The Super Mental Training Book (39 page)

About nerves and one's mental state. The task is clear—to mobilize to a maximum degree and for a specific time. The difficulty is that not everyone can mobilize quickly, and being excited for a long time burns you out. . .

It is known that an individual's mental state can be changed depending on what images and pictures he reproduces in his consciousness. It is necessary to develop the ability to disassociate oneself from the world and evoke the desired images within oneself by willpower and exercising the imagination. I try to conserve my nerve energy right up to the time of going onto the track. During the warmup process I call to mind a forest and a fishing scene. This leads me to feel tranquil and discourages a feeling of bustle and hurry. But now five minutes remain until the start. I must stimulate my nerves, elevate the pulse, simulate the state that prevails during running. One must maintain the ability to control one's actions by the degree of general mobilization, not by details of technique. This can be accomplished on a foundation of anger and risk, but not fear which leads to confusion and chaos. I focus on running, "pedaling," become angry with someone or something, and stir up the thought that I am alone and that seven people are against me! [43]

Borzov's commentary is quite interesting, especially when we see how it matches up with G. D. Gorbunov's discussion on psychological preparation for a specific competition. Gorbunov, we recall, remarked that "the most important goal in the precompetition period is not the result of the event, but rather the process by which the result is achieved." Borzov did not give himself an autosuggestion such as "to win," which would have addressed the result of the event; instead, as advocated by Gorbunov, he directed his thoughts to the process required to run well ("I focus on running, 'pedaling,'" etc.). Gorbunov also made a big point that "it is best to actualize goals only in the last few minutes and, in some cases, seconds before the start." Borzov did exactly this.

"Five minutes remain until the start," he states. "I focus on running, 'pedaling,' become angry with someone or something, and stir up the thought that I am alone and that seven people are against me!"

It is doubtful that coincidence explains Borzov's adoption of mental preparation approaches suggested by Raiport and Gorbunov. These two scientists may never have worked directly with Borzov, but clearly ideas they and other Soviet sports psychologists hold on mental training have not remained in the laboratory. The terminology used by Borzov in his article shows that he is well-versed in sports psychology, as evidenced by the fact that probably not one U.S. Olympic athlete in a hundred could compose such an informed line as this one by Borzov: "It is necessary to develop the ability to disassociate oneself from the world and evoke the desired images within oneself by willpower and exercising the imagination." Borzov's comments lead us to conclude that the Soviet sprint champion is thoroughly educated in the principles of mental training, obviously experienced in its application, and likely attained his level of mastery thanks to the input and assistance of others (sports psychologists and/or coaches trained in psychology).

As the 1980s progressed, it became harder to refute contentions that mental disciplines are widely, if not universally, employed by elite Soviet athletes. One such contention was made in 1985 by Kurt Krueger, a former swimmer at USC and now a sports psychologist. He said that "the Soviets have the best system... Eighty-three percent of their athletes who win the major events had some form of mental training."[44] Krueger did not reveal how he determined that 83%, rather than 81% or 86% or any other percent, of the Soviet champions use mental training; but after a while one begins to believe such assertions contain more truth than myth, if only for the simple reason that too many people are saying the same thing. For example, Dr. Lars-Eric Unestahl, a sports psychologist who worked closely with many of the Swedish Olympians in 1980, told me that "they (the Soviets) use hypnosis, but not for every athlete." My time with Dr. Unestahl was short, so I did not learn what he based his statement on; but, his work with the 1980 Swedish Olympic team probably enabled him to establish contacts with Soviet sports psychologists, coaches, and athletes, from whom he could derive a good idea of the type and amount of mental training performed by Soviet Olympic athletes.

