• Home
• Bio
• Clutch
  • About the Book
  • Buy Clutch
  • Press
  • TV and Radio
  • Table of Contents
  • Sample Chapters
• Events
• Blog
• Other Writings
• Media Room
• Contact

Blog

Rodgers Comes Through in the Clutch

If I had been a betting man I would have put my money on Aaron Rodgers to deliver a great clutch performance on Sunday. Instead, when I went on NPR’s Weekend Edition, I hedged a bit. I talked about how Rodgers had led the Green Bay Packers through five, pressure-filled games, having to win all of them to get to the Super Bowl. The key in the big game was to stay focused not on that game but on each play, to never be distracted by the stakes of that game. Yet Ben Roethlisberger had the upper hand. He had been to the Super Bowl twice and won both times. I define clutch as the ability to do what you can do normally under pressure, and by that measure, the Super Bowl was as normal for Roethlisberger and the Steelers as any national championship could be. In the end, Rodgers and the Packers won because they were more focused and disciplined – they kept making the right plays. Steelers’ coach Mike Tomlin said as much after the game. Have a listen to the NPR interview.

5 Comments  |  Permalink  |  Posted in Clutch, Football, Sports

Clutch Is Not Mental

One of the lines in Clutch that has gotten a bit of a chuckle from readers comes at Roger Clemens’ expense. I interviewed him in 2004 and walked away thinking: you can either have blond highlights in your hair or you can be an arrogant jerk, but you shouldn’t be allowed to have highlights and be a jerk. The anecdote was one of many illustrating the flaccid thinking behind claims that great athletes – and top performers – were mentally superior to the rest of us. I have met enough of them to know that isn’t the case.

Now come two sports pieces that make my point. In The New York Times, Larry Dorman writes about Matt Kuchar and how he has gone from being off the PGA Tour to the hottest player around in just four years. This quote, in particular, captures how the five traits of being clutch help make somebody better under pressure:

He had an objective in mind, and he was going to achieve that objective. When he was done practicing, he was going to be better.

In other words, he was focused, showed discipline, adapted when things went badly, and was always present. He was not thinking of his fall from grace or how great his comeback would be: he was just getting better.

In baseball, there is a story in the Wall Street Journal about Troy Tulowitzki, the short stop for the Colorado Rockies. It begins by quoting people who marvel at his ability under pressure. This type of hagiography is what I wrote against in my book. Being clutch is not the realm of the gods and has little to do with the mental toughness of the athlete. But midway through one of his coaches explains why Tulowitzki has always been so good coming down the stretch:

Ken Ravizza, who worked with Mr. Tulowitzki when he was a college player at Long Beach State, said the shortstop had a precocious ability to forget his failures, maintain control, and focus relentlessly on the next pitch. “It’s always been effortless for him,” Mr. Ravizza says.

And that’s clutch – it’s not the previous at-bat; it’s focus on what you’re doing now.

1 Comment  |  Permalink  |  Posted in Baseball, Clutch, Golf, New York Times, Sports

Radio Days

I shed my American League allegiances on Saturday for a great chat with Marty Lurie, on the San Francisco Giants pre-game show. While we naturally talked about baseball – and why Aubrey Huff is having a great year under pressure – Marty also broadened the conversation to how people can learn to be clutch in their daily lives.

That was where my chat picked up this morning on WCBS 880 in New York. Deborah Rodriguez and I talked about how everyday people could become better under pressure.

3 Comments  |  Permalink  |  Posted in Baseball, Clutch, Sports

More Posts »