A missed kick. A double fault. A dropped pass. One errant shot.
Within seconds, an athlete who looked calm and in control can appear suddenly rattled. Commentators search for mechanical explanations. Fans wonder what went wrong.
But according to performance psychologist Dr. Klara Gubacs Collins, those visible collapses are rarely about mechanics.
“Most elite performers do not suddenly lose their skill,” she explains. “What they lose is access to that skill once a specific emotional trigger is activated.”
Dr. Gubacs Collins, a performance psychologist, Doctor of Education, and seven-time gold medalist across four sports at the New Jersey Senior Olympics, has spent years studying how pressure affects performance in athletes and other high achievers.
Over time she noticed the same pattern repeatedly: after one visible mistake, many competitors begin shifting their focus away from execution and toward protecting their identity.
“When the trigger activates,” she says, “the athlete is no longer competing to execute. They are competing to protect themselves.”
That shift can happen in seconds—but it can derail an entire performance.
The Spiral Is Not About Skill
At elite levels of competition, skill does not simply disappear between plays. The body still knows how to swing, throw, run, or strike.
What changes is the meaning attached to the moment.
Dr. Gubacs Collins describes what she calls an invisible contract that many high achievers develop early in life. Over time, performance becomes tied to personal worth. Success reinforces identity. Failure begins to feel like a threat.
Most athletes never consciously make this connection. It forms gradually through years of expectations, evaluations, and external validation.
Strong performance brings praise, opportunity, and recognition. The brain learns to associate performance with identity.
When a mistake happens on a big stage, the error stops being just a technical event.
Instead, it becomes evidence in a courtroom inside the mind.
Rather than focusing on the next play, the athlete begins defending themselves against what the mistake might mean. Thoughts accelerate. Muscles tighten. Attention narrows. The nervous system shifts from precision to protection.
The next moment is no longer about performing well.
It becomes about proving that the previous mistake does not define them.
Ironically, this attempt to protect identity often produces the very outcome the athlete fears.
How One Mistake Becomes a Pattern
Consider a golfer hitting a critical shot into the water during a major championship.
The mistake is immediately public. Cameras zoom in. Commentary intensifies. The moment replays across broadcasts and social media.
If the golfer has no way to reset emotionally, the first mistake does not simply pass. It lingers.
When they step up to the next shot, their nervous system is no longer neutral. Stress chemistry is elevated. The mind begins questioning composure.
The brain is designed to remember emotionally charged events. When the first mistake carries enough emotional weight, it becomes linked to future risk.
The next similar situation activates the same stress response.
In her work with athletes, Dr. Gubacs Collins often sees competitors begin overcorrecting mechanics, rushing decisions, or hesitating in situations that previously felt natural.
Observers frequently describe this as choking under pressure.
But she sees something different happening.
“It’s not choking,” she says. “It’s an unresolved emotional imprint being triggered again.”
Once the nervous system begins anticipating the mistake, a repeating cycle can form where fear of the error increases the likelihood of repeating it.
The spiral is not random. It follows a pattern.
The Fear of Repetition
This dynamic often becomes especially visible when athletes return from injury.
A wide receiver who has taken a devastating hit may be medically cleared to play, yet still carry a subconscious anticipation of impact.
When the ball approaches, the body prepares for contact before the catch is secured. That split second of divided attention can result in a dropped pass.
From the outside, it looks like poor focus.
Internally, it is a protective reflex.
The brain’s primary job is survival, not performance. If it associates a situation with danger, it will attempt to protect the athlete—even when that protection interferes with execution.
Many high performers try to override these reactions with motivation.
They tell themselves to be tougher. More disciplined. More confident.
But motivation rarely dissolves an emotional trigger.
Often it simply adds more pressure.
What is needed instead is a way to neutralize the trigger itself.
Accessing Talent Again
Much of Dr. Gubacs Collins’s work focuses on restoring what she calls access.
The skill is already present. The challenge is removing the emotional interference that blocks it.
The first step is recognizing the invisible contract between identity and performance. When athletes begin to see how tightly their worth has become tied to results, they can start loosening that attachment.
This does not reduce competitiveness.
If anything, it often frees it.
When identity is no longer on trial, attention naturally returns to the task itself.
From there athletes identify the moment carrying emotional charge and gradually reduce the intensity attached to it. Instead of endlessly analyzing mechanics, the goal becomes stabilizing the nervous system.
As the emotional spike decreases, the athlete’s natural ability becomes accessible again.
Competing to Create Rather Than to Prove
A central idea in Dr. Gubacs Collins’s philosophy is the difference between competing to prove and competing to create.
When athletes compete to prove themselves, every mistake feels like exposure. The mind becomes preoccupied with protecting reputation, status, or identity.
When they compete to create, mistakes become part of the performance process.
Instead of asking What does this say about me? the athlete asks a different question:
What does this moment require from me?
That shift changes the entire internal posture.
Competition becomes an act of expression rather than a test of worth.
Paradoxically, athletes often perform more freely—and more consistently—once they no longer feel their identity depends on every outcome.
The Bigger Picture Beyond Sports
Although her work focuses on athletics, the same pattern appears far beyond the playing field.
Executives lose composure after a public mistake in the boardroom. Entrepreneurs hesitate after a failed launch. Leaders sometimes overcorrect after criticism.
The invisible contract operates in many high-pressure environments.
When identity fuses with outcome, performance becomes fragile.
By teaching high performers how to reset emotionally and separate worth from results, Dr. Klara Gubacs Collins helps restore access to their true capacity—even after error.
In a world that magnifies every mistake, the ability to recover quickly may be the most valuable competitive advantage of all.
M&F and editorial staff were not involved in the creation of this content.
