Imagine for a moment that you’re in the fifth set of the championship match. Your team has been battling well against it's biggest rival. Your opponent just put the ball away to go up 14-13 and is serving for match point. As your team lines up in passing formation, it is time to call the play.
With the match and the championship on the line, who do you want to get the set and to ultimately take that all-important swing? Do you know which player on your team is most likely to come through with the clutch play? What if there was a way to predict success under pressure?
Everybody loves the player who gets the job done when it counts. But when the pressure is on and the game is on the line, everything changes. The game becomes much more mental than physical and while it is important to have great mechanics, good form and a keen understanding of the nuts and bolts of your sport, what is going through a player's mind at the moment of truth may be even more important. Your usual go-to player may not be the one to count on in this situation.
Who can forget how a player like Laker Robert Horry, not normally a huge contributor, came through time after time with the buzzer-beating three-pointer to win the game for his team in the playoffs. Or how a great golfer like Greg Norman somehow managed to self-destruct in major after major when the pressure was on. At the key moments, when it comes down to one play that has everything riding on it, skill level may be less important than mental preparedness.
