It’s frustrating to choke under pressure—especially when you thought that you were totally prepared to, say, perform a piano piece beautifully for your family or play a good golf or tennis game against friends.

You had done these things so well while practicing and were so focused on excellence! What happened?

Well, odds are that all of that thinking that you did (“rumination” in scientific terms) is what got in your way, according to a new study. In other words, the thinking part of your brain trumped the doing part of your brain.

But there’s an easy way to fix all this—in fact, the latest research also suggests that if you do a certain simple movement immediately before (and perhaps even during) a high-pressure situation, it will help you perform a skill as well as you practiced it.

EVEN PROS CHOKE—HERE’S WHY

“Rumination can interfere with the performance of motor tasks,” I was told by lead study author Jürgen Beckmann, PhD. “Athletes, for example, usually perform better when they trust their bodies rather than thinking too much about their own actions or what their coaches told them during practice.”

Dr. Beckmann knew from previous research that when golfers missed putts under pressure, the left hemispheres of their brains showed an increase in brain wave activation—perhaps because this is the part of the brain that is associated with rumination, while the right hemisphere is linked with performing automatic movements (such as swinging that golf club). Since our brains control our upper extremities contralaterally (meaning each side of the brain controls the opposite side of our body), Dr. Beckmann theorized that sending the brain a signal from the left side of our bodies could stimulate that right hemisphere and perhaps outweigh the impact of the overthinking left side of the brain.

Dr. Beckmann and his team conducted experiments on experienced, right-handed soccer players, tae kwon do experts and badminton players. Researchers set up two sessions for participants—a “practice session” to replicate a low-pressure situation and a “game session” in front of either a large audience or video cameras to replicate a high-pressure situation. Immediately before the game sessions, at random, some participants were asked to clench a soft rubber ball (about the size of a tennis ball) lightly for 30 consecutive seconds in their left hands, and some were asked to do the same with their right hands.

Results: The athletes who clenched the balls with their right hands performed worse in the games than they did at practices (e.g., they “choked” under pressure)…but those who clenched the balls with their left hands performed as well in the games as they did during practices.

In other words, Dr. Beckmann’s theory was supported by the data!

How can you make use of this intriguing finding? You could literally keep a small rubber ball with you when you are going to be in a high-pressure situation and then squeeze it lightly in your left hand for 30 consecutive seconds just before you have to perform.

But Dr. Bekmann told me that the size and material of the ball doesn’t matter—only the light clenching movement does. So if you don’t have a ball (or don’t want to carry one around), he said that simply clenching your fist—or the grip of a tennis racket or other object—would likely accomplish the same thing. He’s not sure yet whether 30 seconds is the optimal amount of time, but that’s the amount of time that helped study participants.

It’s unknown exactly how long the effects of the clenching will last, but Dr. Beckmann suspects that if clenching just once before a high-pressure situation stops you from overthinking, then there’s no need to repeat the action. But if you find yourself overthinking later, you may want to try it again.

GIVE YOURSELF A HAND

Dr. Beckmann isn’t sure that this clenching exercise would work in every high-pressure situation—it probably wouldn’t work before, say, giving an important PowerPoint presentation at the office. “So far, we believe that this would apply only to automated physical activities, such as performing a sport, playing a musical instrument or climbing into the bathtub (if you’re an elderly person who struggles with balance and fears falling, for example),” he noted.

Dr. Beckmann encouraged people to experiment with the technique. But you should expect success only under three conditions. One: You are right-handed. “The distribution of functional areas in the brain is not as clear-cut in left-handers, so they don’t have the same chance of success,” Dr. Beckmann explained. (Sorry, lefties!) Two: You’re experiencing pressure. And three: You’re already pretty good at what you’re about to do—or, at least, you’re performing an activity that you’ve practiced enough to do without too much thinking.

Now go squeeze!