The BIGGEST secret to you playing your best when it counts the most is learning how to keep yourself CALM and COMPOSED. If you allow yourself to get too nervous or too excited right before or during a competition, then your muscles will tighten up, you’ll lose your confidence and your play will go right down the tubes! This is what it means to CHOKE! The athlete gets so nervous that he/she ends up performing tight and tentatively — a mere shadow of his or her normal self!