More Friction, Less Flow

Why capable people underperform

Why do very capable people sometimes perform well below their potential precisely when it matters most?

More than 50 years ago, a tennis coach named Timothy Gallwey offered a wonderfully simple explanation:

Performance = Potential − Interference

We don’t suddenly lose our ability when the pressure rises. Something gets in the way of it.

The 2026 US Open men’s final provided a striking example.

American star Ben Shelton reached the final having played some extraordinary tennis, backed by roaring fans. He was carrying the hopes of a nation that had waited 23 years for an American man to win the home major.

But Ben didn't play up to the brilliant standard he's capable of. His potential hadn't shrunk, but his level of play had dropped. Gallwey's formula tells us where to look: interference. Pressure. Thoughts about winning or losing. The weight of expectations. The significance of the occasion. The noise in his own head.

Contrast that with his opponent, Alexander “Sasha” Zverev. By his estimate, 99.9 per cent of the crowd wanted the other man to win. He couldn’t change that, so he didn't try. He kept playing the point in front of him.

In fact, after winning the final point, he walked back to the baseline and prepared for the next one. He was so focused that he hadn’t realised the match was over until his brother let him know.

“In that moment, I was in the zone,” he said afterwards. “I didn’t hear noise at all.”

Sasha wasn’t mentally collecting the trophy before he had won it. He wasn’t living in the next game, the next set or the celebration afterwards. He was playing this point.

Both players had enormous potential, but on the day, Sasha had much less interference standing between his potential and his performance.

This goes far beyond tennis. I see the same thing in coaching leaders.

Very capable leaders become much less effective when their thinking is overheated by pressure, worry, frustration, self-consciousness, the need to be right or concern about what other people might think.

But as they become more aware of that internal interference, something changes. The noise may not completely disappear, but it stops running the show. Less friction, more flow.

With greater clarity of mind, leaders make better decisions. They handle difficult situations with less effort. They get better results.

And life gets easier. Not because the outside world has become any easier. Because less is getting in their way.