WHAT IS CLUTCH?

The Answer Guy and Dan Patrick try to get to the bottom of this mystery: what does clutch actually mean. Listen to the cast of characters they break out and you might learn something.

Dan Patrick: Hey, Guy, did you hear about my 81 at Augusta?
Answer Guy: Hey, Dan, did you hear about the two most boring stories in the world?
DP: No.
AG: Someone else's golf game, and men's breasts.
DP: Funny. Anyway, it was epic, 41-40, with a clutch par on the last hole.
AG: Clutch? Clutch how?
DP: You know—clutch, key, money.
AG: Yeah, I know what it means. But what does it mean?
DP: You're Answer Guy.
AG: You brought it up.
DP: So?
AG: So I listened to your golf story. You can help me define clutch.
DP: Fine, I'll help. Just don't mention my breasts again.
AG: Done.

DP: What is clutch?
Gordie Howe, Mr. Hockey: Klutz? Like awkward? That kind of klutz?
DP: Not klutz. Clutch.
Howe: Oh. Right. That's the main man. The guy to follow because he rises to the occasion.
AG: What occasion?
Dr. Jeff Wildfogel, Psychology Professor, Stanford: Peak performance under pressure, that's the nature of clutch.
Bill Walton, Hoops Hall of Famer: It's not always the last-second, game-winning shot that's clutch, though. It's the ability to achieve peak performance on command.
DP: And under pressure.
Wildfogel: Clutch is demonstrating a pattern of success, pattern being the key word.
AG: Isn't success the key word, Doc?
Wildfogel: No, because nobody comes through all the time. It's mathematically impossible.
AG: Like Patrick's tax return.
DP: Easy, Guy.
Lt. Phil Kapusta, 16th Company Officer, U.S. Naval Academy: I train Navy SEALs. Believe me, if we could identify what makes some guys successful under pressure and other guys not, we would.
DP: There's no test for "clutchness"?
Kapusta: There have been all kinds of studies. But the only common quality we can identify
is motivation: the simple desire
not to quit.
AG: Cassius has a lean and hungry look; such men are clutch.
DP: Like Ali.
Paul Silas, Head Coach, Hornets: Confidence is everything. When a guy believes he can get
it done, whether he does or not
is irrelevant.
AG: Except on the scoreboard.
DP: Yeah, what about winning? Isn't that the point of being clutch?
Kapusta: One of our big mottoes is "It pays to win."
DP: Why?
Kapusta: In SEAL training, winners suffer less than losers.
AG: Yipe!
Dan Reeves, Head Coach, Falcons: The more crucial the situation, the better a clutch guy will perform.
DP: Rising to the occasion, eh?
Reeves: Exactly. Even when they fail, they want the ball next time.
David Justice, DH, Yankees: Of course, success helps. If you've been clutch before, even if it
was luck, you're confident you can do it again.
AG: Once clutch, always clutch?
Troy Aikman, Football Hero: Clutch guys don't come through every time, just often enough so that nobody remembers when they came up short.
AG: Ah, the fallacy of memorable events.
John Wooden, Hardwood Master: No one's perfect. Everyone fails. But no matter the circumstance, you have to accept that it's just another game.
AG: Aren't some games bigger?
Aikman: For me, it was easier to focus for a big game. I could really block other things out of my mind.
Wooden: Everyone puts pressure
on themselves. Surgeons, farmers, salesmen, butchers, bakers, you name it. That's what drives us. The key is to eliminate outside pressures, to focus on what you can control.
DP: Is that why clutch players want the ball? To be in control?
Wildfogel: Clutch performers need to be responsible for success.
Walton: You have to want the big moments. You train to demand the ball, demand responsibility.
Wildfogel: Yes, you need that shift from "I might let my team down" to "I'm going to be the hero," from "Uh-oh, everyone is watching" to "Hey, everyone
is watching!"
AG: So clutch players are selfish?
Walton: It's not selfishness, it's leadership.
AG: No "I" in team.
DP: But there is "me."
Wooden: If you look at great clutch performers, more often than not, they have the most talent. The greatest competitors rise to the top, then rise to the occasion.
AG: But you can't be clutch if you're not in a clutch situation.
Christian Laettner, Forward, Wizards: A clutch player gets his team into clutch situations. Jordan made so many great plays because he was always in big games.
DP: What about your big game,
and the shot against Kentucky in '92?
Laettner: Sure, I wanted the ball. But more than that, I wanted my team to want me to get the ball.
Walton: The guys who want the ball emerge as the true leaders.

AG: Why do we call it "clutch," anyway? What does it mean?
Steve Perrault, Director of Defining, Merriam-Webster Inc.: Unlike many sports terms, clutch was coined by players, not sportswriters.
AG: Do tell.
Perrault: The first citation is from The New York Times, June 2, 1929. "When a batter produces a safe 'blow' at an opportune moment, his fellow players say that he has hit 'in the saddle' or 'in the clutch.' "
AG: Giddyup!
DP: Get along, little doggie!
Perrault: Yes, well, some sources say that clutch in sports comes from a mechanical clutch. When the clutch is engaged, moving parts can work together successfully.
AG: Do you put truck in that theory?
Perrault: Not really. It's more likely that being clutch comes out of the clutching, or tightening, sensation that a player might feel when the pressure is on.
DP: When he's in a pinch?
Perrault: Exactly. In fact, in this context, "in a pinch" and "in the clutch" are virtually interchangeable.
AG: Jerry West could be "Mr. Pinch?"
Perrault: Not exactly.
AG: Pity.
Perrault: By the early '40s, this use of clutch was fairly widespread, but most of our citations are sporting in nature. For example, Time magazine quotes Ted Williams in 1941: "Naw, there ain't no tension for me hitting in the clutch. I'd like to have the bases loaded every time I come up."

Lawrence P. Berra, Diamond Philosopher: The pitcher should be nervous, not me. He has to get the ball over the plate with men on base.
AG: Why, hello, Yogi.
Berra: I'd swing at anything, I wasn't fussy. Maybe that helped me. I saw the ball good, so I hit it.
DP: How 'bout clutch catching?
Berra: With men on, you just try to block the ball in the dirt. And you call the pitches you want. If they hit 'em, they hit 'em.
DP: They do indeed.
AG: Wait a minute—clutch is luck?
Howe: People say it's luck. But the luck keeps happening. So what's that?
AG: A lucky streak.
DP: Or a Hall of Fame career.
Wildfogel: Clutch performers practice perfectly, mastering strategy. It's like taking a canoe ride down a rock-filled stream. Plot your course and go.
AG: So how do you prepare for clutch moments when you're not canoeing?
Laettner: Everyone goes "3-2-1" in their driveway. You have to practice, put yourself in those situations.
AG: Do you think soccer players go "57-58-59?"
DP: Now that's just silly.
Walton: Great players can look at the schedule months in advance and know that in a particular game, they're going to be at their best.
DP: Yes, but aren't the other guys doing their best to beat you?
Wooden: I never talked about the opposition. Bill Walton used to joke that I would send a trainer out before the game to buy a program, so we'd know who we were playing.
AG: That Bill—what a kidder!
Wooden: The point is, you don't have control over the opposition.
You have to focus on what you can control.
Wildfogel: It's true. Clutch performers live very much in the moment. There is no chance for failure because failure happens
in the future.
DP: That's deep.
Wooden: I always told my players the only time that matters is now. Yesterday's gone, and tomorrow is only affected by what happens today.
DP: Didn't Fleetwood Mac say that?
AG: Now who's being silly, Dan?

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