Competitions in sports have now increased and become more intense with frequent, high-stakes games. Performing has now become nerve-wracking, filled with anxiousness and good stress, with multiple people admiring from afar to perform well. Athletes at their peak are trying to keep their playing time, and the upcoming ones are trying to earn it. This in itself puts a lot of pressure on athletes to show up and perform. Seasoned athletes might seem to know how to handle the inhuman pressure, but it's not always necessary that they don’t feel the stress going through, which we see as a rookie mistake. Athletes missing a shot and not performing up to their caliber is very visible when they go across this.

These phenomena, where athletes temporarily lose their ability to perform routine skills or moves, are called “Lost Move Syndrome” (LMS). LMS can happen to any athlete regardless of their age. LMS is different for different sports.

Lost Move Syndrome was coined by researchers Benett, Hays, Lindsay, Olusoga, and Maynard in their 2015 study, ‘Yips and Lost Move Syndrome: Exploring psychological symptoms, similarities, and implications for treatment.’ In this research, the authors were looking into the yips in the golfers, especially while training, and what could have possibly happened for it to make it worse.

To go further into the lost move syndrome, we need to understand what yips are. Yips are involuntary wrist spasms experienced by most golfers when they are trying to chip or putt in a full swing.

Definition

To understand LMS better, it is defined as a psychological condition in which athletes find themselves unable to perform a skill that previously was automatic by Tenn in their research paper in 1995.

The inability to perform various automatic skills, which are described with a variety of names, to give an example, like a balk, which is aborting a skill in the middle of an execution, or a mental block in gymnastics, LMS in trampolining, sports performance phobia in tennis and basketball, and yips in golf and cricket.

Paradoxical performance and performance blocks appear to encompass these performances and are studied often in sports psychology. These phenomena have been described as psychological conditions in which athletes lose their ability to execute a particular skill that was previously automatic. This condition is not really well defined and poorly understood, but there is a lot of description about LMS-like conditions found in acrobatic sports like gymnastics.

Terms and examples similar to LMS

As discussed before, LMS is related a lot to yips in other sports. There are different related terms and some examples to understand the terms better.

Yips

Yips is a better term used in various sports like baseball, golf, cricket, and tennis. It refers to a sudden loss of control over a specific movement, often in a repetitive or fine motor skill. For example, in baseball, a pitcher experiencing the yips might be one who they can no longer throw accurately or consistently, whereas they had mastered the pitch previously. A golfer who experiences the yips might find their putter suddenly does not feel right or that they lose control over their swing. Another example could also be used where a bowler might suddenly catch the yips, where they cannot throw the ball with the same accuracy and control as before.

Mental blocks

The term is more general and can apply to various situations, not just specific sports. They could be applied to various areas of performance, where the individual finds it difficult or finds temporary inability to perform a single task or skill.

Flikikammo

Flikikammo is a Finnish term specifically designed to refer to a mental block of movements that are specific to backward-moving skills like backflips in sports like gymnastics or trampolining.

Freezing

The term describes a sudden loss of ability to perform a skill that results in a complete stop in movement. For example, in basketball a player might freeze when they lose their ball while dribbling, leading to overthinking and loss of an automatic skill.

Sports performance phobia/choking

This term refers to the excessive fear and anxiety that can lead to the inability to perform a skill. For example, in tennis, a player might experience paralyzing anxiety when serving the match, leading to missed serves and sudden loss of control over their movements.

Causes for LMS

As Lost Move Syndrome is a psychological phenomenon, it is said that it could often be triggered by fear, anxiety, and a sense of losing control. Other factors that could be included are injury concerns, increased conscious control, and inability to access the correct motor program for the desired movement. Other reasons could also be connected with specific events like a serious fall, painful collision, etc.

The psychological factors contribute the highest when it comes to LMS. The anticipation, the anxiety of a fall or injury, and the feeling that there could be high chances of losing control while the movement, immense pressure to perform either from themselves, parents, coaches, or other environmental factors can cause LMS. Overthinking and focusing too much on the details, repeated failures to perform the movement or skill, and panic do contribute as well.

Another cause is usually the possibility of something that could happen. There could be times when LMS affects only a specific aspect of a skill or performance, a specific event, which can trigger the onset. Sometimes seeing someone else experiencing the same could also trigger LMS.

Interventions for LMS

As there are various combinations of psychological and behavioral aspects that could assist in getting Lost Move Syndrome. Addressing the concerned anxiety and negative thoughts within the pattern becomes essential for a sports psychologist to sit and identify with the athlete.

Psychological interventions

With various aspects and possibilities of LMS, one of the possible attributes could also be something related to any past experience or some significant life events. To help in reprocessing the memories or identifying the thoughts and the way of dealing with them, trauma-based therapies can help.

To give a few therapies,

  • EMDR, or Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, can help in altering and reprocessing memories to help reduce anxieties.

  • Similarly, the use of CBT, or cognitive behavior therapy can help athletes in identifying the negative thoughts and patterns that help in modifying that behavior.

  • Stress inoculation training helps athletes by giving them different coping strategies to manage the stress and anxiety in high-pressure situations.

  • The autogenic technique is a sense of relaxation technique that also helps in managing stress and anxiety.

  • Also, practices like mindfulness and meditation help in centering our thoughts. Breathing exercises to calm themselves down help in high-pressure situations and focus on the current moment.

  • Visual searches allow the athletes to reframe their perception of movement, allowing them to focus on the positive aspects of the performance rather than what could lead to failure.

Behavioral interventions

Along with the therapies, behavioral interventions are also necessary to work on. Therapies help in initiating the changes in thoughts and feelings that could lead to changes in behavior. Another one is the Thought Training Component, where it involves athletes discussing their negative feelings aloud, helping them find positive and realistic alternatives, and creating a more controlled and predictable training environment.

Within the initial stages of LMS, taking appropriate breaks with the affected movement in between practices as well as during the peak season becomes important. Athletes need to take time to focus and make a timetable to look for other alternative movements while doing so, as it can help in coming back stronger and with new skills.

When returning back to training or even realizing at the initial stages, meeting a mental performance expert and a sports psychologist can provide valuable support and guidance to move forward while struggling with LMS.