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Clutch Performance (Lead Section)
Clutch Performance is the belief that in sports, certain players can raise their level of play above their own standards in the final moments of a game in order to help their team win. Hitting a walk off home run in baseball, making a game tying/winning basket in basketball, and sinking a birdie putt in golf to win a tournament are all examples of clutch performances. There are many recent studies that look into whether or not the ability to perform in the clutch is actually a skill that an athlete can possess.

Clutch Situations
Clutch situations are defined as any moment in a game/match that includes any factor or combination of factors that significantly increases the importance of the situation. These scenarios are expected to cause a psychological disruption to an athlete, causing them to over monitor their skills involved in their performance. This is known as the Explicit Monitoring Theory, which states that "pressure increases monitoring of explicit processes by shifting mental processes from 'automatic' to 'controlled.'" For example, in the final minutes of a football game, a wide receiver might drop a pass from a quarter back because he was thinking too much about the process of catching the ball and running up the field instead of relying on his natural instincts and muscle memory. Research has shown that this type of effect is more common to occur in tasks that require a well-learned and proceduralized skill, as the pressure and over thinking of the situation will disrupt the automated performance of the skill.

In a study by Otten, M. P. & Barrett, M. E., this theory was supported by a statistical analysis of 109 years of baseball hitting and pitching stats. The study compared regular season stats with post season stats in order to separate data from low pressure and high pressure. While pitching stats, which were described as a much simpler skill compared to hitting, remained relatively the same from regular season to post season, hitting stats experienced decreases, specifically in batting average, supporting that the more skill oriented tasks are more susceptible to pressure.

Clutch Players
A hot topic of debate is whether or not the "clutch player," a player who has the ability to raise their level of play higher than their standard level of performance in clutch situations, actually exist or if they are actually just a myth based on talented athletes who get lucky. While many people who watch sports can tell you who their favorite player to handle the clutch responsibilities of a team (i.e taking the last shot in basketball, being the last hitter in baseball, etc.) modern studies have struggled to find evidence to support that these "clutch players" actually raise their level of performance in these situations.

In a study conducted by Solomonov, Y., & Avugos, S., they concluded that clutch players gain their reputation by successfully performing well in clutch situations early in their career, and thereby the player, coach, and teammates feed into this reputation by further involving the clutch player in high pressure situations. They observed certain NBA players over the course of the 2005-2006 season that were determined by 11 experts to have the largest clutch reputations in the league. Data was collected from the last five minutes of the second and fourth quarters of every game the chosen players participated in which the score was within 6 points, and was compared to their teammates stats from the same time frame. The analysis showed that both the clutch players' and non-clutch players' stats did improve from their normal averages, however the clutch players shooting percentages stayed the same, suggesting that shot accuracy is not effected by any clutch ability. The results did show that the clutch players' stats were significantly better than the non-clutch players', although this is believed to be due to the pygmalion effect, which is described as "a set of beliefs and expectations leading to a sequential equilibrium, in which the player, coach, and teammates operate to support and enhance this reputation". In other words, when athletes gain the title of a clutch player, they, as well as their teammates and coaches, try to keep this reputation in tact by many different means, including saving energy for the final minutes of a game and feeding the ball to the player to give him/her opportunities to score. This study did not take into account more than one season of data, clutch defense, or comparisons between clutch players and other highly skilled non-clutch players.

David Ortiz in the 2004 ALCS
With the Boston Red Sox losing the best of 7 series 3-0 to the New York Yankees, David Ortiz hit a walk off home run in game 4 and a walk off single in game 5, both in extra innings, helping lead the Red Sox to becoming the first team in MLB history to ever win a best of 7 series after losing the first three games. The Red Sox eventually moved on to win the World Series, their first since 1918.

Michael Jordan in the 1997 NBA Finals
Prior to game 5 of the NBA Finals between the Chicago Bulls and the Utah Jazz, Michael Jordan had caught the flu. However, Jordan decided to play in the game anyway and although appeared to be physically exhausted the entire time on the court, went on to score 38 points, including a 3 point field goal with only 25 seconds left in the game to put the Bulls in the lead with a 88-85 score. The final score ended up being 90-88, and the Bulls would go on to win the series in the next game.

"The Catch"
In the 1982 NFC Championship game between the San Francisco 49ers and the Dallas Cowboys, Joe Montana and the 49ers found themselves losing the game 27-21 with the ball on their own 11 yard line and a little under 5 minutes left on the clock. Montana led the 49ers down the field to the Cowboy's 6 yard line with 58 seconds left to go. On third down, Montana took the snap and was immediately forced to scramble away from the defensive pass rush. While back peddling, he threw the ball towards the back of the end zone, and while it looked like it was going to go over every bodies heads, the 49ers tight end Dwight Clark leaped up and made the catch for a touchdown and the lead. The 49ers won the game by a final score of 28-27 and went on to win the Super Bowl.

Bobby Orr in the 1970 Stanley Cup Final
In game 4 of the 1970 Stanley Cup Final between the Boston Bruins and the St. Louis Blues with Boston leading the series 3-0, the game was tied at 3-3 heading into overtime. 40 seconds into OT, Bobby Orr received a pass from Derek Sanderson and, while being tripped by Blues defender Noel Picard, scored a goal to win both the game and series.