you're a C-suite executive,

Normalizing the conversation around having a case of the yips helps loosen and lessen the grip that this experience can have over us.

And when we name it together,

We collectively build strength to overcome it together.

So at your next team meeting,

Perhaps you run the meeting a little bit differently and start to have conversations about the very real things that can happen,

Even to the best of us,

The most successful.

Develop a monthly accountability check-in with your team to actively work on personal growth and areas where we might not be feeling the most confident.

Or build time into your annual performance reviews with your teammates to discuss the very real possibility of having the yips and supporting one another to overcome performance pressure.

As I bounce back from my case of the yips,

I'm also reminded of how important it is to surround yourself with people who want to see you win,

Because inevitably there are going to be people who want to see you fail.

And so it's so important to surround yourself with people who genuinely and authentically celebrate your success and don't see it as a threat to their own identity.

So the quote that I shared with you about a person in the arena was shared with me by one of my people who genuinely wants to see me win.

And so I wanted to share it with you too.

As we reflect on overcoming our own case of the performance yips,

I want to share a very simple practice with you that helps me get into the present moment.

When I'm worrying or festering about an upcoming presentation or repeating the yips,

I'm not present.

I'm not in the here and now.

Or when I'm ruminating and replaying and rehashing my case of the yips,

Which still happens time and time again,

I'm also not in the here and now.

It's actually impossible for the brain to hold an anxious thought,

Worry,

Or fear while at the same time being in the present moment.

A very simple strategy that I use before high-stake events is known as the five senses.

So wherever you find yourself in your environment,

See if you can give yourself permission to fully tune in to this present moment exactly as it's unfolding.

Perhaps scanning your environment and seeing if there's one small subtle change you can make to more fully be in the present moment.

Maybe that's scratching a little itch or adjusting your clothing,

Pulling a hair out of your face,

Or dimming the lights even.

Just one small change that can eliminate as much distraction as possible.

The beautiful thing of the five senses practice is that you can be in your environment exactly as you are,

Whether you're walking,

In between meetings,

Sitting,

Or lying down,

Honoring exactly where you're at in this moment.

Let's tune in to the sense of sight.

And if you do have a visual impairment,

Using the power of visualization can also be a strategy.

Gently scanning your environment,

Land your gaze on any object in front of you.

If you'd like,

You can also pick up the object if that's available to you.

Really focusing awareness on the object in front of you by scanning the object and noticing the color,

The texture,

The purpose of the object,

The shape.

Spending as much time tuning in to your sense of sight,

You're welcome to continue as long as you need.

As you're comfortable,

Moving awareness to your sense of hearing.

If it feels comfortable for you,

Gently expanding your awareness of sound by tuning in to the sound furthest away from you.

And as you're comfortable,

Gently drawing awareness to the sounds a little bit more close to your center.

Remembering we're not evaluating sounds as good or bad,

We're just being with the present moment as it's unfolding.

Moving now to your sense of smell.

Together taking a long,

Slow breath in through the nose,

And exhale,

Sigh out through the mouth,

Coming into the sense of smell.

Notice the aromas or scents in your environment as the moment's unfolding.

Maybe you can subtly smell your clothing or a leftover meal,

Even your dirty socks.

Remembering there's no good or bad in this moment,

We are simply tuning in to our sense of smell.

Moving now to awareness of your sense of taste.

Gently opening the mouth and giving a little swallow,

Allowing the saliva to move in the mouth,

And just subtly tuning in to the sense of taste in the mouth.

And then finally,

Moving to your own sense of touch,

Bringing awareness to the sensation of touch on your skin,

Perhaps tuning into an article of clothing,

Noticing where it makes contact with the skin,

Noticing the texture and how it makes the skin feel.

Whenever you're ready,

Gently taking a cleansing,

Long,

Slow breath into the body,

And sigh,

Exhale,

Breath out.

Maybe do two or three on your own time,

Just bringing awareness back into your environment.

If you'd like,

You can repeat this exercise for each of the senses by focusing on something different.

You can also add in elements like a piece of food that you eat slowly to tune in to the sense of taste,

Or you hold an object in your hand to amplify the sense of touch.

Remembering there's many ways that you can cycle through this before a high stakes event.

I want to thank you for tuning in today,

For having the courage to think about a new topic,

And practicing a simple strategy to help bring you into the here and now.

I'd love to hear how you've been able to overcome your own case of the yips in the comments,

Because when we name it together in community,

We collectively give each other permission to bring our best selves and be in the arena of our lives.

Thank you so much for being here.

We'll see you next time.

Reviews

Thank you for your humility and sharing this practice with us. I’m bookmarking this!