Expressive writing has been widely employed as an anxiety-reduction technique and an effective psychological intervention for alleviating the effects of negative experiences. However, its potential role in mitigating choking phenomena in motor skill performance remains underexplored. This study examined 100 college students with at least five years of basketball experience, assigning them to high-pressure and low pressure conditions through matched-pairs design based on preliminary testing. Utilizing a pretest-posttest

experimental design, participants were randomly allocated to either an expressive writing intervention group or a control group engaging in neutral writing tasks. Basketball free-throw performance and state anxiety levels were assessed before and after the intervention to evaluate the efficacy of expressive writing in preventing performance deterioration under pressure. Results indicated that the expressive writing group demonstrated significantly superior shooting accuracy during post-testing compared to the control group, with particularly marked improvements evident in high-pressure scenarios relative to baseline performance. These findings provide empirical support for the anxiety-reduction hypothesis, suggesting that expressive writing interventions may effectively prevent choking episodes by modulating athletes' anxiety levels during competitive situations.

athletes, choking, pressure, anxiety, expressive writing