The Super Mental Training Book (5 page)

Summary of Important Points

To become proficient in the use of self-hypnosis, and also a mentally tough athlete:

1) Practice self-hypnosis as often as possible. Spend 2 to 10 minutes for each practice session. Attempt to acquire the instant self-hypnosis capability.

2) Give yourself general autosuggestions ("I will play with total confidence and win!"). Do this first. Then, if necessary, you can also employ technical suggestions.

3) Give yourself suggestions every day in the days or weeks before the competition, because reinforcement makes the suggestions more effective. Definitely give yourself suggestions on the day you compete.

4) If the situation requires, reenter the hypnotic state and reinforce your suggestions during a break or time out. Your opponent and the spectators will simply think you are "resting" or "concentrating."

By following these steps, you can achieve your full athletic potential. You will put pressure on your opponent. He will have to perform really well because you will not beat yourself through mental errors and "choking."

FOOTNOTES

1. Beth Ann Krier, "Olympians Exercising in Mind Arena," Los Angeles Times, June 7, 1983, Part I, p. 19.

2. Steve Grimley, "Mind Games: U.S. Slow to Accept Sports Psychology," Orange County Register, April 19, 1985, Part D, p. 15.

3. Robert A. Romanoff, "Hypnotism and State Laws," Hypnosis Quarterly, Vol. XXII, No. 3, 1979, p. 24.

4. William J. Kroger, Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1977), p. 86.

5. Ibid., p. 339.

6. Lydia Lane, "Crusader for Mind Power," Los Angeles Times, August 17, 1977, Part IV, p. 13.

7. Hardin B. Jones and Helen C. Jones, Sensual Drugs, (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1977), p. 218.

8. Dr. Graham Reedy, team physician for the Oakland Raiders between 1971 and 1976, saw this pattern develop in Raiders players who smoked pot. Dr. Reedy states in a July 15, 1981 UPI report: "Even those who used small amounts (of marijuana) and not on game day just couldn't keep up the peak performance required of professional football players. Regular users were usually gone by the end of one year. The maximum time a regular user was with the team was two years."

9. "Rutigliano Says Rogers Was 'Clean,'" Orange County Register, July 20, 1986, Part D, p. 19.

10. Kroger, op. cit., p. 85.

11. Larry C. Walrath and David W. Hamilton, "Autonomic Correlates of Meditation and Hypnosis," The American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, Volume 17, Number 3; January, 1975, p. 196.

12. Ibid.

13. Warren R. Johnson, "Hypnosis and Muscular Performance," Contemporary Readings in Sport Psychology, (Springfield,

Illinois: Charles C. Thomas, 1970), p. 418.

14. Kroger, op. cit., p. 86.

15. Ibid.

16. Ibid., p. 11.

17. Ibid., p. 49.

18. "The Value of 'Ego-strengthening' Procedures Prior to Direct Symptom Removal Under Hypnosis," American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, Vol. 8, 1965, p. 89.

19. Kroger, op. cit., p. 14.

20. Soviet scientist G. D. Gorbunov agrees with this position, advocating that athletes actualize "the goals of good effort, of what to do, how to do it, and when to do it... in the last few minutes and, in some cases, seconds before the start." Employing various mental rehearsal techniques, many Soviet Olympic gold medalists, such as Valery Borzov (sprinter) and Boris Shaklin (gymnast), did exactly this (see Soviet Athlete chapter and Recent Developments in Sports Psychology and Mental Training chapter).

21. Kroger, op. cit., p. 14.

MENTAL TRAINING STRATEGIES TIME LINE

(TENNIS)

Self-hypnosis Sessions

(Billie Jean King spent five minutes each night repeating to herself, "I can win Wimbledon!" She ended up winning 20 Wimbledon titles; see Lundgren's comments)

Listening to a Visualization Audio Tape

(Bunker and Rotella recommend you do this every night)

Use of Imagery the Day Before a Big Match

(Done by all-time greats Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert)

Use of Autosuggestions during the Match

(Bob Payan, Paul Shaver, and the author also gave themselves autosuggestions during the week preceding the tournament, as well as just before the match)

TENNIS :

MEDITATION, IMAGERY, AND SELF-HYPNOSIS ATTRACT LARGE DRAW

"Choke artist," "just a club player," and "perennial first round loser": these are popular labels most tennis players at one time or another have had to live down. Many players never escape from this rut, even though they desperately want to. They buy new rackets, take expensive lessons, and practice for hours every day—and still they lose! There is hope, however, for such players. Several professional and amateur tennis players have used meditation, imagery, and self-hypnosis to dramatically raise the level of their games, leading to startling victories, and, as a welcome byproduct, the silencing of the critics.

In 1975 Arthur Ashe faced Jimmy Connors in the finals at Wimbledon. Everyone knew Connors would win—except Ashe. Ashe had not won too many tournaments the previous years, and the critics were really getting on his case. But, for Wimbledon he had a surprise in store for his detractors. Throughout the tournament Ashe employed a relaxation and concentration procedure between games which resembled meditation. Bob Gillen, Tennis USA reporter, describes this procedure:

During the changeovers of the match Ashe would sit very still in his chair with his eyes closed for 20-30 seconds. "I try to totally relax during these moments and shut out all distractions," Ashe said. "If you try to do too much during a changeover, it will tire you out even more, not rest you or help your concentration."!!]

In meditation your first objective is to clear the mind and achieve some degree of relaxation. Ashe at Wimbledon strove for this, and succeeded. It was reported in World Tennis that Ashe sat "motionless in his chair, eyes closed like some meditative Buddha, letting his whole body and mind sink into a state of total relaxation for 30 seconds."[2] The TV cameras picked this up quite clearly, and it drew the attention of the sportscasters who informed the viewers that Ashe was "concentrating." Ashe probably did more than just concentrate. Most likely he briefly entered a meditative state. Alex Metreveli, the 1973 Wimbledon finalist, thinks not, however. He shares the sportscasters' opinion. I asked him if he thought Ashe used meditation during his match against Connors. Replied Metreveli:

I don't think so. It was probably just good concentration. I saw him in the dressing room before the match, and he was just concentrating for the match. He was preparing a couple of days before the finals. So, when he come to the center court at Wimbledon, he was already prepared. During all the match he don't lose any concentration. He was just, you know, concentrating for each point for each game.

Despite the opinion of Metreveli and the sportscasters, the weight of evidence continued to mount that Ashe used some form of meditation during the '75 Wimbledon final. For example, Barry McKay, a top professional player of the '60s and former Junior Davis Cup Coach, contended that Ashe used meditation on several occasions. Speaking to Bud Winter, author of Relax and Win (1981), McKay stated:

One obvious player who has used meditation during matches, and did it very successfully, especially in winning the 1975 Wimbledon final, was Arthur Ashe. The players all have ninety seconds in a changeover between games and Arthur used a lot of that period to simply sit and meditate, and it was shown on national and international television. . .

In an attempt to move from speculation to certainty, I wrote Ashe, asking him if he employed meditation in his Wimbledon match against Connors. I received no direct answer, but the query was addressed several years later. Ashe, writing in the Foreword to James Loehr's Mental Toughness Training for Sports (1986), clarified the matter:

During my 1975 Wimbledon finals match with Jimmy Connors, I was occasionally seen with my eyes closed when resting between games. This prompted the post-match inquiry, "Were you meditating?" My answer was always "yes and no." "Yes" in the sense that it was a formalized technique of mental and physical relaxation. "No" in that I was not reciting any special words or mantras to myself for ninety seconds.

Whether we wish to call Ashe's "formalized technique of mental and physical relaxation" meditation or "good concentration," what remains unquestioned is the fact that he played tremendous tennis in the '75 Wimbledon finals. Ashe dumped Connors in four sets. This happened during a period when Connors had been virtually unbeatable; in fact, people were calling him the greatest tennis player of all time. Ashe's triumph, therefore, was a true shocker.

Nine years later at the '84 Wimbledon, visualization helped bring about another minor miracle. Paul Annacone, then age 21 and playing in his first professional tournament, reached the quarterfinals before losing to Jimmy Connors. Annacone, who has gone on to enjoy a good career in the pros, did something very similar to what Arthur Ashe did in the '75 Wimbledon. "It's called 'visualizing.' I try to empty my mind," explained Annacone at the time, who performed his visualization while sitting on the chair between changeovers and in the locker room before the match.[3] L. A. Times correspondent Rick Reilly, who reported the story on Annacone's employment of a mental training strategy, described how "he tries to go outside his body and watch himself sitting in the chair, breathing." The purpose is to help Annacone relax, who observed that once this is accomplished, "then I can think about the job at hand."

What Ashe did in 1975 seems practically identical to what Annacone did in 1984, only the names given to each are different. Ashe was either "meditating" or "concentrating," whereas Annacone was "visualizing"; Reilly, in fact, says that Annacone "went into his yoga bit," providing yet another name for the same practice. The names assigned to this practice of clearing the mind and relaxing are, of course, unimportant. The important thing is that you try out a mental preparation technique, perhaps one such as used by Ashe and Annacone, giving it an honest trial. If the technique works for you, you are now a mentally tougher and more formidable competitor; if the technique does not work, you have not really lost anything.

Linda Bunker and Robert Rotella, in their book Mind, Set, and Match (1982), offer several visualization techniques for tennis players to try. One of the techniques they suggest is for you to make a self-instruction audio tape, which you are to play "over and over each night to let the good thoughts sink into your head." A sampling of the good thoughts Bunker and Rotella recommend you put on the tape are:

I am hitting very well; I hit my volleys in front of me with a firm wrist, putting them away in the corners. Most of my serves go in unreturnable, but a few miss by inches. I play one shot at a time the best that I can hit each ball.

Bunker and Rotella believe that "you will perform on the tennis court as you picture yourself performing." To perform well, say the authors, you should picture successful shots; the visualization tape helps one picture such shots. According to Bunker and Rotella, mentally experiencing successful shots can be done using external imagery or internal imagery. With external imagery you view yourself making good shots; with internal imagery you "feel" yourself hitting the ball well. The authors suggest that you mentally "feel your grip, feel your backswing begin and stop, feel your weight transfer through the ball contact, feel yourself hit through the ball and finish."

Mind, Set, and Match contains mental preparation techniques, self-awareness tests, concentration exercises, etc. similar to those found in other sports psychology books. Bunker and Rotella do not provide testimonials of any tennis players who have specifically used the mental rehearsal techniques presented in their book; but, one can assume that the techniques are helpful because they resemble what many tennis players have used with great success.

A good article on applying imagery to tennis, "Mental Imagery: A Practice Technique You Can Use Anywhere," appeared in the December, 1985 issue of Tennis magazine. The authors of this article, Steven J. Danish and Eve E. Ellis, lead you through an imagery session whereby, after you get into a state of relaxation with eyes closed, you picture a top pro hitting a shot you wish to perfect. The example Danish and Ellis provide is that of Chris Evert hitting deep ground strokes. After seeing in your mind how Evert hits the ball, "your next step," say the authors, "is imagining (Evert) and yourself hitting forehands next to each other." From this external imagery vantage point Danish and Ellis direct you "back inside your own body, feeling the shot" (internal imagery). They advise you to practice the internal imagery until you get to the point to where "you feel comfortable and confident with this shot" (this step should take you 5 minutes or less). After accomplishing this, you may terminate the session by opening your eyes.

Danish and Ellis suggest that "one way to practice imagery is to wake up early and do it for 10 minutes." They also recommend you use the technique before playing a match. Again, the authors do not name any players who have benefitted from the type of imagery procedure they prescribe, but their approach appears promising because it incorporates both external and internal imagery (on top of relaxation).

A noteworthy example of how practicing imagery can help one's game is provided by the experience of tennis great Martina Navratilova. In her book, Tennis My Way (1983), she describes her selective use of imagery:

Especially if I've got a grudge match, or I want to prove something, win something big, I will go to sleep imagining what I am going to do. I try to envision the kind of points I want to be playing, the feeling of euphoria after the win, everything. Sometimes I have woken up the next day feeling like it's already happened. That's how real I can imagine the tennis to be.

Navratilova, the first woman professional athlete to win over $10,000,000 in earnings, apparently does not practice imagery before every match, and with her talent probably does not need to. Only for special occasions—a "grudge match," for instance—does she employ the technique. In the 1986 Virginia Slims of Dallas Tournament, Navratilova met Chris Evert in the finals, and beat her in 57 minutes, 6-2, 6-1; this was the third worst defeat Navratilova had handed Evert over their 13-year rivalry. The Associated Press reported how the victor used imagery to prepare for the match. Stated Navratilova: