I regret to inform you that I am not very clutch.
Normally, it’s my colleague Joe Lemire who experiments with new tech for our recurring Sandbox Series. But this week, it was me dipping my toe into the test zone — and I recoiled with a wounded ego.
When it comes to human performance, clutch is still a polarizing topic. Is it even real? The analytical stat heads say no, but anyone who’s seen a game-winning shot or a career-defining performance by a star athlete may beg to differ. So, what if you could evaluate people based on their likelihood to perform in high-pressure situations?
NTangible has figured out how to measure it.
The platform, which provides mental scouting assessments for athletes for multiple sports, was created by President/CEO Dan Connerty. Its testing, which features open-ended and multiple-choice answers, uses AI to analyze things like thought process, perspective and wording.
Connerty has been on this startup adventure full-time since 2024, with NTangible now in use in 40 NCAA programs (including Boston College and Florida Atlantic). Last year, the company became the official mental fitness partner of RFK Racing to evaluate and support its pit crew members.
Based in Canada, Connerty spent most of his time in the baseball development space as a former collegiate and pro athlete. He was the principal director of Baseball Development Group from 2017 to 2019, and during that time, he got to know industrial psychologist Ed Levine. And it started this ongoing pursuit.
“At the time I go, ‘We’re going to reach a point where we cap out what we can measure physically — it’s going to happen,’” Connerty recounted to me. “Mental has always been this black box ... nobody wants to touch it.”
Enter the Clutch Factor score, which evaluates mental performance in clutch scenarios. In roughly 20 minutes, I ran through a handful of pictures depicting various scenarios. (I did a basketball test since it’s the sport I played the most.) One was an image of a player shooting a free throw, the next was a ball handler staring down a full-court press, and others were similar in-game scenarios. I had a chance to pick my perspective of the play, who I would be and what I’d be planning to do next. I also shared my past experiences of higher-pressure situations.
When I finished the test, I was given a score of 663. That figure is out of 1,000, which placed me in the average category. Connerty said the scores can be quite predictive of college success (NTangible can test athletes as young as 13). The athletes who score in the 750-799 range are twice as likely to play a Division I sport. Above 800? We’re talking a potential all-conference or All-American honoree. Example: Texas freshman P/UT Hannah Wells produced the highest Clutch Factor score in the country. She helped the Longhorns win their second consecutive College World Series softball championship earlier this month.
After sharing my lack of clutchness, I could tell you about my days as a newspaper college football reporter. I was constantly combating the harshest deadlines, filing stories that squeaked in just early enough to make the next day’s edition, some of which I won national awards for. But I won’t do that.
The good news for me (and other users)? Because my clutchness can now be measured, I can also improve it, according to Connerty.
“Our psychologists have said, at minimum, if you wanted to redo it, six months,” he said about retesting. “Usually, this should be an annual test just to see where you are. If you think of the Clutch Factor score as your capacity to perform at your top range, not every day are you going to be there.
“This is something where your score can fluctuate based on experiential parameters.”
That’s totally it! I had an off day. I’m sure of it. Case closed.
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