”Things get worse under pressure”, at least according to one of Murphy’s associates. But to be serious, do things actually get worse under pressure? Is it harder to make the shot on lane 18 because it’s lane 18? Is the opening smaller when you have to ace it to win?
Well, the last question is at least easy to answer. Of course the size of the opening doesn’t change, that would be quite odd. But the first two questions are somewhat tougher to explain. During the years I’ve been wondering why different players play better at certain positions in a team. We are all individuals and thus we perform and react differently to different situations. If you take me as an example, I almost certainly will not play as good as a starter compared to closer. Why is that? I would like to think that I’m good enough to be able to cope with both situations, but I sort of know that it wouldn’t work out as well if I was to start. I know that I’m rarely good at the beginning of a tournament; the first couple of lanes are usually shaky before I get into my rhythm. Being shaky at the beginning of a round is not really what you’re looking for in a starter. Back in 2003 at the World Championships in Bad Münder I started out with cutting the edge of the obstacles on both lane 1 and 2, but after that everything (except maybe for a 25 on the eternite…) went well. A more recent competition in Eskilstuna on eternite a couple of months ago I made a 3 on the lightning (lane 2) and in the end I had an average of 19.5 over four rounds. Karin pointed out to me some years ago that I’m to well aware of that I don’t start that good, and that’s the reason why I don’t start good. Point taken, thank you.
Analyzing ones game in different situations is good, but over-analyzing tends to make it worse. It’s good to know what you need to practice, but you shouldn’t focus too much on certain lanes. Having the though “Now I’ve practiced here a lot and now I shouldn’t be able to miss!”, will inevitably end up in a missed shot more often than not. That’s exactly what happened to me at the EC on lane 15. I made a lot of aces during practice and made a 3 the first round of the competition. Practicing in the morning only made it worse, well not exactly, but it didn’t make it any better. You would think that I might have learned this some time ago, wouldn’t you? I did learn it in time for the Swedish Cup at the beginning of the year, though.

After taking a rather long detour from the initial subject I will try explain my thoughts on pressure. Minigolf is a game of millimetres and a tiny deviation from the correct swing line could at any point end in disaster. What can you do to prevent this tiny deviation? Well, the first and most obvious thing is of course to practice, practice and practice even more. But even practice can’t take you all the way; you need to keep your head in the game. The most important part is to be able to rely on that you have taken a correct aim. If you do that, then you should be able to play the shot even if you are so nervous that you are falling to pieces. Confidence also plays a part in the pressure shot. If you know you can do it, it will be a lot easier. I might sound arrogant, but I know that I can beat anyone in a tight situation.
To better handle pressure, try putting yourself in tough situations during the practice. For example during practice for Elitserien I sometimes play a match against Anders Wiklund the last 5 holes of a round with him always 1 shot ahead at the start. If I lose then I have to serve him a coffee. I can guarantee that this is something he enjoys. It’s a good point that we’re not counting the entire round, just the last part. I get more pressure practice and he gets more coffee, everybody wins.