The word choke is a dirty word in sports. Rarely do you hear someone admitting that he or she choked.

Maybe you've gagged when a player made an unbelievable play to win a game, but that's not the kind of choking we're talking about here.

There are many definitions of choking. I came across one that says choking means showing a suboptimal performance when under pressure, despite a high motivation to perform well.

I can identify. It happens almost every time I write this column.

Another person wrote that choking is when an athlete is unable to execute a sport task that he or she normally has little or no problem with.

Using either definition, it's not a choke job if Shaquille O'Neil misses a free throw with the game on the line. At best, odds are only 50/50 that he'll make any free throw, so it's a stretch to say that if Shaq clanks a free throw that he choked.

Given his massive and powerful physique, I don't know why anyone would get in his face and accuse him of choking anyway.

On the other hand, if a 90 percent free-throw shooter misses the same free throw under pressure, we raise our eyebrows. That has to be a choke job, right?

Maybe. Maybe not. After all, athletes are human. No one is perfect. I'm not aware of any player who has never missed a free throw.

If you shoot enough of them, you're going to miss some.

I chuckle when I read a newspaper story or hear a broadcaster say that a player calmly sank a free throw to break a tie game with only seconds remaining. Can we really assume that a player has ice water in his or her veins?

Conversely, is it fair to assume that a player choked when the ball bounces off a rim?

Maybe you have to see it to know. Haven't we all seen a player shoot the ball and miss badly when we'd normally expect a better effort?

Or, haven't we seen someone get the yips when attempting a short putt in golf?

A very experienced sports reporter said that athletes are even wary about describing other athletes' performances as choking.

This particular reporter said that he had only experienced a similar lack of cooperation when asking about drugs in sports.

Why does the sports world resist talking about choking?

Maybe because deep down inside, every athlete knows he or she is capable of being influenced by a case of jitters.

PGA Tour player Bob Tway said, "It's how you handle choking. Some people handle it better. Everyone is choking. If they don't say they are choking at some level, they are lying."

If that's the case, the important issue for an athlete under pressure is how to deal with it. You can't run. You can't hide. You can't pretend it's not there. You have to face it.

With a couple of weeks left in the 1984 season, the division-contending Minnesota Twins were playing a terrible Cleveland team. The Twins jumped to an 8-0 lead in the first game of the series, but ended up losing the game.

Somewhere along the line Gary Gaetti bobbled a routine ground ball at third to keep a Cleveland rally alive.

After the game he was remarkably forthright with his explanation of what happened, essentially saying, "It's hard to field a ground ball when you have both your hands around your throat."

Basketball Hall of Famer and NCAA national championship coach John Wooden summed it up very well when he said, "If you are trying to live up to the expectations put on you by the media, parents, fans, your employer, or whatever else there may be, it's going to affect you adversely because it brings on worry and anxiety.

"I think that is the tendency of people who choke under pressure. They're thinking about living up to the expectations of everybody else instead of just doing their job the best they can."