Hot Under Pressure, Cool With Practice

Sure, choking under pressure may be costly to an athlete, a chef, a shoe salesperson, a lawyer or a plastic surgeon. But if an F-15 fighter pilot chokes, he crashes.

“I teach the guys how to react when they start to get overwhelmed,” said psychologist Chaytor Mason, who teaches pilots at Norton Air Force Base the intricacies of staying cool under fire. “They may seem like they have nerves of steel, but, really, they have nerves just like anyone else.”

What he teaches, Mason said, is not only applicable for fighter pilots during war, but to a scrambling quarterback, a nervous prom date and a mother of four swerving to avoid debris on a jammed L. A. freeway.

“They have to realize that the body, under pressure, changes,” Mason said. “Your reaction time quickens, you have greater strength, you talk faster, you move faster, you lose a sense of pain, and you tend to get tunnel vision.

“Pilots may overreact by overpushing or overreaching and hitting the wrong switch. A driver on the highway may begin to skid and oversteer. In emergencies, the body goes into a different mode.”

In these situations, Mason said, you need to “slow down, control your thoughts and control your movements.”

This, of course, is a complicated proposition, requiring practice.

“Pilots get their cool from practice, just like a good quarterback,” Mason explained. “He has a set pattern that he has practiced over and over. When things break down, he reacts automatically. That’s what we teach pilots--to practice until the unnatural becomes the natural.”

Mason’s four-point plan for dealing with pressure:

* Recognize that in these circumstances, the body will switch to exaggerated behavior.

* Make adjustments to these changes by staying focused and making measured movements.

* Control your thoughts by concentrating on what’s at hand.

* Know yourself, how you personally react when the heat is on, and believe that you can manage it.

“It sounds simplistic, but belief in self is very important,” Mason said. “If you think you can’t handle a situation, chances are, you’ll choke.”