The Super Mental Training Book (26 page)

The many techniques have definitely been valuable to me during my college life

from mental preparation for a swim meet to relaxing and calming myself before taking an exam to visualizing a speech in advance to give myself confidence. . .[5]

Two key phrases appear in Wood's testimonial. The first is his mentioning that "I feel fortunate to have been exposed" to mental rehearsal techniques, etc. Wood was "exposed" to such techniques, not forced or coerced into using them. Athletes pressured into practicing mental rehearsal techniques they feel are inappropriate will react just as negatively as when they are forced to practice physical and technical drills which they regard as pointless and counterproductive. Matt Wood, thankfully, was not placed in a "like it or not" position of having to practice visualization or some other mental discipline. The other key phrase in Wood's statement appears where he describes having a "personal mental training book with over 200 pages of different hand-outs and techniques." This shows the extent to which Dr. Gauron went to provide the Iowa athletes as much information as possible on mental training; it is quite apparent that the athletes always had something substantial to refer to.

Dave Ross, a talented backstroker, worked with Dr. Gauron on the eve of the 1983 Big 10 meet. According to Dr. Gauron:

Dave was doubtful about his swims on the following day. He was troubled by questions of how well he was prepared to do at this meet. Dave and I talked about going for it all and being as good as he could be. We adopted a metaphor about "going to Oregon," which referred to the pioneers who left everything behind and trekked across inhospitable territory to reach the "promised land." Dave overcame his fears of greatness to become a Big Ten champion in three events. How much further will he allow himself to continue on his "journey to Oregon" during his senior year?

How Ross "overcame his fears of greatness" remains nebulous. Probably more was done than just adopting the "going to Oregon" metaphor and talking things over. One suspects that some mental rehearsal technique akin to autosuggestion was involved. Dr. Gauron ends the story by wondering how well Ross would do in 1984, the swimmer's senior year. The answer is that Ross repeated as Big 10 champion in all three events—the 100 m backstroke, 200 m backstroke, and medley relay.

One of Ross's teammates on the 1984 Big 10 champion medley relay team was Chris Cove-ney, a breastroker. Dr. Gauron described Coveney as a swimmer who usually was "bothered by excessive nervous energy the closer he gets to his race." Coveney, says Dr. Gauron, turned this handicap into an asset by feeling the energy and storing it; the energy ultimately was "liberated later in the race when he will need it." The storing process occurred mentally. How this mental storage was accomplished Dr. Gauron does not specifically spell out. One assumes again that Coveney, having been exposed to various mental rehearsal techniques, used some sort of visualization procedure; we assume this because of the "feeling" aspect of what he did and also because of Dr. Gauron's emphasis on visualization in his chapter on mental preparation for competition. In any case, the stored energy came in handy. States Dr. Gauron about Coveney:

When he reaches the last 50 yards in his event, noting that he is beginning to feel tired and that his arms are hurting, he calls forth the nervous energy that he had mentally stored away before the beginning of his event. He is able to feel strong and to swim fast right to the wall.

Distance swimmer James Lory mentally prepared himself for his workouts and races by visualizing himself hooked up to an energy machine. The machine had a scale reading from 0 to 100. Informs Dr. Gauron, "James usually starts at a reading of 20 to 30 on the meter. He remains attached to the energy machine until the readout hits 100." Once the readout hit 100, Lory felt fully energized, ready for his workout or race.

What is evident from the Iowa swimmers' experiences is that they personalized the mental rehearsal techniques to suit their individual needs. One swimmer would mentally store energy, another would imagine being hooked up to an energy machine, and so on. This fact highlights another important reason why it is prudent to expose athletes to mental preparation disciplines, rather than force them to use any particular mental technique. Everyone is unique. A mental training strategy that works for one athlete will not work for another. The athlete, having been introduced to and presumably tried out various mental rehearsal techniques, will settle on the one he feels works best for him. What he settles on will probably differ greatly from what his teammates use. But, this is of small consequence because what the coach should strive for is not uniformity in whatever mental discipline his team uses, but instead regularity in his players employing any mental technique that they choose. If a mental training program is properly presented to the athletes, as the case at Iowa with Dr. Gauron exemplifies, then regularity will occur without any difficulty; the athletes will voluntarily use mental disciplines of their own choice for workouts and competition, and such use will invariably yield better performances.

