Both men have testified how treacherously difficult it is to score from 12 yards when you are shouldering the hopes of millions.
It is not the difficulty of the task - most top players invariably score during practice sessions - but the enormity of the moment. The problem is not ability but nerve. This, of course, is the essence of performance psychology.

.....now consider what happens after hundreds of hours of practice. Now, you can perform these skills effortlessly, without any conscious control, so that you are able to arrive at your destination without even being aware of how you got there.

But now suppose an expert were to suddenly find himself using the "wrong" system. It wouldn't matter how good he was because he would now be at the mercy of the explicit system.
The highly sophisticated skills encoded in the subconscious part of his brain would count for nothing. He would find himself striving for victory using neural pathways he last used as a novice.
This is the neurophysiology of choking. It is triggered when we get so anxious that we seize conscious control over a task that should be executed automatically.

I've read (audiobook) a book called "Bounce: How Champions are Made" by Matthew Syed.

Amazon link

Is not about trading but psychology, I really recommend it, but the purpose of this thread is to highlight some paragraphs of an article I've read from him in the BBC News webpage ( BBC Sport - The psychology of choking ) that I recommend you read it directly, I think that lots of traders will be identified with his words:



The problem was not insufficient focus, but too much focus. Conscious monitoring had disrupted the smooth workings of the subconscious. He was, in a literal sense, a novice again.