Simone Biles and the loss of ability to perform previously automatic skills explained

To become a great athlete, the recipe is straightforward. Like Simone Biles, you must be born with physical gifts, develop excellent technique, become tactically skilled, nourish your body with proper food and drink, train, rest, stay healthy (not get injured), maintain motivation and resilience in the face of adversity, stay focused and not be so single-minded that you burn out.

If, like Biles, you succeed in your quest for athletic greatness, the media and general public are likely to be with you, ready to praise and criticize your every move. In addition, there is a mysterious challenge that is rarely discussed — times when you may lose the ability to perform previously automatic skills. This condition has a variety of names: yips in golf, lost move syndrome in trampoline gymnastics and sport performance phobia in tennis and baseball. In Biles’ sport of artistic gymnastics, the condition is called a mental block with additional terminology, “the twisties” for when the problem affects twisting skills and flikikammo (in Finnish) when the condition affects backward moving skills. 

It seems likely that many who have speculated about Biles’ mental toughness, commitment to her team and country and other personal attributes are not familiar with the scientific research on this condition. Trained athletes executing well-learned skills that are highly automated, like a back handspring or Biles’ vault with 2.5 twists, are most often affected.  The sudden onset and persistence across situations make this condition distinct from choking, which occurs only under pressure. Like performance slumps the condition lasts for a while, but unlike slumps, athletes with this condition cycle through phases of normal performance — and phases when they are unable to perform the affected skill at all. 

Interestingly, the condition is not caused by fear. Athletes typically develop fear or anxiety only after the initial onset of the problem as they become afraid of losing control of their bodies. In gymnastics, losing control in the middle of skill execution can be terrifying as the consequences can be life altering or even life ending. In other sports, such as golf and baseball, athletes are unlikely to get seriously injured as a result of their inability to putt or throw on target, but the condition can still be profoundly frustrating and lead to fear of performing the skill, especially during competition.

To make things worse, the problem can spread from one affected skill to another similar skill. A gymnast like Biles may find that she cannot perform a particular vault and then later find that she is unable to perform similar skills on the uneven bars and beam. Mental imagery is often used by athletes to practice performing skills, however, athletes with this condition are often unable to correctly visualize their affected skills. 

Like the initial onset, full recovery often comes out of the blue. Some athletes recover briefly, perform the affected skills a few times, and then the problem returns. Observing an athlete who can sometimes perform a skill — and sometimes cannot — can lead the casual observer to imagine that the athlete is simply not trying hard enough.  

A remedy frequently used for those who are not trying is for others to push them to try harder. Unfortunately, this condition does not respond to the remedies of common sense. In fact, the more external (coach, media, sport organization) and internal (self-directed) pressure that is applied to try to push through to perform the affected skills, the worse the problem typically gets.

What has proven helpful in alleviating the condition is for affected athletes to dictate the speed of their return to the execution of affected skills and for others to offer and provide support. Athletes who develop and practice two sets of routines — routines that include the affected skills and routines that exclude them — can choose which routine to use in competition and return to performance of the affected skills at their own pace.

Biles has soared to the heights of gymnastics excellence. She has cheered her teammates on, helping them to join her at the top. She has also shown us the danger, frustration and suffering that athletes experience when they suddenly lose their ability to perform essential skills.

Because of Biles, athletes who are suffering from this condition know that they are not alone, understand how to encourage others and are aware that support can allow them to return to competing and enjoying sport. The recipe for becoming a great athlete does not require leaving your sport better than you found it, but it is something that the greatest athletes provide.

Judy L. Van Raalte, Ph.D., CMPC has coached tennis at the NCAA Division II and Division III levels. She is professor of psychology and distinguished professor of humanics at Springfield College, visiting scholar at Wuhan Sports University in Wuhan, China and is listed in the United States Olympic Committee Sport Psychology Registry.

Annamari Maaranen, Psy.D., is a licensed psychologist who has worked extensively in medical, rehabilitation, and military special operations training settings. She is a retired elite and NCAA Division I gymnast, the 2007 Finnish national champion in gymnastics who qualified for the 2008 Olympics, and has coached the sport at Junior Olympic, elite, and NCAA Division III levels. 

This piece has been updated.