In his chapter on mental preparation for competition, Dr. Gauron lists several practical pointers for athletes to follow. He reemphasizes the importance of the athlete being responsible for his own mental preparation. Having a back-up technique to use in case the primary technique doesn't do the job is suggested. Also, the athlete should perform his mental preparation far in advance, not wait until five minutes before the competition begins. There then appears the recommendation for the athlete to "visualize, visualize, visualize; do not stop visualizing." These major points Dr. Gauron makes about mental preparation for competition are quite good, and seem to address most contingencies. To provide further assistance to athletes and coaches interested in mental training, Dr. Gauron offers three tapes containing the mental training exercises described in his book. [6]

Dr. Gregory Raiport, a medical doctor who was on the Soviet Olympic staff as a sports psychologist for the 1976 Games, finds that an athlete's level of arousal largely determines how well he will perform. Stated Dr. Raiport in a L. A. Times article, "Every person has an optimal mood for his optimal performance. Some need to be angry, one needs to be happy, one needs to be afraid."[7] Raiport then cited the case of a British swimmer who swam faster than usual when he imagined a shark chasing him. "But," observed Raiport, "another swimmer would panic and wouldn't be able to swim at all. Each person has his own motivation." Dr. Gauron points out in his book that an athlete does not perform better the more aroused he is; rather, there is generally some point between a low level and a high level of arousal that allows the athlete to function at his best.

Dr. Gauron does not say how this ideal level is determined, but Dr. Raiport does. He says that you count the athlete's pulse, and note his performance. It obviously might take you several workouts to determine which heart rate leads to the best results; eventually, though, you obtain a good idea. Then, you apply that knowledge. Informs Raiport, "If he has the best results when his pulse is 130, the next time he (competes) he should bring his pulse to 130." Dr. Raiport mentions an unidentified skeet shooter he worked with, who was not having a good day. "His pulse was 95," recalls Raiport, "and I knew his optimal was 120. So I made him run and got him angry. His pulse went to 123 and he began shooting very well."

An athlete whose heart rate is too high before competition would be wise to practice some calming mental discipline such as meditation. Dr. Gauron, in fact, discusses an incident involving Iowa swimmer Steve Harrison who, an hour before a Big 10 Conference backstroke final, "was out of control emotionally in a too aroused state. Steve eventually calmed down and got his emotional arousal under control by being led through a relaxation exercise." Unfortunately, the relaxation exercise was too little too late, and Harrison did not swim up to his best. The leading theory for this result was that too much energy had already been wasted, which was more than the relaxation exercise could compensate for.

Sports psychologist Robert Nideffer investigated the relationship between level of arousal and athletic performance. His subjects were members of the University of Rochester swim team. To determine the swimmers' level of arousal Dr. Nideffer measured skin conductance. Whereas Dr. Raiport indicates that a level of arousal which allows one athlete to perform well might cause another athlete to do poorly, Nideffer's findings reveal a general pattern. In his book, The Inner Athlete (1976), Dr. Nideffer reports:

I measured his (the swimmer's) skin conductance at each meet in order to find out how anxious he was. Then, after all five races, I compared his time for the race in which he was least aroused with his average time across the five races or with his time when he was most aroused.

What we discovered was that the more aroused the swimmer, the poorer he performed. In fact, if the swim-team members when they were least aroused could actually swim against themselves when they were most aroused, they would cut an average of 3.3 seconds off their times.

A difference of 3.3 seconds does not attract the notice it deserves. Dr. Nideffer, realizing this, emphasized the significance of his findings in a novel way. "A dual-meet score," he pointed out, "would have been 77-10—that is, the low-aroused individuals beat themselves by a score of 77 to 10. (The high-aroused team got its ten points for just being in the meet.)"