And then there was the matter of the continuing Soviet sports psychology research—research one could sense was being applied, rather than remaining an academic exercise. One excellent study that had this drift to it showed Valery Borzov was not the only Soviet sprinter to have been exposed to mental training. V. Zobkov performed an experiment in 1980 on a group of adolescent sprinters. As detailed in the March, 1983 Soviet Sports Review, half of this group (the exact number not stated) served as the controls, receiving traditional training, while Zobkov had the other half learn and apply these four techniques:

1) Setting goals for a definite period (a month, a week) with active participation of the athlete in drawing up the training program and means to be used.

2) Devising guidelines for achieving difficult sports tasks in which athletes are informed about competitive and training results and about possible competitive conditions and opponents. (This ensures intensified preparation of athletes with low self-esteem and places emphasis on objective difficulties for athletes with high self-esteem.)

3) Forming correct self-assessment in training work and compiling written accounts by the athletes about previous competitions, noting their degree of agitation when getting ready for the start, the effectiveness of the warm-up, the competitive run, the difficulties arising and their success in dealing with them, evaluation of their performance, determination of the necessary training work needed in the future, and analytical discussions after competition.

4) Mastering specific ways of self-regulation in pre-start states (individualization of pre-competition warm-up, autogenic training, ideomotor "tuning-up," and self-encouragement) .[45]

Zobkov believes the goal-setting, self-assessment, and "self-regulation" (relaxation/visualization/self-hypnosis) is a must for young sprinters because only 25% of them possess the highly desirable "sport-as-work" personality trait.[46] The other 75%, notes the scientist, are motivated to participate by "personal-prestige" factors. According to Zobkov, athletes guided by this "personal-prestige" orientation possess either low self-esteem or high self-esteem. Both the low self-esteem and high self-esteem "personal-prestige" types are difficult for the coach to deal with because they display "emotional instability when in extreme situations during competition and a decrease in results, despite favorable physical data and good preparation." After relating additional weaknesses of each type, Zobkov goes on to say that "the coach is confronted with the difficult task of forming and strengthening" the heretofore hardly existent "sport-as-work" motivation in such athletes. This task, normally impossible, can be accomplished by implementing the four techniques listed by Zobkov. The Soviet scientist states that using the four "means of developing psychological readiness for competition help form and reinforce sport-as-work motivation in adolescent sprinters" as well as generates "improvement in self-control during extreme conditions of competition." He bases this assertion on the positive results his work with the sprinters achieved:

Half of the young athletes during the course of eighteen months of training raised their sports ranking from Class III to Class I and the rest from Class III to Class II. In the control group, where the usual training regime was followed, only half of those taking part attained a Class II rating and the rest remained at the Class III level. [47]

In the Weightlifting chapter, we became acquainted with Charles Garfield's research about the Soviet and East German sports training programs. Garfield's book, Peak Performance: Mental Training Techniques of the World's Greatest Athletes, was published in 1984, and provides fairly good indications that most, if not all, top Soviet athletes incorporate mental rehearsal techniques into their training regimens. There are holes in the evidence, as there usually are in such matters, but what Garfield relates ties in closely with what others, such as Dr. Raiport and Dr. Yessis, maintain; so, the conclusion that elite Soviet athletes presently use mental disciplines on a regular basis appears most credible.

Some of the Soviet activity in sports psychology Garfield reports on warrant our attention. The findings of the indefatigable Vladamir Kuzmin, a Soviet sports psychologist, were presented at the Fifth World Sport Psychology Congress in Ottawa (1981). Informs Garfield in his book, "Kuzmin cited evidence gathered over twenty years, through working with more than 600 athletes, that showed the positive effects on performance when goals were visualized completely and vividly." [48] That visualization proved beneficial for so many athletes is newsworthy because scientific studies often involve too few subjects for definite conclusions to be drawn. Of even greater interest, though, is the fact that the type of visualization performed should vary depending upon the nature of the athlete's goals. Garfield discovered from talking to Soviet scientists that for broad, long-term goals "impressionistic mental imagery with many nuances of emotion is most effective;" short-term goals, by contrast, "are most effective when expressed as detailed, performance-oriented visualizations." [49]

Garfield also came across a remarkable study of four matched groups of Soviet Olympians preparing for the 1980 Winter Games. The four groups carried out the following training:

Group I — 100% physical training

Group II — 75% physical training; 25% mental training

Group III — 50% physical training; 50% mental training

Group IV — 25% physical training; 75% mental training

Garfield did not state what Soviet scientist(s) conducted this study, which is too bad because the results are eye-opening. Group IV, with only 25% physical training, but 75% mental training, outperformed the other groups. In second place came Group III, followed by Group II, with Group I—the 100% physical training bunch—in last place. The fact that this study involved athletes engaged in winter sports reminds us of Corky Fowler, co-author of The Hidden Skier, and his pro-visualization testimonial (see Amateur Athletes chapter):

I've been mentally practicing my skiing during the summers for years. On the first day of each ski season, I ski as well as I did on the last day of the past season . . .[50]

Top priority in winter sports, such as skiing and figure skating, is the mastery of advanced skills, rather than the attainment of super physical condition. To master such skills one must embed in his mind the proper steps and movements, plus timing factors, required for success. This embedding process is one area where mental training can really help, as the experience of Fowler and Group IV illustrates.

Having performed this study on 1980 Winter Olympians, one wonders if the results encouraged Soviet coaches to set up Group IV-type training regimens for athletes making the Soviet Summer Olympic team. This we do not learn from Garfield. Nonetheless this is the type of study that, under present circumstances, is unlikely to be tried out on U.S. Olympic team members, mainly because of lack of cooperation problems (amongst everyone involved). The study, it can be said, represents a sign of strength on the part of sports psychologists operating within the Soviet system. The scientists probably wanted to demonstrate in as convincing a manner as possible, the efficacy of mental training, especially as it pertains to elite athletes. They also undoubtedly felt assured that those athletes showing the least improvement (Group I) would, after the experiment, be able to quickly catch up to their colleagues—thanks to reintroduction of mental disciplines into their training regimens. So, to Soviet sports psychologists this experiment entailed little downside risk. Of course, this is conjecture on my part. Still, it can be seen that conducting a study of this sort on one's Olympic athletes—the nation's best—requires broad recognition of the potential rewards and applications, as well as supreme confidence in how the study will turn out. Only a coaching staff well-educated in the advantages of mental training would permit such an experiment to be undertaken.

That the coaches of the top Soviet athletes are well-familiar with mental training, if not psychologists themselves (see Medvedev's remark in Weightlifting chapter), is evidenced by several comments of Garfield. He states, for example:

Whereas the sports psychologist in this country [U.S.] may be perceived as a person who helps the athlete correct problems, the sports psychologist in the Soviet Union assumes an active role at the very beginning of all training regimens, concentrating on creating methods to maximize performance. [51]

Dr. Raiport corroborates Garfield's assertion that Soviet sports psychologists are assigned an "active role" in the training of top athletes. The Soviet Olympic team, he says, maintains 10-12 sports psychologists on their payroll, while every large city in the USSR has at least one sports psychologist available to work with athletes. [52]

Garfield, in a most arresting section of his book, discusses the history of Soviet research into self-regulation (PSR). He notes that Alexander Romen "included both physical and mental response conditioning" in his experiments on self-regulation training, leading to this discovery:

Electromyograms, a method for measuring the electrical impulses that occur in muscles just prior to actual movement, revealed that muscles actually perform the physical activity imagined or suggested by words. Romen showed that psycho-neurological factors that produce specific muscular responses in humans can be

"programmed" in advance of the performance of that activity through mental imagery. Thus, mental imagery becomes an invaluable tool in achieving peak performance in sports. [53]

What this passage says is that when you visualize yourself performing some movement, the muscles involved in that movement are activated. This muscle activation also occurs if, rather than imagining a movement, you give yourself an autosuggestion relating to the desired movement. Dr. Suinn, in his work with skiers, encountered the same phenomenon. He relates what happened during one experiment: