Chandela claimed that her mind had gone 'blank'

Apurvi Chandela, a medal-hopeful in women's 10m air rifle, finished way off the mark, a dismal 34th, and claimed that her mind had gone 'blank'. The Commonwealth Games gold-medallist appeared physically primed, but mentally unprepared.
Little wonder then that psychologists rank 'panicking or blanking and choking' among toughest opponents an athlete can face. Bengaluru-based sports psychologist Dr Chaithanya Sridhar explained that when one performs below his or her optimum level, the result could be tagged to panicking or choking.

There's pressure in every competition and at an event like the Olympics, which comes around once every four years, it is even more so. Dr Sridhar, who has worked with sportspersons from a number of disciplines, noted that when the pressure is so great, the mind goes blank.
"Panic triggers blanking," she said. "The stress levels are so high that it erases short-term memory because of which you are unable to revert to routine motions and find your way back."
She added that choking, on the other hand, is "when one is over-focused on the outcome, the result, rather than the process. You're over-thinking and that interferes with how your brain processes what needs to be done. It eventually results in slow, laboured movements or rushing, and overreaching which is bound to affect the result negatively."
Panicking is more common with first timers. On the other hand, choking can let down any one, any time. Like when Czech Jana Novotna cracked in the 1993 Wimbledon final. She led 4-1, 40-30 in the deciding set against German Steffi Graf before coming apart spectacularly.
Novotna, a mere five points from the title, would later say she remembered very little of that final. "When you're choking, if you can channelize and figure out what's happening to you, you can come back," Dr Sridhar said.
In his study 'The art of failure' Malcolm Gladwell said, "Panic is the opposite of choking. Choking is about thinking too much. Panic is about thinking too little. Choking is about loss of instinct. Panic is reversion to instinct. They may look the same, but they are worlds apart."
Aparna Popat, a two-time Olympian and former world No. 16 in badminton, said that athletes are almost always mindful of these situations, panicking or blanking and choking.
"It's very important to think through," she said, adding, that in the more physical of disciplines it was better to let muscle memory take over. "My sense of it has always been that the reason why you do a thousand repetitions in practice is that in these of situations you let the body take over, rely on muscle memory. No amount of preparation can simulate a match situation, but you can prepare to such an extent physically, that it could cover for a mental lapse."
Coach Sunny Thomas said shooting at the highest level was about managing nerves. "I always tell shooters not to fight nerves, but to channelize it instead," he said. "Don't hold on to a bad round, let go and focus on the next round or shot. Don't brood, just get on with it."