Whether the general pattern Dr. Nideffer found (low-aroused swimmers perform better than high-aroused swimmers) holds true for most other swimmers is a matter of vital importance to all swimming coaches and competitive swimmers. The answer to this question directly affects how one involved in the sport should go about his mental preparation.

It would seem that Dr. Raiport's approach, though, of using the heart rate as the way to measure level of arousal, would be preferred over Dr. Nideffer's practice of measuring skin conductance. No instrument is required to perform the former, making it a flexible and easy procedure to follow, whereas a device is needed to carry out the latter. Measuring arousal via skin conductance means that a machine must be maintained, an operator for the machine has to be trained and available when needed, etc. In short, a skin conductance reading is not as convenient to do as merely having one take his pulse. This difference between heart rate and skin conductance as measurements of arousal has competitive implications as well. Other teams and opponents will not be tipped off that anything concerning the swimmer's psychological state is being attended to if all they see is the swimmer and/or coach taking the swimmer's pulse. Athletes take their pulse all the time for many reasons; it is not an unusual sight. A machine hooked up to an athlete, by contrast, is a rare sight and might raise eyebrows if the process of measuring skin conductance took place at poolside in full view of the opposition. Gaining a competitive edge does not come easy. Therefore taking one's pulse to determine level of arousal—an unassuming, unsuspicious, and practical method—appears the best way to go.

Soviet scientists V. M. Gurov, A. M. Svyadoshch, and U. T. Jampolsky researched the effects of mental training and self-hypnosis on the performance of top Moscow swimmers. The scientists divided mental training, which they call "psychotraining," into three stages: Stage I — initial autosuggestive training; Stage II — training in autosuggestion of positive sensory hallucinations (mental images); Stage III — goal-directed training. In their paper, "The Suggestive Method of Preparing Athletes for Competition," Gurov et at note that "the first two stages are preparatory and common to athletes in different sports," while the third stage "requires taking into account the competitive peculiarities of each sport."[8]

The Soviet scientists' comments about Stage I are quite interesting:

Training is started with the mastery of autogenic training or any other auto-

suggestive technique. At this stage, the main purpose is not the technique, but establishment of contact (rapport). To this end, psychological examination with follow-up dialogue is used. The discussion with the athlete, supported by data from the experimental-psychological examination, reduces personal resistance, elevates the psychologist's authority, and places the psychologist and athlete in the necessary relationship for psychotraining. When contact (rapport) is established, it is easy to teach the athlete to call forth the autohypnotic state with muscular relaxation and a sense of heaviness and warmth (the first stage of the self-hypnotic trance. . . ).[9]

The remark about "the discussion with the athlete... reduces personal resistance" indicates that some Soviet athletes, just like some U. S. athletes, are wary of mental training, possibly regarding it as some sort of mind control; as a result, such athletes need to be won over. (Recall the initial skepticism of the Oregon swimmers to Coach Schleicher's hypnosis sessions.) This emphasis on the importance of establishing "contact," meaning rapport, has been seconded by many other hypnotists and sports psychologists (refer, for example, to Arthur Ellen's account of Dr. Tracy's work with the St. Louis Browns—Baseball chapter).

After rapport has been established, Stage II is undertaken, whereby the athlete learns how to attain a medium depth self-hypnotic trance. Achievement of this skill leads to Stage III, the implementation of which varies depending on the sport and the individuality of the athlete. Gurov et al consider swimming a "cyclical sport" and therefore contend that four elements need to be covered in goal-directed training (Stage III):

a) modeling of pre-start states;

b) modeling the start and the coverage of the early segments of the distance;

c) modeling the first stage of fatigue;

d) modeling the second stage of fatigue and the final acceleration.

The scientists had each swimmer engage in a visualization process (the "modeling") closely resembling the visualization exercise Dr. Kolonay had the Phoenix Suns perform (see the chapter on Professional Athletes). For example, the swimmer heard this type of message for the pre-start state: