The Super Mental Training Book (47 page)

The San Jose State track team members were not forced to learn and apply Winter's "relaxation" technique. Their participation was voluntary, optional. States Winter:

At the start of the season, everyone who wants the relaxation course gets it. We do not make it compulsory. We make it something special. They have to want to get into the course. That way, they will cooperate. Then, of course, some do not need it, but they are very few. [4]

Every mental training program should allow for such freedom of choice, because personalities

differ, rendering no one mental discipline appealing to everybody. Also, many athletes fear that mental training will result in their desires and feelings being controlled and manipulated by outsiders. To alleviate apprehension, therefore, the mental training program needs to be voluntary, and the "mental coach" needs to establish rapport with the athletes. These two key measures will go a long way toward encouraging the athlete to work with a sports psychologist or a coach who provides guidance in visualization, hypnosis, and the like.

"Relaxation," unlike many mental training approaches, was not something that was predominantly practiced off-site. Instead, Coach Winter constantly drilled his athletes to relax during track workouts. He describes a typical workout for his sprinters:

After (loosening exercises) we again walked a lap and then went into our sprint form drills, and here is where we really stressed relaxation. Day after day we went in pairs through a series of sprint form drills. Here, the coach not only checked out ideal sprint form, but also that jaws flopped loosely, hands were like a rag doll's and wrinkles were nonexistent on foreheads. Shoulders had to be carried low and relaxed. Relaxed sprinting soon became a habit pattern which would hold up under any and all conditions, even the Olympic finals. When they sprinted, all our men looked alike. You could always identify a San Jose sprinter by this smooth, fluid, relaxed form.

... If relaxation can cut down on reaction time, we surely wanted it on starts and we insisted on it. Before getting on our marks, we went through a few relaxation exercises. We concentrated on staying loose at the "come-to-your-marks" position, "get-set" position and particularly on the "go" position. At the gun, we moved our arms very fast, but kept them loose.

. . . Before taking any starts, we always did these exercises.[5]

Winter recounts many cases of athletes who greatly benefitted from using his technique. For example, he tells the story of Lee Evans, who experienced an extreme amount of stress just a few hours before his 400 meter race in the '68 Olympics. Winter managed to get Evans to go "through the relaxation routine and he was asleep in three minutes. No longer were there wrinkles in his forehead. He had obtained peace of mind."[6] Evans subsequently went on to win the gold medal, setting a world record in the process.

Another San Jose State track star who used "relaxation" to advantage was Dan Ripley, the former world record holder in the pole vault (indoor). Ripley recalls the "mental set" he adopted when he established a world record mark of 18 feet 1 inch in 1979:

I didn't think I had a chance, so I relaxed and stayed loose. On my first try, I just ticked the bar. That gave me confidence and I relaxed even more. Thinking positive, I said, "I can make it" and I did—on my third attempt. [7]

Coach Winter's work with the San Jose State track team illustrates well the enormous contribution mental training can make to any athletic program. The Canadian Olympic Association also considers mental training valuable, so much so that it sponsored the translation of an East German sports psychology book, in the hopes that an understanding of its contents could help Canadian coaches and athletes. The book, Psychology from Start to Finish (English translation, 1986) by Frank Schubert, Ph.D., was originally published in 1981 in East Germany under the title of Psychologic zwischen Start und Ziel Dr. Schubert's book is a highly generalized introduction to sports psychology, and contains no East German training "secrets." However, it does include a good section on "mental practice" (imagery).

Dr. Schubert says three conditions are necessary for successful utilization of imagery: 1) athletes practicing the technique "should be at least 12 years old;" 2) "they should feel no inner aversion to the exercise; they have to have their heart in it;" and 3) athletes must "have clear and pre-

cise ideas of the entire exercise and all details they wish to 'train' in their mind."[8] Dr. Schubert does not explain why he implicitly discourages the use of imagery by athletes less than 12 years of age; but, his advocacy of an age threshold for the practice imagery means that he believes the discipline is definitely appropriate for junior athletes (12 to 14 years of age, as well as high school age athletes).

Dr. Schubert next proposes the ideal way for imagery to be carried out: 1) the athlete should "visualize the movement several (3 to 5) times as vividly as possible;" and 2) the imagery session "should not last longer than five minutes, and should be followed by a period of actual realization of the movements." This second condition is important because, according to Dr. Schubert, "by going through the movements mentally and by repeating them several times practically, you improve nerve connections;" therefore the combination of imagery and physical practice "complements, reinforces, or corrects the motions."[9]

Dr. Schubert then relates four instances of athletes using imagery to improve their performance, with the best story being the one about Boris Shaklin (USSR). Shaklin won four gold medals in the 1960 Olympics in gymnastics (individual, side horse, parallel bars, vault) and one gold medal in the 1964 Games (horizontal bar). Dr. Schubert does not indicate the year or competition in which the following incident took place. Still, from reading the story one tends to believe that Shaklin went about his routines the same way at every competition:

"Shaklin" was the announcement from the loudspeaker. He walked to the platform, and stood in a corner, right at the edge. He turned sideways and remained in that position. A second, then two, five, almost half a minute went by. What was going on inside him? Shaklin stood there motionless with his eyes half closed. His cheekbones were even more pronounced when he pressed his lips tightly together. His arms were hanging limply. Only his long supple fingers were moving somewhat, feeling the cool metal as they went along . . .

All of a sudden he spun around and took the first step toward the apparatus. Then came his mount, with his hands grasping the bars. He began the first part of the difficult exercise. I watched the expression on his face carefully—completely relaxed. I could not see any signs of exertion or anxiety. Then came the dismount. Silence everywhere. The sighs of relief that had been held back by the thousands of people in the gymnastic hall were suddenly released. But Shaklin just stood there calmly. When and where had I experienced something similar? Not in any gymnastic competition . . .

The former world champion. . . revealed later the ritual he would go through before starting his exercises: "I did not pray or anything. I would think of an exercise that I had done particularly well in the past, and my muscles would feel the rhythm. That's all."[10]

Observe that what Shaklin did is precisely what G. D. Gorbunov advocated in his 1979 paper (see Soviet Athlete chapter). Gorbunov contended that "it is best to actualize goals only in the last few minutes and, in some cases, seconds before the start." I have quoted Gorbunov several times on this to reemphasize the benefits last-minute mental rehearsal can provide; these benefits will accrue especially to those athletes who have already regularly practiced mental training, and therefore can perform a last-minute visualization or self-hypnosis session without any difficulty. We do not know for a certainty if Shaklin regularly practiced imagery, but one would surmise that he did, based on the unflappable way he was able to employ the technique during competition in front of a large crowd.

The balance of Dr. Schubert's book contains few high points. The mental training regimen of the East German Olympic athletes is not mentioned or even hinted at. In fact, one wonders if Dr. Schubert is holding back a little on the amount of information he discloses. Whatever the case,

Psychology from Start to Finish, being an introductory sports psychology text, sheds no light on the "mental training gap" controversy.

Music for Workouts

In reviewing recent Soviet sports psychology research, it will immediately be seen that imaginative and well-constructed studies continue to emerge from the USSR. One 1984 study in particular merits our attention: "Monotony in Sport and Its Prevention Through Music," by Y. G. Kodzhaspirov. In our Tennis chapter we saw how a classical music "stress tape" put out by Bill Sheen reduced tension (heart rate, body temperature, etc.) in many tennis players, including Virginia Wade and Billie Jean King. Kodzhaspirov went way beyond Sheen in studying music's effects on athletes. The Soviet scientist introduced three varieties of music into the workouts of 649 wrestlers, boxers, and gymnasts; he then observed over a six-month to two-year period how the athletes responded to the music. The reason Kodzhaspirov conducted his study was because physical training workloads of athletes have now become so demanding that attitudinal problems are surfacing more than ever, with the monotony factor being the major culprit. The same drills, weightlifting repetitions, etc. are practiced by the athlete over and over again, day in and day out; in virtually every sport nowadays you see the presence of this type of "salt mine" routine. As Kodzhaspirov notes:

Even in acyclical and mixed sports events, which at first glance appear to be free from the cyclical form of work, all the training exercises are, as a rule, executed for certain periods of time. There are special exercises which require multiple repetitions in each session day after day, month after month, and year after year.

This does not take into consideration improvement of sports mastery in which only a small number of movements are used and which high level athletes must repeat tens and hundreds and even thousands of times in each session in order to perfect precise execution. [11]

Practicing the same drill thousands of times will assuredly help the rare athlete who can maintain his motivation in the face of such a boring plight. But, more often than not, the monotony of it all eventually gets to the person, severely curtailing his progress in the process. Kodzhaspirov sums up the situation:

As a result of the development of monotony in athletes, interest in the training work decreases. There is untimely or early fatigue, poor attention and watchfulness. . .

The quantity and quality of the work executed suffers. There is a slow-down in improvement of sports achievements, absences increase, and the athletes separate themselves from the others more often. [12]

To make the workout seem less monotonous to the athlete, Kodzhaspirov introduced an "irritant" into the training session—the "irritant" being music. The Soviet researcher points out that "new irritants such as sight and sound stimulate new areas of the brain cortex," impeding "the development of inhibition beyond its critical bounds" (which, if this did not happen, would result in monotony).[13] In preliminary research before undertaking his major study, Kodzhaspirov discovered that music definitely has its place in workouts, but is not recommended for certain portions of the training session. He informs us:

It was established that musical stimulation in the training session is carried out best in only the parts needed, and not for the entire session. It is needed in those portions of the session in which there is repeated execution of simple or deeply learned exercises. Such exercises do not require active following of the movements and great concentration on execution of the work, i.e., in those portions where music will not distract or

THE SUPER MENTAL TRAINING BOOK

interfere with the work.

Periods of the training session which require mainly active attention are not recommended for musical accompaniment. In these periods music interference can decrease the activeness of information perception and slow down preparation for fast reactions to the information received. These periods are usually the introductory portion of the main session, the time of learning new material and its reinforcement, explanations by the coach and elements of competition (throws, pulls, offensive and defensive moves, and so on).[14]

Kodzhaspirov found that three types of music can be used to advantage during workouts: Work-up Music, Leading Music, and Quieting Music. The following table describes when these three types of music should be used, as well as their nature.

TYPE

USE WHEN

NATURE

Work-up Music

Leading Music

Quieting Music

During the warm-up. (First 20-25 minutes)

During the main portion of the workout, when drilling, doing repetitions. (Optimal duration—10 minutes)

Just before and after the end of the workout. (Play for 5-7 minutes before the end till 5 minutes after the end)

Happy, cheerful, rhythmical, in a major tone, executed in a gradually accelerating lively rhythm.

Rhythmical quality. Pleasant sounding. Rhythm should be adapted to the planned work tempo.

Soft, melodious, encouraging relaxation.

(Note: Change t he music played during the workout on a regular basis; for example, every 2-3 workouts.)

The three types of music, says the Soviet scientist, should reflect the taste of the athlete. It should be realized that if a team practice is involved, not everyone's preference can be satisfied. Kodzhaspirov does not mention how this problem can be gotten around, or if it really matters so much. He does say, however, that "repetition of the same musical production should not take place sooner than 1-2 months." Again, hearing the same music day in and day out can become just as monotonous as the repetitive part of the workout, and new areas of the cerebral cortex will not be stimulated this way. So, change the music—and don't play it again for at least another two months!