#taxi st. gallen

[grandlanetransfer]

OpenAir St. Gallen, sometimes referred to as the "Swiss Glastonbury," is a popular music festival in Switzerland that attracts thousands of visitors every year. Open Air St.Gallen began as Switzerland's first open-air music festival in 1977 and continues to this day.

While attending the festival can be an exciting and memorable experience, transportation to and from the festival can be a challenge, especially for those who are unfamiliar with the area. Fortunately, there are several transportation options available to make your journey to OpenAir St.Gallen stress-free and enjoyable.

What makes the festival special

Get Hassle Free Transport

St. Gallen Chauffeur Service

Pre-Book St. Gallen Airport Transfer

St. Gallen Taxi Transfer

Attending OpenAir St. Gallen can be an exciting and memorable experience, but getting to and from the festival can be a challenge. Fortunately, there are several transportation options available that can make your journey stress-free and enjoyable.

Read more: https://grandlanetransfer.com/blog/openair-st-gallen-everything-you-need-to-know/

[zurichtaxitransfer]

Punctuality is always very valued in the travel world and Airport Transfer St Gallen pays much attention to that. Our professional drivers also know the city streets best; therefore, you will get to your destination on time. That is why, using St Gallen Airport transfer services, you will not waste time on buses or waiting for taxis. Our private airport transfer removes all chances of hitches from the time you get picked up till the time you are dropped off.

[jurnaltalking]

Zurich to Interlaken Transfer is Swift, Easy and Convenient at Noble Transfer

Zurich to Interlaken Transfer is Swift, Easy and Convenient at Noble Transfer

Switzerland opens its doors to over 2 million visitors each year and a vast number of them travel and are met at the airport by Noble Transport. Owner Alexander Fischer ensures that every individual enjoys a luxury experience on business or recreational trips with professional chauffeurs, a fleet of luxury vehicles, and convenient service throughout Europe.

Zurich to Interlaken transfer is a popular service for clients of Noble Transfer. The city is a major destination for those seeking thrills and an adrenaline rush. Individuals can enjoy a canyon swing, rafting, bungy jumping, sky diving, ice climbing, canyoning, and paragliding. Visitors can also traverse over 1,000 meters (almost a mile) of caves said to have been the home of a dragon slain by Saint Beatus.

A world-famous holiday destination, St. Moritz hosted the Olympics twice and became the birthplace of Alpine tourism in 1864. The city is also home to famous mineral springs that were discovered more than 3,000 years ago. Those in need of zürich taxi begin at Noble Transfer to arrive for glacier skiing, windsurfing, horseback riding and tennis, or taking a ride on the famous Glacial Express from St. Moritz to Zermatt.

Transport from taxi st. gallen is easy, convenient and safe. Visitors can leave navigation to Noble Transfer’s experienced chauffeurs. When individuals must say good-bye to the exploration of Basel’s museums, medieval architecture, and artistic displays, the company’s service is there to whisk individuals to Zurich.

Noble Transfer offers an extensive selection of luxury, Wi-Fi enabled vehicles for business or recreational travel. Chauffeurs will greet clients, wait for an hour free of charge for clients arriving at the airport, and wait for 15 minutes at any other stop that individuals need to make. For those planning their first trip to points within Switzerland, the company’s staff is able to help with accommodations, reservations and itineraries for every interest.

About Noble Transfer

Noble Transfer is an online private transfer and shuttle service offering reliable, luxury and comfortable transfer service to and from airports and tourist resorts around Germany, Austria, Europe and many more destinations at affordable prices. Connect with Noble Transfer on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and LinkedIn.

 Media Contact

Noble Transfer

Phone: +41 7860 99 777

8180 Bulach, Switzerland

Website:  www.nobletransfer.com

[frousimabseits]

Deutschland : England 1:1

Deutschland/Allianz Arena München/UEFA Nations League/2. Spieltag

69000 Zuschauer (Ausverkauft)

Dienstag, 07.06.2022, 20:45 Uhr

1:0 (50´) Jonas Hofmann

1:1 (88´) Harry Kane (FE)

Vor fast genau 21 Jahren spielte die deutsche Nationalmannschaft ebenfalls gegen England in München. Damals war es der 01.09.2001, als uns die Inselbewohner mit 5:1 aus dem Olympiastadion schossen. In Folge dessen waren an diesem Abend in der Münchner Innenstadt mehr Stühle und Flaschen in der Luft, als Vögel am Himmel. Aber zu einer Neuauflage kam es an diesem Tag nicht – in beiden Punkten.

Endlich wieder Länderspiel! Seit St. Gallen konnte ich, aufgrund meines Dienstplans, zu keinem Spiel der Deutschen mehr fahren. Zudem war heute das Trio Infernal der oberfränkischen Länderspielfahrer (Ferdi, Flo und meine Wenigkeit), auch bekannt als „Sektion Tetzlaff“, wieder vereint. Die Leute, mit der subkulturellen Freizeitgestaltung, oder besser gesagt: die Fans, die der DFB nicht will; trafen sich bereits zum Frühschoppen in einem Münchner Szenelokal. Dies war für Ferdi und mich leider nicht möglich, aber wir gaben unser Bestes, um schnellstmöglich bei der Rasselbande aufschlagen zu können! Um 13:45 Uhr starteten wir also unsere Fahrt in Richtung Landeshauptstadt. Um einer möglichen Dehydrierung entgegen zu wirken, deckte ich mich mit Apfelwein aus der Dose ein. Sicher ist sicher und ein rollender Stein setzt kein Moos an. Als Parkplatz wurde das Forschungszentrum in Garching auserkoren. Für schlappe 50 Cent kann man hier 24h parken und die U6 hat hier ihre Anfangs,- und Endstation. Vom Forschungszentrum bis nach Fröttmaning sind es auch nur zwei Stationen. Aber wir wollten ja noch ein paar Humpen mit den Jungs stemmen; also erst mal Richtung Innenstadt. Am HBF sammelten wir Flo, der mittlerweile in München wohnt, ein und um 17 Uhr waren wir dann endlich am Stammtisch. Bevor ich „Servus“ sagen konnte, begrüßte mich Dobre schon lautstark mit: „Sascha, du Zigeuner!“ Wie habe ich es vermisst. Während ich und Ferdi noch unsere Begrüßungstour absolvierten, bestellte Flo schon mal Bier. Als wir unsere Getränke hatten, gesellten wir uns zu der Bande und hatten einfach eine gute Zeit. Zwischenzeitlich entschied sich Barz dafür, dass sein Weizen auf meiner Hose anscheinend besser aufgehoben wäre, als in seinem Mund, nun ja, passiert eben. Der 65 jährige Kellner, der nun schon zum zweiten Mal mit einem Putzlappen antanzen musste, war sichtlich genervt. Aber wie heißt es so schön? Niemand muss Kellner sein! Kurz davor kam es mit besagtem Angestellten schon zu einem kleinen Disput, da er gerne eine Sammelbestellung von uns hätte. Er wollte nicht ständig wegen ein, oder zwei Bier an den Tisch kommen. Zudem brachte er auch alle zehn Minuten eine Zwischenrechnung, die er aber sofort wieder vernichten konnte, da irgendwer wieder etwas bestellte. Nachdem sich die Wogen wieder geglättet hatten, bekam der Fürther sogar eine Gratis Weißweinschorle. Nachdem wir uns mit Schnitzel gestärkt hatten ging es zum Stadion. Der eine Teil fuhr mit dem Taxi und wir mit der U-Bahn, was sich im Nachhinein als großer Fehler herausstellen sollte. Die U-Bahn war gestopft voll, so dass eh niemand mehr hätte einsteigen können, trotzdem hielt sie an jeder Station, anstatt einfach nach Fröttmaning durch zu fahren, nun ja. An der Arena angekommen, besorgte sich Flo noch schnell eine Karte und dann konnte es auch schon losgehen. Durch mein zu spätes buchen, konnte ich keine Karte mehr im „Fanblock“ ergattern, stattdessen verschlug es mich in Block 323. Die Sicht auf´s Spielfeld war mehr als perfekt, allerdings meinte es meine Platzwahl nicht so gut mit mir. Allem Anschein nach landete ich in einen Betriebsausflug von Rikscha Fahrern aus Neu-Delhi. Umringt von indischen Menschen, die an diesem Tag jedes Klischee erfüllten war meine Laune natürlich nicht die beste. Als die englische Nationalhymne gespielt wurde, stand plötzlich der gesamte Block auf. Ich hingegen blieb als einziger sitzen und stand selbstverständlich erst bei unserer Hymne auf.

Nach dem 1:1 gegen Italien war klar, dass Hansi Flick auf einigen Positionen rotieren lassen würde. Mit sieben Veränderungen ging es also ins Spiel gegen die Three Lions. Nach knapp zwei Minuten prüfte Havertz schon den englischen Keeper. In der 23. Minute netzte Hofmann dann endlich ein, der Treffer zählte aber wegen Abseits nicht. Die Engländer agierten mit gutem Pressing und störten immer wieder das deutsche Aufbauspiel. Nach Vorlage von Kimmich war es erneut Hofmann, der den Ball in der 50. Minute im Kasten versenken konnte, diesmal zählte der Treffer. Die Engländer drückten jetzt und das Spiel wurde wieder spannend. In der 85. Minute rettete uns Klostermann eindrucksvoll vor dem Ausgleich. Den Ausgleich schossen die Engländer trotzdem noch. Nach VAR-Einsatz gab es in der 88. Einen Elfmeter für die Gäste. Kane schoss dann das 1:1, was auch der Endstand sein sollte.

Die ersten elf Minuten des Spiels verbrachte ich brav auf meinem Platz im Block 323. In der 11. Minute, als die deutschen den Sprechchor "Deutschland“ anstimmten, machten meine südasiatischen Nachbarn natürlich lautstark mit. Das klatschen bekamen sie einwandfrei hin, nur anstatt „Deutsch-land“ riefen sie „Weu-wa“ in den Münchner Nachthimmel. Das war zu viel. Ich ging runter zu Block 113, wo Ferdi seine Karte hatte. Die erste Halbzeit verfolgte ich dann hinter dem Block, um mich in der zweiten Halbzeit dann einschleichen zu können; was auch perfekt gelang. Kaum im Block angekommen, wurde ich erneut von Dobre mit den Worten „Sascha, du Zigeuner!“ begrüßt. Diesmal auch so laut, dass eben jetzt der komplette Rest aus der BRD wusste, dass ich es auch in den Block geschafft hatte. Ferdi und ich verfolgten dann das restliche Spiel zusammen. Nach dem Spiel ging es sofort mit der U-Bahn zum Forschungszentrum, um von da aus die Heimreise anzutreten.

Auf der Heimfahrt passierte dann auch nichts mehr spannendes. Einziges Highlight war ein Warsteiner Pils aus der Dose, was ich nach dem ganzen Augustiner heute dringend brauchte. Nach kurzem Fahrzeugwechsel war ich dann auch um 2 Uhr nachts daheim. Und wieder war ein Fußballtag viel zu schnell zu ende. Dank geht an dieser Stelle noch mal an Ferdi für´s fahren. S.F. (Frouser)  

[magbell-blog1]

Digital Economy

OverviewThe world as we understand it's constantly changing, and 1 of the basic drivers is electronic transformation. At the core of its, digital transformation is not about Internet "unicorns." It is about using the most recent technology to do everything you already do - but much better. The global economic climate is going through a digital transformation also, and it is going on at breakneck speed. Thus, what's the digital economy? It is the economic activity which results from massive amounts of daily online connections among folks, data, devices, businesses, and processes. The backbone of the electronic economic climate is hyper connectivity this means developing interconnections of machines, organizations, and people which results from the Internet, the web and mobile technology of items (IoT). The digital economic climate is taking shape as well as blunt conventional approach about the way companies are structured; how companies interact; as well as the way consumers obtain goods, information, and services. Professor Walter Brenner of the Faculty of St. Gallen in Switzerland states: "The ambitious use of information is changing business models, facilitating services and products new, creating new tasks, generating greater energy, along with ushering in an unique culture of management." Not too long ago, TechCrunch, a digital economy news flash website, observed, "Uber, the world's biggest taxi business, has no vehicles. Read the full article

[supersonicstarblazerthisbighush]

Portrait of Piet Alder

He brought bands from L.A. to the Gonzo

With his income as a professional pilot, the man from Zurich [Switzerland] finances the melodious retro rock of his record label Taxi Gauche - and he bakes cakes.

When the writer was asked if he would like to do a portrait of the owner of the music label Taxi Gauche, who is a full-time pilot, he didn't just say: "Sure! "He also secretly wishes for the cliché to come true, so he has the (admittedly somewhat abnormal) hope that this Piet Alder is a smug, super-cool, Tom Cruise wannabe with Porsche glasses, who will introduce himself at the agreed meeting point, wonderfully affected with "Hey man, what's up?

In fact, there is a man in front of the bar Si o No, who would pass for a basketball player by the size of his body, wearing an idiosyncratic sixties look with adequate eyeglasses, but who is above all exceptionally polite and reserved. So that one thinks, irritated, "The heroes of the air are apparently not what they used to be."

Beatles and Cypress Hill

Of course it's nonsense. And for this story it's not relevant at all, because the talk is about music, bands and the label Taxi Gauche. The reason why we'll talk about flying later on is that everything is somehow connected to everything else in Zurich (this even applies to baking cakes!). But let's take it one step at a time. So for now we quickly hop to the Appenzell village of Hundwil.

There Alder grows up with seven siblings - as "Son of a Preacher Man", to put it musically. That means: Calvinism and hymns à discrétion. Until the teacher takes the class through a Beatles song. "That was my awakening," says the 35-year-old. "I began to question, to discover the world beyond conservative conventions." He dives more and more often into the St. Gallen subculture, where he sees himself for the first time as "part of a group". Since his parents' house denied him long hair, he shaves his bald head in protest and thus goes to the first concert of his life - it is the hilariously crazy show of the hip hop formation Cypress Hill.

"What about drugs?" the journalist wants to know, "Soft, hard, now and then or pathological?" Alder takes a sip of gazosa and says, "I never cared for that. I never rebelled against rebelling, by the way. That liberation was an existential necessity for me."

All the stronger is the sheer curiosity about life, especially culture. Like a dried out sponge under the tap, he soaks himself full of impressions and knowledge, the musical socialization now leads him towards Indie, New Wave and hypnotic Rock. Which in turn arouses his interest in Manchester, where he is getting his English in shape for the planned teacher training.

Los Angeles becomes a Mecca

One day, during a flight, a buddy tells him, "Pilot, that's a cool job too." Alder thinks about it, abandons his training at the Pädagogische Hochschule in Lucerne, where he spends his early twentysomething years, and applies to train as an airline pilot. He takes hurdle after hurdle with flying colours, at the age of 24 he is co-pilot for short distances, four flights a day. Because he learned on Airbus, he later flies this type of aircraft on long-haul missions, which eventually take him to Los Angeles. "This city, I can't say otherwise, then became my musical Mecca," says Alder.

On long-haul flights, pilots have two days "layover", as such a stay is called in jargon. The music freak doesn't spend this time in a hotel or shopping, but at concerts in the Echo Park and Silver Lake districts. There he meets soulmates: introverted Shoegazers, nostalgic surf guitars, bands that raise and lower the captivating psychedelic Wall of Sounds. It's a rebirth of the sensual sixties, look and style included: star designer and rock fan Hedi Slimane, made popular by his work for the house of Yves Saint Laurent, becomes a kind of curator of the L.A. music scene - and of Alder's fashionable inspiration ("Which sometimes gets pretty expensive," he laughs).

The dream of his own label

But it's especially the attitude of these people and their "Do it yourself" credo, as it used to be in punk, that enthuses him: Whoever is up for it, starts a band, founds a label, puts a festival on its feet. Positive energy, joy in life, a cooperation instead of a competition.

Over the years, Piet Alder has become part of this scene himself, but has also established excellent contacts with local promoters; with Froth and Corners he even brings the first L.A. bands to the Gonzo in Zurich. And so, in July 2018, he dares the dream of his own label. He calls it Taxi Gauche ("has to do with a past love") and releases one LP and one single each by the end of the year. Today, 22 months later, he has already signed twelve acts from Switzerland and the USA and released nine albums, three singles and an EP - all "strictly vinyl", in editions of 200 to 600 copies. And he wants to grow further, with Harvey Rushmore & the Octopus from Basel already the next formation on Alders radar, "it would be great if they would do the new record on Taxi Gauche", says the label boss.

Cheesecakes for the promotion box office

Voilà. Now, about that business with the pies. The way Alder likes to bake. And that his products are extremely popular at certain Zurich café bars. To prevent more of the "flown in" income from being spent on the musical sound of his bands, he tries to keep the PR and

Marketing budget by selling banana breads, cheesecakes etc. "During Corona, we were able to keep things on track with the short-time work." Says, laughs, takes the last sip of gazosa and says goodbye as charmingly as he came.

Next releases: Kyle Avallone, LP "Last Minute Man" (5 June) / Annie Taylor, LP "Sweet Mortality“ (4 September)

Taxi Gauche Records, www.taxigauche.com

Ankerstr. 23, 8004 Zurich

Published: 28.05.2020, 11:29 in Tagesanzeiger, original German article by Thomas Wyss, photo by Anna-Tia Buss

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

[greenbagjosh]

Post Labor Day 2020 proposed literature schedule

Hi everyone

My September 2000 and September 2010 vacation stories are coming soon, in about a few weeks.  I wanted to offer the proposed schedule of stories.  Between 10th and 20th September there will be an overlap, so you will have eleven days with two stories each, one for 2000 and the other for 2010.

4 + 5 September 2000

Los Altos, California to San Francisco Airport, then to Washington Dulles

6 September 2000

Milano Malpensa to Milan by Malpensa Express train, taxi to Centrale FS, train to Innsbruck via Verona and Brennero

7 September 2000

Early morning walk in Igls and Innsbruck, train from Innsbruck Hbf to Munich Hbf via Scharnitz and Garmisch-Partenkirchen, money exchange in Munich, train to Stuttgart and U Bahn to Metzstraße

8 September 2000

Early morning U Bahn, S Bahn and Zahnradbahn ride through Stuttgart, train to Karlsruhe, Basel SBB, Olten and Lausanne

9 September 2000

Train ride from Lausanne to Geneva, and Geneva to Bellegarde, Place des Reformateurs, Jardin Anglais with Horologie fleurie and Jet d’Eau.  Attempt to see the Charlie Chaplin statue in Vevey

10 September 2000

Train ride from Lausanne to Zurich via Fribourg and Bern, trolleybus ride through Zurich, S 10 to Üetliberg, S18 ride to Maiacher and shouting “Riiiiiiiiiiicola!!!” for an echo effect

10 September 2010

Flight from DFW to Washington Dulles.  Overnight flight to Buenos Aires, Argentina. 

11 September 2000

Train ride to Liechtenstein via Sargans, transfer to bus to Vaduz.  Train to Chur.

Evening ride on the Rigiblickbahn.

11 September 2010

Morning arrival in Buenos Aires Ezeiza.  Checked bag x rayed.  Shuttle ride to Retiro station and taxi to Buquebus terminal.  Buquebus ferry to Colonia del Sacramento in Uruguay.  Bus ride to Montevideo.  Evening in central Montevideo with beef riblet dinner with spiked coffee.

12 September 2000

Train ride to Lindau via Zurich Airport, Winterthur, St Gallen, Bregenz.  View of the Seebühne.  Ride in Zurich on the “U Bahn” between Milchbuck and Schörlistrasse.  Doing laundry at the hostel.

12 September 2010

Stroll through the Sunday flea market in Montevideo.  Chivitas for lunch.  Artigas monument and Museo de Carnaval.  Pizza for dinner.

13 September 2000

stroll through central Zurich to Bürkliplatz, Dolderbahn ride and Polybahn ride.  Ride to Zurich airport, trolleybus ride to Schlieren, buying CDs in Zurich, S Bahn ride to Stettbach

13 September 2010

Early bus to Colonia del Sacramento, hours of head winds and current, late arrival in Buenos Aires, bus ride from Buenos Aires Retiro to Puerto Iguazu

14 September 2000

Train ride from Zurich to Lugano, through the old Gotthard tunnel.  With nice views.  Staying at Hotel Cristina.  Pizza dinner in Lugano-Paradiso at bottom of St Salvatore cable car.  Nighttime stroll in central Lugano

14 September 2010

Bus ride to Puerto Iguazu via El Dorado.  Brazilian steak lunch.  Bus ride to Hito Argentino to see into Paraguay and Brazil.  Attempt to reach the falls but they closed for the day.  Pizza party at the hostel and caiprinha.

15 September 2000 

Daytime visit to central Lugano, train to Chiasso then Milan, San Babila and Piazza Aspromonte, Duomo and Galeria Vittorio Emanuele II.  Train to Como, view of Lago di Como, nighttime walk in Lugano

15 September 2010

Flight from Puerto Iguazu to Buenos Aires Aeroparque but ended up in Resistencia.  Took bus from Buenos Aires to Rosario.

16 September 2000

Shopping for a new camera, rainstorm, visit to Bellinzona, watching the moon rise

16 September 2010

Arrive early in Rosario, sleep until 9 AM, have breakfast, visit downtown, pasta lunch with morcillo, see statue of Che Guevara, central shopping area walk, raviolis for dinner.

17 September 2000

Train ride from Lugano to Milan, then Milan direct to Rome, change direction in Florence.  Colloseum and Forums, Spanish Steps, Vatican, Metro line A east to Anganina

17 September 2010

Early morning bus ride to Buenos Aires, get stopped along RN 9 for half an hour for a political protest against President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, flight to Ushuaia, pasta dinner

18 September 2000

visit to Bocca della Verità, flatbread pizza snack, train ride from Rome to Milan, Kitchen Disco with Sophie Ellis Bextor, Piazza del Duomo, Galeria Vittorio Emanuele II, MM2 ride

18 September 2010 

Shopping along Avenida de San Martin, exploring Avenida Maipu, Plaza de las Malvinas (Falklands), End of the World Museum, pumpkin soup and pasta lunch with dark beer, military prison museum

19 September 2000

Passante ride to Certosa, Bus ride to Bisceglie, MM1 ride to Duomo, Teatro alla Scala, Via Montenapoleone, Castello Sforzesco, Santa Maria delle Grazie and “Il Cenacolo” and “Il Crossifisione”, spaghetti alla carbonara for supper

19 September 2010

Second visit to the military museum, shopping along Avenida San Martin, youth parade, flight to Buenos Aires Aeroparque

20 September 2000

Train to Malpensa Airport, flight to Washington Dulles, connecting flight to San Francisco

20 September 2010

Recoleta Cemetery, lunch nearby, Subte ride, Diagonal and Obelisk, dinner at the Cafe Tortoni, missing the last subte train back to the hostel

21 September 2010

Zoo, carpincho spotting, Museo Evita, lunch at Cabana Las Lilas, Mafalda monument, Plaza de los Virreyes and Metro line H, cow udder for dinner among other grilled cow parts

22 September 2010

subte ride to Plaza de Mayo, bus ride to Boca, tango dance sightings, subte ride to Abasto shopping center, taxi ride to Ezeiza, night time flight to Washington Dulles

23 September 2010

Arrival in Washington Dulles, flight to DFW.

It is going to be a busy end of August, to have all those stories available by those times.  

[yourtaxideals-blog]

Advantages of Booking Taxi in Zürich Online | Taxideals

Zurich is one of the popular and well-known tourist destinations in Switzerland.  It is the most beautiful city in the world.  Are you planning to travel around the Zurich city? If so then you can book the taxi in Zürich for the comfortable travel. Booking online car rental in Geneva is the easiest and convenient way. It is easy to do book from taxi ST Gallen Service   within    few clicks.

When it comes to choosing cabs in Zurich city you have different choices but it is important to choose the best company for cab booking.

There are several advantages when one chooses to book a cab online i.e.

·  Save Money- When you book a cab online it is free, whereas if you book it over the phone you do end up spending a certain amount of money on your phone bill. It may not be a significant amount, but it is money after all.

· Save Time- When you book a cab, this is the most crucial point to consider. Waiting for several minutes over the phone and finally getting through to an operator who then tells you that there are no cabs available in that area can be really frustrating. On the other hand, booking a cab online is a quick 2 or 3 step procedure which is smooth and effortless.

·Reliability in Services- The mental makeup these days is that any transaction done over the Internet is safer than doing it over the phone. In addition to that, going through a cab rental company's site can help you explore your options and determine whether you feel safe and secure about making a particular booking or not.

 ABOUT THE AUTHOR

David is an expert in Taxi Service who also likes to write many interesting articles and blogs, outlining the comings and goings of this niche industry. When it comes to any assistance and consultation with regards to plan their wedding, he recommends TaxiDeals as a name that you can trust.

[jeroldlockettus]

Why We Choke Under Pressure (and How Not To)

One of the most memorable chokes in sports history: Jean Van de Velde squanders a six-stroke lead on the last hole of the 1999 British Open. (Photo: Ross Kinnaird/Allsport)

Our latest Freakonomics Radio episode is called “Why We Choke Under Pressure (and How Not To).” (You can subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, or elsewhere, get the RSS feed, or listen via the media player above.)

It happens to just about everyone, whether you’re going for Olympic gold or giving a wedding toast. We hear from psychologists, economists, and the golfer who some say committed the greatest choke of all time.

Below is a transcript of the episode, modified for your reading pleasure. For more information on the people and ideas in the episode, see the links at the bottom of this post. And you’ll find credits for the music in the episode noted within the transcript.

*      *      *

If you’re a big golf fan — and, statistically speaking, you are almost certainly not — but if you are, you know this is the week of the Open Championship, or what Americans call the British Open. It’s the oldest and arguably most important major tournament in golf. This year it’s being held at the Scottish course Carnoustie, which is so difficult it’s often called Car-nasty. Carnoustie also hosted the Open back in 1999.

Brandel CHAMBLEE: The golf course was so hard that it inevitably was going to give us some bizarre conclusion.

That’s Brandel Chamblee. He played on the PGA Tour for 15 years; now he’s an analyst for the Golf Channel.

CHAMBLEE: There was going to be a train wreck at some point.

And yet, on the tournament’s final day, on the final hole, stood a man who had tamed the savage course.

Peter ALLISS: [From BBC coverage of the 1999 British Open] The golfing gods are with the young man at this moment, and it’ll be interesting to see what he does now.

This man, with one hole to play, held a three-stroke lead. So obvious was his impending victory that his name had already been engraved on the Open’s iconic trophy, the Claret Jug. It read: Jean Van de Velde.

CHAMBLEE: He was a very handsome, debonair Frenchman, and he had a gorgeous golf swing.

Van de Velde was ranked just 152nd in the world.

CHAMBLEE: He was not a good driver of the ball. He didn’t drive it long, and he drove it crooked. Although, that week, for whatever reason, he found another gear that week, he did drive it long

History wasn’t necessarily in Van de Velde’s favor:

CHAMBLEE: He would have been the first Frenchman in over 100 years to have won the Open Championship. And there was a sense that Frenchmen don’t win majors. Frenchmen paint beautiful paintings and they write epic books about democracy and revenge. They don’t win the Open Championship.

But standing on the final tee with a three-stroke lead? If you are a professional golfer, you will not lose that tournament. How ludicrous would that be? Imagine a professional chef; she’s about to make an omelet. She goes to crack an egg on the side of the bowl — but instead, she somehow misses the bowl entirely and smashes the egg all over her face. That’s how ludicrous it would be to lose a golf tournament standing on the last tee with a three-shot lead. It would require a grotesque combination of decisions and actions. There is a word for this. It is such a horrific word that some people don’t even like to say it aloud. We’re not one of those people.

Sian BEILOCK: There’s lots of different ways people can choke.

Steve JARDING: The choke is an amazing thing, because it really does destroy careers.

BEILOCK: It doesn’t have to be the Olympic Games. It can be when you’re parallel parking, and people around you are watching, right?

Today on Freakonomics Radio: when we choke, why we choke — and maybe, just maybe, how not to.

*      *      *

If we’re going to talk about choking, we probably need to bring in some psychologists.

Anders ERICSSON: I’m Anders Ericsson and I’m a professor of psychology at Florida State University here in Tallahassee, Florida.

Anders Ericsson, pioneer of the “deliberate practice” movement and the 10,000-hours idea, has been studying expert performers for years.

ERICSSON: [From “How to Become Great at Just About Anything”] Ballet dancers, gymnasts, and all sorts of athletes; we’ve looked at chess experts, surgeons, doctors, teachers, musicians, taxi drivers, recreational activities like golf, and even, there’s some research on scientists.

DUBNER: Define choking for me as you see it?

ERICSSON: Well, choking, to me, is actually somebody who cramps up and in some ways becomes unable to really act appropriately in a situation, or acts in a very decreased performance.

BEILOCK: I define choking as worse performance than you’d expect from an individual, given that there is high pressure or stakes associated with the situation.

And that’s Sian Beilock.

BEILOCK: I’m a cognitive scientist, and I am president of Barnard College at Columbia University.

Before coming to Barnard, Beilock ran the Human Performance Lab at the University of Chicago. She also wrote a book called Choke.

DUBNER: So I’m curious to know if you can sort of rank the different domains that people engage in regularly, and where we’re most likely to choke.

BEILOCK: I really think that any situation where there’s expectations for success can cause choking, and it doesn’t have to be the Olympic Games. It can be when you’re parallel parking, and people around you are watching, right? Or if you’re in an elevator and you’re trying to figure out whether you’re going to say something to the person next to you. We talk about these epic moments of choking, but it’s a desire to perform at our best, and situations in which we’re evaluated happen constantly.

DUBNER: Give me a little bit on the characteristics of those who are more and less prone to choke. What about high I.Q. versus low I.Q.?

BEILOCK: In my research and in others’, we’ve shown perhaps counterintuitively that individuals who have the most ability to focus, the most working memory, the most fluid intelligence, are actually more prone to perform poorly under stress. And the idea is that if you normally devote lots of cognitive resources to what you’re doing and being in a pressure-filled situation robs you of those resources, you can’t perform as well.

DUBNER: You’ve just described all the reasons why I’m not very good at playing golf under pressure. And what about, say, gender? Male versus female, more or less likely to choke?

BEILOCK: I think it’s really dependent on the situation. So, we know that when women are aware of stereotypes that they shouldn’t perform well — maybe they’re aware of stereotypes that men are better at math, even though I think these stereotypes are quite unfounded — just being aware of that can affect how they perform. And it can be because you’re anxious about math, and so you can’t calculate the tip on the dinner bill as your smart friends look on, or it could be because you’re a girl in a room full of men, trying to think and compute math problems, and you’re aware that there’s ideas out there that you shouldn’t be as good at what you’re doing.

DUBNER: And then let me just ask you one more kind of summary about surroundings. So, I know that you write — I kind of loved this, but also felt a little creeped out, no offense — that your parents would often travel great distances to see you present, like at an academic seminar. And by great distances, we’re talking Australia!

BEILOCK: Yeah.

DUBNER: Your dad flew to Australia to see you give a talk at a seminar? Is that true?

BEILOCK: Yeah, it’s true. And it’s still true in my current role. My mother shows up at lots of events, and I’ve actually instructed my assistant to not give out my calendar without permission to her. It’s very supportive, but also stress-inducing.

DUBNER: So, on that note, talk about choking in what you might call a friendly environment versus a hostile environment.

BEILOCK: There’s research showing that when you have friendly faces in front of you, people who are supportive — although that could feel nice, it actually creates pressure-filled situations. You often start thinking of yourself as they might. And so when my mother is in the room, I sometimes think of myself as a young girl. And you also are quite self-conscious.

In a recent episode about the World Cup, we looked at the research into why there’s such a strong home-field advantage in most sports. The most plausible explanation is that referees are subconsciously influenced by the home crowd, and may make one or two key calls in the home team’s favor. The research also showed that, on balance, athletes themselves do not perform better in front of a home crowd. And, in fact, when Sian Beilock tells us that “friendly faces” may actually “create pressure-filled situations,” you have to wonder if, on some dimensions, they might perform even worse.

Alex KRUMER: My main research interests are behavioral economics, contest theory, and sports economics.

That’s Alex Krumer. He’s an economist at the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland. He recently co-authored a paper called “Choking Under Pressure in Front of a Supportive Audience: Evidence from Professional Biathlon.” That’s the sport combining cross-country skiing with precision rifle shooting. Krumer analyzed the performance of more than 400 biathletes, male and female, over 15 years of competition, including World Championships and the Olympics. How did they do at home versus abroad? Let’s look first at the skiing portion:

KRUMER: So, we find that home biathletes, they ski faster at home, about two seconds faster.

Okay, so maybe all those home cheers do spur the athletes to ski faster. How about the shooting?

KRUMER: Both men and women missed more shots when competing in their home country compared to competing abroad.

Men missed, on average, 0.15 more shots at home than abroad. Women — a bit more: 0.2 shots.

KRUMER: One may say that this is not too much, but it’s quite a large effect if we take into account that the average time it takes to ski a penalty loop is about 25 seconds.

That’s right: for every missed shot, you have to ski a small penalty loop.

KRUMER: This means that when competing at home, a biathlete loses on average four to six seconds. And to put this number into perspective, in the Olympic Games in Sochi, the home biathlete athlete Anton Shipulin — which, by the way, I really love his performance — he was only 0.7 seconds away from a bronze medal after missing one shot.

But what if skiing faster is what causes you to miss more shots?

KRUMER: One may assume that since they ski faster they have higher heart rate, and therefore they miss more. But the evidence on the association between heart rate and shooting performance is mixed.

Okay, so that doesn’t seem to explain the worse shooting at home. Is there maybe another explanation?

KRUMER: The second explanation is that usually they perform the shooting task in a very automatic manner. They don’t look around, they don’t care about anything. But probably when you perform at home, something disturbs you.

Krumer tells us that biathletes usually “perform the shooting in a very automatic manner.” That sounds like it might be relevant to our choking discussion. So what, exactly, does that mean? Back to the psychologist Sian Beilock:

BEILOCK: We know that sometimes people don’t perform up to their potential, precisely when they want to the most. And sometimes that happens because people pay too much attention to the details of what they’re doing, details that should be left on autopilot.

At the Human Performance Lab, Beilock and her colleagues did an experiment with expert golfers and novices.

BEILOCK: So we set up a putting green in our lab. And when we tried to ask experts for their memories of how they’d taken a putt, they couldn’t tell us so much about it. The novices, the people who were just learning, could tell us way more. And we thought, “Wow, this might be an indication that these high-level golfers aren’t paying so much attention to what they’re doing. And so one of the reasons that they might perform poorly under stress is when they start paying attention.”

DUBNER: The way you’ve just put that would not be that surprising to anyone who follows let’s say golf per se, right?

BEILOCK: It is true that sometimes athletes have these these moments of feelings of being in the zone. But I think we often don’t think about this idea that paying too much attention could actually be counterproductive. Like, if your coach is yelling, “Concentrate!” all the time. And so being able to actually show that when you’re at this high level you’re not paying attention to the details, and one of the reasons you mess up is because you start paying attention to those details, allowed us to start asking questions about how we prevent you from paying attention to details.

ERICSSON: What is it that people actually are thinking about when they’re doing putting?

Anders Ericsson also did putting experiments in his lab, at Florida State, with somewhat different results.

ERICSSON: So, we actually asked our participants to think out loud, and recruited skilled and less-skilled individuals. And what we found was that the skilled individuals, they were actually verbalizing more about thoughts and, basically, factors that they were taking into account, in order to actually decide how they were going to putt the putt. So the argument is that, if you’re really skilled, you’re actually generating a rich description here of the situation. So, you’re trying to take into account here how, basically, the ball will roll and where you need to aim in order to have the appropriate ball path.

DUBNER: I know that some psychologists argue that what separates the better performers, the top-tier performers, from the rest of us, is some form of automaticity, right? That you’re going into some free-flowing state that’s dependent on all your talent and experience, et cetera, but you’re not actually engaging in it cognitively. You’re saying that’s not what you found.

ERICSSON: What we’re finding is that experts are able to make adjustments when they’re performing. So if you’re a musician and the acoustics in a given performance environment is different, you can actually make adjustments, in the same way that a soccer player, when the situation changes, they can actually make adjustments appropriate to that situation, and I think that’s what we’re finding here, is that the really elite people, those who are really able to keep improving, are the ones who actually have a very refined description of the situation and are increasing their control over what they’re doing, as opposed to allowing it just to happen.

DUBNER: So let me ask you this, Anders: To what degree do you believe that choking is the factor, or a main factor, that actually separates an absolute top-tier performer from someone who’s talented but doesn’t reach the top tier? In other words, is the expert — is the professional — the very good performer who has learned to not choke?

ERICSSON: My experience is that choking is quite rare by those individuals that we study, who are consistently excelling. And it seems to be almost part of being an expert is that you deal with the kind of situations that would be experienced as very high-pressure for other people.

So that’s an interesting continuum: high-pressure performances can lead to choking, but expert performers — who compete under pressure all the time — tend to not choke. Of course, it does happen.

Jeremy ABBOTT: For me, it was terrifying.

Jeremy Abbott was one of the best figure skaters in the world. He won the U.S. men’s championship four times, and went to the Olympics in 2010 and 2014. Things didn’t go so well at the Olympics:

Scott HAMILTON: [From NBC Olympics coverage] Opening with a quad toe right here. Oh. Short of rotation, could not pull that landing together. Hard fall there.

Sandra BEZIC: This is a disastrous performance.

ABBOTT: It was unlike any other situation I’d ever been in. All of my practice and all of my preparation, once I got to the Games, everything leading up to that moment, both Olympics, in Vancouver and in Sochi, I was really excited, I could see the rings. And the moment I went out in Vancouver, and in Sochi, every insecurity that I had about myself and about my skating was just magnified by a million. And I was just so focused on not wanting to make a mistake — I was in the wrong mindset.

Both times, Abbott failed to medal in the individual events. He retired from competitive skating in 2016, and he now coaches in Detroit. He uses his own experience to help the next generation.

ABBOTT: I should have been focusing less on outcome and less on performance and more on the process and getting my job done, and accomplishing what I do every single day in training, and really taking all of that experience and all of that work and putting it to use, rather than focusing on, “What if that, what if this,” anything could happen. But whenever I skated my best, it was never focusing on a placement or a point total or pleasing somebody else. It was always just, “Okay, I’m here, and I’m going to do a job.” And that was when I always skated my best.

BEILOCK: It’s precisely those times when you do start thinking too much that you can flub a performance.

Sian Beilock again.

BEILOCK: And so any situation that causes you to attend in ways that you might not normally can mess you up.

DUBNER: So, can I just say, I love our species. I think we’re kind of awesome. I mean we have some flaws, and so on, but doesn’t it seem like a weird counterbalance that we tend to choke most in the circumstances, as you’ve been telling us, that matter the most to us? Doesn’t that just seem like a design flaw?

BEILOCK: It is interesting. I guess you could say that maybe we haven’t adapted to those situations yet. We’ve certainly been in social situations for a long time, but our level of self-consciousness and meta-cognitive ability — the ability to know what we and others are thinking — is something that’s probably fairly recent, evolutionarily-wise.

So we should probably take a look at how we think differently, and perform differently, as the stakes rise.

*      *      *

When psychologists think about choking under pressure, they consider a variety of thought processes that may be subtle and hard to measure. Economists look at choking a bit differently.

Uri GNEEZY: Say that you would have paid me a million dollars if I’ll give the best interview of the week.

Uri Gneezy is an economist at the University of California, San Diego.

GNEEZY: That would have made me very nervous. That would have made me put more effort into this. When we look at incentives in economics, we think about two ways in which it’s going to affect us. The first is that if I’ll pay you more, you’ll put more effort in the task. And the second assumption is that more effort will lead to better performance. That’s not necessarily true. And that’s the part of choking. It might be that I can push you so much to try so hard that it will actually backfire, and you’ll perform worse.

Gneezy co-authored one of the foundational economics papers on choking. It’s called “Large Stakes and Big Mistakes.” He and his colleagues ran experiments in a variety of places, including India:

GNEEZY: The reason we wanted to go to India is that over there, our money can go a long way. So we went to some villages in India in which the daily wage was so low that we could offer them up to six months of salary in our experiment if they did perfectly well.

Each participant completed a series of tasks. Some were creative:

GNEEZY: So, the creative one was, for example, to pack pieces of metal into a box in an efficient way.

Some tasks were cognitive:

GNEEZY: A memory game in which I would read up numbers and you listen to me and then at some point say “Stop,” and then you’ll have to recall the last three numbers that I mentioned.

And some tasks were athletic.

GNEEZY: Throwing dart-like balls, so balls on a target, and things like that.

The payout for successful completion of the task was variable. In some cases, you’d get 10 cents; in others, $1; and in others, $10.

GNEEZY: And $10 was about what they made in a month over there. I hope that you agree with me that six months of pay is a lot of money that would make you work much harder, right? And the question was, are you going to be better actually when you work harder?

As Gneezy noted earlier, it’s a standard assumption in labor economics that higher pay leads to more effort, and that more effort leads to better performance, or at least higher productivity. What happened in this case, when the stakes were raised all the way to $10?

GNEEZY: So, the findings were striking. You see reduction in success rates across the board. All six games that we played resulted in lower success rate when the incentives were really high.

For the three-digit memory game, roughly 40 percent of the participants succeeded under low incentives; under high incentives, the success rate was just 20 percent. For the dart-ball game, the success rate under low incentives was 10 percent; and around 7 percent under high incentives. For the metal packing game? Under low incentives, 25 percent of the participants succeeded; under high incentives, nobody succeeded. Or, put another way, at least 25 percent of them choked.

GNEEZY: Actually, we were a bit surprised by this experiment because we included tasks in which we expected that effort will increase performance.

But if you think about it, you can see why the researchers maybe shouldn’t have been so surprised. In these experiments, “increased effort” isn’t simply a matter of putting in more time, the way you might with an assignment at work or a project at school. It was trying to execute the same task with and without pressure. So Gneezy and his colleagues wanted to learn more about what sort of tasks make us succumb to pressure. They ran some more experiments at M.I.T., using students as their research subjects. Some experiments involved simple, manual tasks — like punching alternating keyboard keys as fast as possible:

GNEEZY: It’s really something that if you do it for long enough it’s boring, so if I’ll pay you more, you’ll try maybe harder, and we believe that more effort will actually increase your performance.

Other tasks were more cognitive — like adding numbers in matrices.

GNEEZY: When you think about cognitive tasks, you probably reach your optimal behavior, your best, very fast. And now if I’m really making it high incentives, you might actually start being distracted.

Once again, there were low- and high-incentive versions of each task. Since a dollar doesn’t go as far in Massachusetts as it does in India, the rewards here were: up to $30 for the low-incentive experiments and up to $300 for the high.

GNEEZY: So, what we found is that for the key-pressing task, when you increase the incentives from up to $30 to up to $300, they switch from about 40 percent succeeding to 80 percent succeeding. On the other end, when you have to add up numbers, the more cognitive one, we see a sharp decrease from 65 percent to 40 percent. So when you actually have to put some cognitive effort into this, getting the incentives to be ridiculously high could actually be a bad idea.

This would seem to be pretty good evidence that when activities involve some thinking, we’re more susceptible to choking. Or, as you’ve probably heard from a lot of people over the years — coaches and teachers and counselors of all sorts — you are capable of doing some amazing things if you can only get your brain out of the way. But that’s obviously harder than it sounds. So how can you do that? How can you prepare yourself to not crumble under the very circumstances that matter most?

Steve JARDING: The choke is an amazing thing in politics, because it really does destroy careers.

Steve Jarding teaches political communication at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. He coaches students how to perform well in high-stakes public forums — like a presidential debate.

JARDING: We saw with Rick Perry, and we always tell people in a debate, an interview, don’t say, “Here’s five things I would do,” or, “Here’s seven things that I would do,” because you put too much pressure on the brain. The minute you say it, literally, the second those words leave your mouth, you’re thinking, “Oh my god, what in the hell are the five?” And in that debate, if you remember, Rick Perry, Governor of Texas, one of the front-runners for his party, stands up in the debate, says:

Rick PERRY: It’s three agencies of government when I get there that are gone. Commerce, Education, and the uhhhh… What’s the third one there, let’s see… The third one I can’t. Sorry. Oops.

JARDING: And he’d have been better off, after he couldn’t remember the third, to say, “Well, listen, there’s scores of agencies I would cut. So whether there’s three or 13, you know me, I’m going to go in, I’m going to take a knife to that damn budget, because it’s too over-bloated.” He probably saves his career.

The third agency Perry wanted to cut, he later said, was the Department of Energy. In the kind of twist that can happen only in Washington, Rick Perry now runs the Department of Energy. So, um … yeah. Uri Gneezy at U.C.-San Diego says that in some instances, choking now can lead to more success later.

GNEEZY: So, actually, if I choke once, the penalty could be so high, I would feel so bad about myself that maybe in the future I’ll be much more prepared, which might actually help in performing under pressure.

ERICSSON: You need to prepare for the complexities of the situations that you are going to encounter in the real world.

Anders Ericsson again:

ERICSSON: So if they made a mistake the first time, now this second time, they can avoid that same mistake.

DUBNER: What you’re describing to me sounds an awful lot like deliberate practice, then, yes?

ERICSSON: Well, I think you’re completely right, because that’s exactly what we’re hoping, is to take the real-world situation and then actually find some version of it that you would have more control over, so you can actually practice and get immediate feedback, make revisions, and then apply that same acquired skill in the real-world situation.

BEILOCK: How do we get people to focus on aspects of their performance that are going to be beneficial for success, especially in those situations that are most problematic?

Sian Beilock again, going back to her golf experiments.

BEILOCK: So we investigated whether going quicker, for example, might help eliminate poor performance under pressure, or having one key swing thought that encapsulates your entire stroke might be better. And we showed that some of that was successful. And it leads to the opposite idea, that if you really want to mess your buddy up on the back nine, you just say, “Hey that was a great shot. What were you doing with your elbow?”

DUBNER: Great, so you’re helping us make people choke more. But what else can you tell us about — in this domain at least — learning to choke less?

BEILOCK: We also showed that getting used to this type of hyper-attention to detail that sometimes comes with performance can be helpful. So, really inoculating yourself against the high-pressure situations. You see this with students who practice taking timed tests. You see this with military pilots, and firefighters, and people who practice under some of the types of conditions they’re going to perform under. And you even see this if you walk by a college football stadium Friday afternoon — the music blaring, getting the players used to what it’s going to feel like in that big stadium. And this is true in really big important situations, but it’s also true in those little things we do every day. So, if you’re going to give a toast at a wedding, practicing doing it while people are watching you. And if no one is willing to watch you, videotape yourself — anything that gets you used to the kinds of all eyes on you.

DUBNER: Okay, so put yourself in realistic and stressful practice situations. What else?

BEILOCK: We know, on the athletic field, invoking ways to take your mind off the step-by-step of what you’re doing in the moment, especially on those easier performances. So whether it’s singing a song, or thinking about your pinky toe, or thinking about where you want the ball to land rather than how it’s going to get there.

DUBNER: So, it sounds like if you would summarize all of those activities under one umbrella, it might be like distracting your mind or streamlining it. How do you think about that?

BEILOCK: I’d say controlling what you’re focusing on.

DUBNER: Okay, so controlling what you’re focusing on; realistic practice situations; what else?

BEILOCK: Rethinking how you’re feeling. So, we know that when people remind themselves that sweaty palms and beating heart aren’t a sign they’re going to fail, but a sign that they’re awake and ready to go, and their body is shunting important nutrients to their mind, that can be really effective.

DUBNER: Now, is that a charade, or is that real? I mean, if my palms are sweaty, isn’t that an indication that I am anxious, and that if I just tell myself, “Well it’s not really anxiety, it’s really my body shunting nutrients,” Is that a self-lie that I profit from, or is that realistically a counter-truth?

BEILOCK: First of all I will just say that I like placebo effects, and I have no problem with that. But I think it’s a real truth, because if your heart wasn’t beating, to some extent, you’d be dead, right? And those sweaty palms can be an indication that you’re alert, and aroused, and ready to go. And arousal doesn’t have to be a bad thing, right? It’s bad when we start thinking it’s bad, and then we just start changing our performance.

DUBNER: I love how your counterfactual is always, “Or, you could be dead.” So that is a very useful. I mean, that’s inspiring. Like, I don’t want that.

BEILOCK: Yeah. It’s a good opposition.

DUBNER: It’s a great opposition, yeah. No, I’m serious, I totally like it. Because another piece of advice I’ve always heard is like, “Envision the worst outcome, right, and then think about how this will not be anywhere near as bad as that.” Like if I’m about to hit a high-stakes golf shot, I think, “Well what if instead, like, the club head comes off the club in the backswing and kills my friend?”

BEILOCK: Yeah, that’s way worse!

DUBNER: That’s way worse! So anything from there is like gravy.

BEILOCK: Yeah, and we’ve actually shown that getting people to just jot down their thoughts and worries can be beneficial, just sort of downloading them from mind when they feel stressed out. And one of the things that that does is get you to realize maybe it’s not such a big deal, right? What you’re doing is not as big of a deal as your friend getting hit with the club and dying.

DUBNER: Again, always comes back to dying. What about other means of directing the mind, whether meditation, perhaps?

BEILOCK: There’s lots of research showing that meditative practices can help change how you focus, and your ability to focus on what you want, and get rid of what you don’t. That’s true with visualizing positive performance outcomes ahead of time, and really focusing on why you should succeed. What are the factors that you’ve practiced well? You’ve got this. You’ve had situations like this in the past and they’ve gone really well.

But then there are situations that you haven’t had in the past. Situations that are way bigger, way more pressurized, than anything you could have prepared for …

CHAMBLEE: On the eve of that championship, Jean Van de Velde was ranked 152nd in the world, and people that are 152nd in the world don’t win major championships.

Brandel Chamblee again, talking about the unlikely but apparently inevitable British Open victory of Jean van de Velde.

ALLISS: The golfing gods are with him. Some golfing god is with the young man at this moment, and it’ll be interesting again to see what he does now.

Remember, Van de Velde’s name had already been engraved on the trophy. All he had to do was score a double-bogey six or better on the par-4 18th hole at Carnoustie.

CHAMBLEE: But it was a devastatingly hard hole, no question about it. There is O.B. to the left, a burn down the right, a bunker out there to the right.

“O.B.” is “out of bounds.” A burn is a Scottish term for a creek.

CHAMBLEE: What made this so unbelievable to watch is that it was a combination of what looked to be good breaks that were actually horrible breaks.

Rather than playing his tee shot safe with an iron, Van de Velde stuck with what he’d done all week and he hit driver. He pushed his drive way, way right.

ALLISS: Oh, you lucky little rascal. He’s pushed that away and missed the water, he’s almost, well he’s right in front of the 17th tee.

CHAMBLEE: That’s a great break. If it had gone in the burn, he would have done the math and thought, “Can’t go for it. There’s no way I can go for this, because I can lay up three, hit on four, two-putt six. I’m an Open champion.” So now he pulls a two iron out, so he’s going to be safe going to the right.

ALLISS: Well, I don’t believe this. Well. What is going on here?

CHAMBLEE: So it hits the stands — really hit a pole — then it’s going to go in the burn.

ALLIS: Let’s have a look where he is. He’s still short of the burn, I think really if anybody needs an advisor, he does at this moment.

CHAMBLEE: But it doesn’t go in the burn, it hits the bricks — the rocks — and it bounces over the burn. Great break.

DUBNER: Lying just two in the hay. Right? So not so bad.

CHAMBLEE: Just two, and he’s 30 yards away. So, two great breaks. He goes down there with renewed hope. All he’s got to do is get this wedge out. But again, this is where I would imagine the real choking started, because now, he’s in a really difficult situation. And that’s where he hit a shot that was really just hard to describe. I mean, it’s like he stopped swinging halfway down.

ALLISS: What are you doing? What on earth are you doing? Would somebody kindly go and stop him. Give him a large brandy and mop him down.

CHAMBLEE: And the ball went right in the burn. And then it became surreal, and he thinks he can play it.

ALLISS: He’s gone gaga, because this is quite — I’ve never seen anything like it before, and to attempt to hit the ball out of there is pure madness.

CHAMBLEE: So here he is, pants up, and he decides he can’t play it. So now he gets to go back and drop it.

DUBNER: First good decision he’s made on the hole, maybe.

CHAMBLEE: That’s right. But the lie forced him to make a good decision. And here’s how you get disasters. It’s never just one thing — it’s always a confluence of two or three or four things that were almost unprecedented. So now he drops the ball, taking the penalty shot. So he’s — he’s three in, four out, hitting five. Five is in the bunker.

ALLISS: He hasn’t hit it hard enough. He played a similar shot to the one he plopped into the burn.

CHAMBLEE: Now he’s got an easy bunker shot. Bunker shots are not difficult for professional golfers. He gets it out to six feet. Now, here’s the thing to remember, is that he makes that putt —

ALLISS: Please give him one good putt. Please. Well, if you believe it.

CHAMBLEE: — and I am almost certain that when he made that putt, he thought he had won.

DUBNER: Oh, that’s why he gives the fist pump. Cause he looked ecstatic, yeah?

CHAMBLEE: I think he thought he had won, because I think in the confusion, he lost count. I’ve done it before. He lost count. Because he reacted as if he had won the championship.

DUBNER: And then he looks around, like, “Why is everybody not cheering, crazily, for me?”

CHAMBLEE: That’s right. That’s right.

ALLIS: His golfing brain stopped about 10 minutes ago, I think.

But Van de Velde hadn’t won. He made a triple-bogey seven, which put him in a three-man playoff for the Open Championship. He lost the playoff, to Paul Lawrie. Jean van de Velde never did win a major championship. We called up Van de Velde ourselves recently to check in with him.

Jean VAN DE VELDE: Yes, Stephen, I can hear you. Hello.

Unfortunately, the connection was very poor, so the tape isn’t really worth playing. You can read the transcript here if you’d like. Anyway, we had a nice chat about his family, his continuing involvement with golf — Van de Velde was instrumental in bringing the Ryder Cup to France this fall — and, of course, that terrible 18th hole at Carnoustie in 1999. I asked if it was difficult to talk about it. “It’s never been difficult,” he said. “Just after not winning the Open, it was painful … but you’re a professional athlete.” I asked what it felt like, standing on the 72nd tee with a three-shot lead. “I stood there pretty confident, to be honest,” he said. “I wasn’t overly emotional, or emotional at all. … My nerves were holding pretty okay.” I asked Van de Velde if during the long and difficult adventure on the 18th hole, he had indeed lost track of his score and the lead. Definitely not, he said. Lying five in the bunker, he told me, “I knew that I needed to hole it to win the tournament.” Then I asked him this:

DUBNER: You became famous for not having won the Open. Your 72nd hole has been called the worst choke in golfing history. Do you think that’s true or fair?

VAN DE VELDE: I think we need to ask the definition of choke.

“I think I had two days to choke,” he said. “So a choke? You know, I wouldn’t call that a choke, without a doubt. I would probably use a different word, but certainly not that one.” Earlier I’d asked Brandel Chamblee how Van de Velde had handled the meltdown.

CHAMBLEE: His remarks afterwards were as measured and respectful and appropriate and magnanimous as anybody I’ve ever heard that had gone through something so traumatic. And I gained a great deal of respect for him, immediately.

A lot of other people gained respect for him too. When I asked Van de Velde himself how that one hole changed his life, he said: “You know … it’s very easy to win with grace; it’s a lot harder to lose with it. And without patronizing anybody or blowing my own trumpet, I would say that … the way that I see life, and the way that I’ve accepted what happened … I believe that’s what people like…

VAN DE VELDE: It’s in my nature to see it the way that I see it and that’s the end of that.

I wish Jean Van de Velde were still playing competitive golf only so I could root for him to win. Every week. I agree that losing with grace is not easy; and I agree he accomplished that. And, as Brandel Chamblee points out, the loss did come with some consolation points:

CHAMBLEE: Think about this, now: that adage that nobody remembers who finished second. Well, in this particular instance, hardly anybody remembers who won.

Again, you can read the transcript of the Jean Van de Velde interview here. We’ve also posted, on Stitcher Premium, a bonus episode — our full interview with Brandel Chamblee. Use the promo code “FREAKONOMICS” to get one month of Stitcher Premium free.

Freakonomics Radio is produced by Stitcher and Dubner Productions. This episode was produced by Harry Huggins. Our staff also includes Alison Hockenberry, Greg Rosalsky, Greg Rippin, and Andy Meisenheimer. The music you hear throughout the episode was composed by Luis Guerra. You can subscribe to Freakonomics Radio on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Here’s where you can learn more about the people and ideas in this episode:

SOURCES

Jeremy Abbott, U.S. Olympic figure skater.

Sian Beilock, cognitive scientist and president of Barnard College at Columbia University.

Brandel Chamblee, Golf Channel analyst and former P.G.A. Tour player.

Anders Ericsson, professor of psychology at Florida State University.

Uri Gneezy, economist at the University of California, San Diego.

Steve Jarding, professor of political communication at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Alex Krumer, economist at the University of St. Gallen.

Jean Van de Velde, former P.G.A. Tour player.

RESOURCES

“Choking Under Pressure in Front of a Supportive Audience: Evidence from Professional Biathlon,” by Alex Krumer and Ken Harb-Wu (University of St. Gallen, November 2017).

“Large Stakes and Big Mistakes,” by Dan Ariely, Uri Gneezy, George Loewenstein, and Nina Mazar (Review of Economic Studies, July 2008).

Choke: What the Secrets of the Brain Reveal About Getting It Right When You Have To, by Sian Beilock (2011).

“Cognitive Mediation of Putting: Use of a Think-Aloud Measure and Implications for Studies of Golf-Putting in the Laboratory,” by Güler Arsal, David Eccles, and Anders Ericsson (Psychology of Sport and Exercise, November 2016).

EXTRAS

“How to Become Great at Just About Anything,” Freakonomics Radio (April 27, 2016).

Full transcript of Stephen J. Dubner’s interview with Jean Van de Velde.

Listen to the full interview with Brandel Chamblee on Stitcher Premium. Use the code “FREAKONOMICS” to get one month free.

The post Why We Choke Under Pressure (and How Not To) appeared first on Freakonomics.

from Dental Care Tips http://freakonomics.com/podcast/choking/

[korkep-blog]

Egy vagyonba kerül a mentők kihívása Svájcban

Svájcban csak akkor érdemes a mentőszolgálatot hívni (Notruf 144), ha a páciens életveszélyben van (infarktus, agyvérzés, …) Abban az esetben, ha a pácines “csak” súlyosan sérült vagy beteg, a legközelebbi kórházba utazást magának kell biztosítania – autó, taxi, vagy...

Svájcban csak akkor érdemes a mentőszolgálatot hívni (Notruf 144), ha a páciens életveszélyben van (infarktus, agyvérzés, …) Abban az esetben, ha a pácines “csak” súlyosan sérült vagy beteg, a legközelebbi kórházba utazást magának kell biztosítania – autó, taxi, vagy akár a tömegközlekedés is szóba jöhet, a mentők kihívásával ugyanis egy vagyonba kerül. 

  A mentőszolgálat kocsijának kihívása például St. Gallen kantonban 650 svájci frankba (CHF) kerül, minden megtett kilométerért további 7 frankot kell fizetnünk. Az ország többi részén is hasonló a helyzet, egy mentőhívásért 500-700 CHF közötti összeget kell fizetnünk.

  Biztosítással sokat spórolhatunk 

  Amennyiben rendelkezünk általános egészségbiztosítással akkor a költségek 50 százalékát kell állnunk, de a mentőhívás éves költsége nem haladhatja meg az 5000 frankot évente. Abban az esetben, ha a beteg nincs életveszélyben, szintén a költségek 50 százaléka terhel minket, de a közlekedési kiadások egy év alatt nem haladhatják meg az 500 frankot. Amennyiben túllépjük a keretet, a teljes összeget kénytelenek vagyunk befizetni.

  Természetesen van lehetőség biztosítás kötésére is, melynek értelmében csak a szerződésben megállapított határig kell állni a költségeket, jobb esetben semmit sem kell fizetnünk. Amennyiben mindenképp a 144-es telefonszám felhívása mellett döntünk, próbáljunk meg beszélni a helyzetről a diszpécserrel, akinek el kell döntenie, hogy szükséges-e mentőt hívni.

  Figyelni kell akkor is, ha másokon próbálunk meg segíteni 

  Emberi és törvényi kötelességünk másoknak is segítséget nyújtani, de ügyeljünk arra, hogy jól mérjük fel a helyzetet. Egy hölgy egy étteremből hívott mentőt egy epilepsziás rohamot kapó nőhöz, de mivel nem volt életveszélyben, a számlát kiküldték a páciensnek, ő azonban nem volt hajlandó azt befizetni, így a mentőt hívó hölgy volt kénytelen állni a költségeket.

  Svájcban előfordulnak olyan helyzetek, amikor a terep megközelíthetetlen, vagy a kórház nagyon messze van. Ebben az esetben helikopter indul a páciensért, ami percenként 90 frankba kerül, de a korábban említett egészségbiztosítás nyújtotta kedvezmények ilyenkor is érvényesek.

  Szlovákiában sokan taxinak használják a mentőket 

  Szlovákiában az Országos Mentőszolgálat tavaly 518 ezer alkalommal indult el bevetésre. Ezenkívül csaknem 90 ezer segélyhívást sikerült telefonos konzultációval megoldani, ami a vészhívások közel 15 százalékát tette ki.  A mentőszolgálat operációs központjának szóvivője, Boris Chmel elmondása szerint minden hatodik telefonáló nem szorult segítségre. 2,5 ezer vészhívás esetében a bejelentett eset helyszínén senki sem tartózkodott.

  A 155-ös telefonszámot felhívva pontosan  tudják, hogy mit kell mondani, hogy a diszpécser segítséget küldjön. Chmel szerint viszont ezeknek az embereknek fontos lenne megérteniük, hogy az az egység, amelyik ilyen bevetésre indult, egy tényleg bajban lévő ember életét menthetné meg.

  slovak.ch / Körkép.sk borító: rega.ch

[frousimabseits]

Liechtenstein : Deutschland 0:2

 Schweiz/Kybunpark St. Gallen/WM-Quali/4.Spieltag

 7958 Zuschauer

 Donnerstag, 02.09.2021, 20:45 Uhr

 0:1 (41´) Timo Werner

 0:2 (77´) Leroy Sané

  Fast genau zwei Jahre ist es nun her, als ich das letzte Mal ein Länderspiel der deutschen Nationalmannschaft besuchte. Genauer gesagt war es der 13.10.2019. Damals spielten die Deutschen in Tallinn (Estland) die EM-Quali und gewannen mit 3:0. Einige Jungs, die damals in Tallinn dabei waren und sich wahrscheinlich noch sehr gut daran erinnern können, als wir das Irish Pub leer gesoffen haben, waren heute auch wieder mit am Start. Somit war die Vorfreude natürlich groß, die ganze Bande mal wieder zu sehen! Scheiß Corona!

Der ursprüngliche Plan war, dass ich am Mittwoch mit Dixie anreise, dann zwei Tage in St. Gallen einen setze, um am Freitag mit Hansi, Scholzi und dem Fürther (er wollte so genannt werden) noch mal Liechtenstein unsicher zu machen. Aber meine Pläne waren in letzter Zeit wie Klopapier - nämlich für den Arsch. Aufgrund von Krankheit eines „Kollegen“, konnte ich mir nur an diesem Donnerstag frei nehmen. Nun ja, es ist, wie es ist und somit galt es, diesen Tag inhaltlich bestmöglich zu füllen. Um 7:30 Uhr fuhr ich erst mal nach Bayreuth um Ferdl einzuladen. Kaltes Dosenbier und fränkische Köstlichkeiten sollten als Reiseproviant dienen. Als ich angekommen war, kam Ferdl sichtlich aufgelöst auf mich zu, drückte mir 50€ Spritgeld in die Hand und sagte, dass er nicht mit kann, weil er seine Frau in die Klinik fahren muss. Ein akuter Notfall. (Am Ende ist alles gut ausgegangen und seiner Frau geht es wieder gut. Die besten Wünsche an dieser Stelle, Patricia!) Nun stand ich erst mal völlig perplex vor meinem Auto und wusste auch erst mal nicht, wo oben und unten war. Ich saß dann noch ca. 5 Minuten in meinem Auto und überlegte, ob ich jetzt fahren soll, oder nicht. Letztendlich trat ich dann alleine die Fahrt an, schließlich sagte ich den anderen ja zu.

Ein Tempomat ist tagsüber auf  deutschen Autobahnen so nützlich, wie Brüste an einer Nonne. Ständig Baustellen, dann irgendwelche Geschwindigkeitsbegrenzungen und zu guter Letzt noch die ganzen Vollidioten, die Ihren Führerschein anscheinend auf einer Rikscha gemacht haben. Dennoch verlief die Fahrt Stau-, und Gott sei Dank Störungsfrei. Um 13:15 kam ich dann im Parkhaus beim Bahnhof an. Unser Treffpunkt sollte, wie in Tallinn, erneut ein Irish Pub sein. Da das Pub erst um 14:00 Uhr öffnete, musste ich die Zeit noch ein bisschen überbrücken; somit schlenderte ich ein wenig umher, was meinen, ohnehin schon vorhandenen Durst, noch verstärkte. Um kurz nach 14 Uhr kam dann auch schon Dixie zum Pub. Ein Bochumer und ein Leverkusener, die aber nicht zu unserer Truppe gehörten, gesellten sich mit dazu. Volker machte den Anfang, danach kamen Antje, Dobre, der Fürther und zum Schluss Hansi und Scholzi. Somit waren die Hauptdarsteller der WhatsApp Gruppe „Vollbrett in St. Gallen“ vollzählig vertreten und man konnte endlich zum gemütlichen Teil übergehen. Was gemütlich für das Wohlbefinden war, war sehr ungemütlich für den Geldbeutel. Schweiz eben. Ein Bier kostete 7,50 CHF und wer uns kennt, der weiß, dass es nicht bei einem Bier geblieben ist. Volker hatte dann die spitzen Idee, sich einen Long Island Ice Tea zu bestellen – für schlappe 17,50 CHF. Kann man mal machen. Aber auch hier blieb es nicht nur bei einem. Und oft wurde heute auf Ossi-Maik* angestoßen. Nach zwei Jahren der Abstinenz auf internationaler Ebene, gab es natürlich viel zu erzählen und zu berichten; somit verging der Nachmittag wie im Flug. Nun mussten wir nur irgendwie zum Stadion kommen. Ein Teil von uns nahm den Bus, während Hansi, Scholzi, Dixie, der Fürther und ich ein Taxi nahmen. Nach ca. 10 Minuten waren wir dann auch am Kybunpark, der Heimstätte des FC St. Gallen - welches im Übrigen das höchstgelegene Stadion im Schweizer Profifußball ist. Doch bevor man so ein Teil betritt, muss man sich logischerweise noch mit Bier eindecken. Circa acht Rostocker, die wir am Nachmittag schon getroffen hatten, tranken mit uns noch ein edles Getränk. Ein ca. 25 Jähriger Polizist, dem es sichtlich die Fragezeichen rausgehauen hat, schaute dem Treiben sehr skeptisch und überrascht zu. Laut FIFA waren nämlich heute offiziell keine Gästefans zugelassen, aber A) ist uns das Scheißegal und B) sind wir ja auch keine Gäste! Wie man jetzt als Gastfan, trotz Gästefan-Verbot, an eine Karte im Gästeblock kommt (wie oft eigentlich „Gast“ und „Gäste“?!) bleibt Berufsgeheimnis. Dixie und Ich machten unserem Namen als „Asoziale Glubbfans“ alle Ehre, in dem wir einfach an der Warteschlange vorbei und direkt zum Einlass marschierten. Ein etwas jüngerer Herr wies uns darauf hin, dass sich auch solche Leute wie wir anzustellen haben. Der Kamerad wurde kurz in die Schranken gewiesen und wir konnten ohne weitere Kritik aus der wartenden Meute das Stadion betreten. First things first, was in dem Fall so viel bedeutet wie: Ab zum Bierstand! Mit den allseits bekannten Pappträgern, in denen das flüssige Gold stand, ging es ab in den Block D3. Bei Scholzi und Hansi ließ ich mich dann nieder.

Das Debüt von Hansi Flick war alles andere als schön anzusehen. Was als „Anfang einer neuen Ära“ durch sämtliche Systemgazetten propagiert wurde, entpuppte sich als ein zäher, lebloser und behäbiger Kick, in dem Liechtenstein ein deutlich besseres Bild abgab. Normalerweise müsste so ein Spiel zweistellig für die Deutschen ausgehen, aber „Die Mannschaft“ (ich kann es nicht mehr hören) hatte anscheinend andere Pläne. Bereits mit seiner Startelf überraschte Flick. Kehrer, Baku, Musiala, Werner und Sané waren von Anfang an auf dem Feld und aus deutscher Sicht waren die beiden Tore auch die einzigen Highlights im Spiel; deswegen gibt es dazu auch nicht viel zu berichten.

Gesehen habe ich aber nur das Tor von Werner. Da Dobre, Antje und ich heute noch fahren mussten und das Spiel zum Kotzen war, entschieden wir uns in der 60. Minute den Block und das Stadion zu verlassen. Mit dem Taxi ging es zurück zum Bahnhof, wo unsere Autos standen. Die anderen beiden zog es nach Stuttgart und mich zog es in die 465 Kilometer entfernte Heimat. Aber eigentlich zog es mir primär die Augen zu. Mit Cola und Tankstellenkaffee aus der Dose hielt ich mich noch ein wenig über Wasser, aber zwischen Heidenheim und Aalen musste ich mal einen Rastplatz anfahren. Ich fuhr nämlich wie ferngesteuert und der Sekundenschlaf war quasi mein „Beifahrer“. Hier habe ich mich dann mal für eine Stunde abgelegt, was es mir dann ermöglichte, die restlichen Kilometer auf mich zu nehmen. Um 4:30 Uhr war ich dann auch endlich zuhause. Mit schlafen wurde trotzdem nicht viel, da ich um 9:00 Uhr einen Friseurtermin hatte und um 14:00 Uhr musste ich schon wieder in der Arbeit stehen. Leben am Limit!

Ein überragender Tag ging leider viel zu schnell zu Ende. Es hat mich gefreut, dass ich die Truppe nach so langer Zeit endlich wieder sehen konnte! Zudem habe ich ein paar neue Leute kennengelernt. Ich ziehe meinen Hut vor allen beteiligten an diesem Tag, ganz besonders vor der „Vollbrett in St. Gallen“ Truppe!! Danke Männer, es war überragend! Wir sehen uns – irgendwo auf der Welt. Wie immer! S.F. (Frouser)

 *Nachtrag: An diesem Donnerstag, dem 02.09. verließ uns Ossi-Maik (Sportpub Tankstelle Hamburg) leider für immer. Viel zu früh. Ruhe in Frieden!