The Super Mental Training Book (54 page)

49. Nideffer, op. cit., p. SI.

50. Bryant J. Cratty, Social Psychology in Athletics, (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1981), p. 287.

MENTAL TRAINING STRATEGIES TIME LINE (MENTAL TRAINING INTO THE 21ST CENTURY)

D U R

I

N G

T H E

S E A S O N

T H

E

C O M P

E T

I T

I O

N

Mind-and-Body Sports Club

(Idea advocated/bankrolled by Rod Carew and others whereby members can train themselves physically and mentally under the same roof)

Beta to Theta Type Tapes

(Such tapes slow down the brainwave activity level, resulting in enhanced suggestibility; Dick Sutphen urges Beta to Theta tapes for martial arts students and other athletes desiring accelerated learning; Yogi Wassan says only way to truly relax is through use of tones)

Subliminal Audio Tapes

(Positive statements on such tapes reputedly reach one's subconscious without the person having to relax or go into a trance; many companies market subliminal sports tapes; some firms sell devices allowing one to play subliminal messages which are masked by constantly changing background music, coming from one's radio, CD player, etc., forestalling monotony)

Mental Training Videotapes

(SyberVision videotapes, showing scientifically edited action of sports models, used to advantage by many athletes, including Stanford Men's Tennis Team; subliminal videotapes reportedly doubly effective as messages are heard and seen by one's subconscious; video hypnosis tapes even more powerful, as they address both the conscious and subconscious mind)

Designated Psychologist

(Another name for team sports psychologist, to be employed all season by baseball teams; the Angels and Pirates try out the concept)

Computerized Biofeedback

(Dr. Landers says technological advances make real-time self-monitoring capability imminent; archer champion Rick McKin-ney helped out by this technique)

MENTAL TRAINING INTO THE 21ST CENTURY

There can be little doubt that mental training now rests on a solid foundation. After years of experimentation and practical application, its basic core—the regular practice of self-hypnosis and visualization—has been conclusively proven to provide substantial benefits to athletes. Building upon this foundation, mental training advocates are devising new ways to improve athletic performance; concurrently, the integration of mental training with physical training at the elite athlete level is proceeding with rapidity. While it is impossible to describe here all of the frontiers of mental training being explored, some of the more interesting concepts and research deserve mention.

Mind-and-Body Sports Club

Baseball great Rod Carew has helped put into effect a novel idea. He linked up with hypnotist Harvey Misel and ballplayers Bill Buckner and Eric Soderholm to establish a mind-and-body sports club in the Chicago area.[l] Carew discussed the concept with me, stating:

Harvey Misel and I talked about it before the club really got into the planning stages. I told him that I thought a mind-and-body sports club would be really great because to hit a baseball you have to concentrate. To hit a receiver in football you have to concentrate. With a golfer it's the same thing: he has to concentrate on hitting the ball, and his swing. I told Harvey if you can get athletes interested in hypnosis, it's going to make their job a lot easier. I also said I don't think people will shy away from a club offering hypnosis; because they're going to find out it will help them.

The mind-and-body sports club concept brings together physical conditioning and mental preparation. Both services are offered under the same roof. Carew's recommendations can be said to be: 1) establish mind-and-body sports clubs across the country. The easiest way for this to occur would be for pre-existing clubs to incorporate mental training into their overall fitness program; 2) athletes and others should patronize such clubs. Not only can club members work on their physical conditioning, but, says Carew, "they're going to find out it (hypnosis) will help them." Presumably, after finding out how helpful hypnosis is, the members will become enthused about the discipline and practice it regularly.

Carew describes athletics as being 100% physical and 100% mental—not simply 50% of both. "And," he adds, "it's not only athletics, but it's also true in private life, for the man who works from 9 to 5." For this reason he strongly supports the mind-and-body sports club idea. Nonathletes as well as athletes can join such a club, and strengthen their body and mind to handle daily stress. Mind-and-body sports clubs are not yet widespread, but the one in Chicago is going "pretty good," Carew informed me in November, 1982. Until such clubs become more prevalent, you will have to look elsewhere for instruction on proper mental preparation, and motivate yourself.

DP — Designated Psychologist

Correspondent Stan Hochman of Knight-Ridder newspapers came out with a cleverly coined proposal in a 1983 article. He offered this suggestion for professional baseball teams:

A DP, a designated psychologist. It's an idea whose time is long overdue. You could put together two contending clubs with the players who caved in under stress and left the game too early, having given us only a glimpse at their talent. [2]

THE SUPER MENTAL TRAINING BOOK

(Bob Stevenson photo)

Rod Carew, seven-time American League batting champion and mind-and-body sports club advocate, began using hypnosis in 1976 to improve his concentration. His hypnotist, Harvey Misel, gave him such suggestions as "visualize the ball," "visualize the bat making contact," and "concentrate on the pitcher."

According to Hochman, the designated (team) psychologist would be retained by the club; his services would be available to players and coaching staff alike. "A professional help program would have to start at the top," observed the reporter, meaning that management would have to take the initiative in hiring a team psychologist. Along these lines, Hochman reported that the Philadelphia Phillies were considering hiring Dr. Tom McGinnis to serve in such a capacity. Dr. McGinnis, not too surprisingly, felt such a move was needed. He stated:

I've had managers tell me a player is depressed, paranoid, immature, anxious, has marital problems, is a compulsive drinker. All the problems I face in my regular practice.

...The players are hungry for this (having a team psychologist). It would lengthen careers, they'd play more happily. The owners would benefit.

Managers and coaches say the average player improves physically only about 6 to 8 percent. That's not very much.

But there's another dimension, where vast improvement lies untapped and often unnoticed. The mind, the psyche, a player's insides. Most of us have emotional scars from growing up. A professional athlete is no different.[3]

To tap the person's potential, the mental rehearsal technique of choice Dr. McGinnis employs is self-hypnosis. He says:

I teach self-hypnosis to all my patients. It's the best psychological tool to use in a stress atmosphere. I have pitchers in the big leagues who can step off the mound in a jam, enter a momentary state, and then step back to pitch.[4]

Dave Bristol, former manager of the San Francisco Giants, informed Hochman that Dr. McGinnis "helped me in 1980" when the Giants had been "struggling and it was taking its toll on me." Because of Dr. McGinnis's help Bristol seconded the designated psychologist idea, remarking, "I hope some team will hire a psychologist. It will only happen when someone gets enough gutstodoit."[5]

Employing the services of a team psychologist is really not a new idea, as we have seen throughout this book, though the concept has met with some resistance at the professional baseball level. But, even here walls are coming down. The Pittsburgh Pirates, for example, hired Dr. William Harrison to serve as a team psychologist during the 1986 season. Sporting News columnist Stan Isle reported that Pirates General Manager Syd Thrift made this investment because he believed Dr. Harrison could "help Pittsburgh players develop 'positive visualization,' a technique Thrift said 'worked wonders' several years ago for the Royals' George Brett."[6] Revealing a commendable grasp of what visualization involves, Thrift told Isle that "good hitters see the line drives before they go to bat. Bad hitters see pop-ups and fly balls." Besides working with the players on their visualization skills, Dr. Harrison was also to "administer athlete-related eye tests," added Isle. The '86 season concluded with the Pirates compiling a dismal 64-98 record, earning them last place in the National League East. This showing, however, says little about the effectiveness of Dr. Harrison's work; for other factors besides the presence of a team psychologist, such as the talent level of the players, their conditioning, etc., greatly impact on a team's overall performance. What one can say, without investigating the matter further, is that at least the Pirates management's intentions were good in exposing their players to mental training.

Other professional baseball teams reportedly use sports psychologists nowadays, though these reports are often difficult to confirm—the mental training programs remaining low key and/or un-publicized, as in the case of Dr. Ravizza's work with the California Angels. Another example demonstrating this state of affairs surfaced in 1989, as it was revealed that Tom House, pitching coach for the Texas Rangers, also wears the hat as sports psychologist for his team's hurlers.[8] Coach House, who possesses a Ph.D. in psychology, has put many of his pitchers through hypnotherapy sessions, as well as given them subliminal tapes to listen to. To what degree have the sessions and tapes proven beneficial? Again, the impact of these mental training strategies would best be ascertained by talking directly to those Rangers pitchers who tried them out, as a baseball team's won-loss record reflects many things besides the psych-up capabilities of the pitching staff.

As additional professional baseball teams recognize the legitimate role mental training can

play in a player development program, arrangements between baseball management and sports psychologists will become more prevalent, though not necessarily more evident. Currently such arrangements are widespread at the Olympic team sports level, both in the U.S. and abroad, and we have already witnessed how teams in other professional sports are also getting into the act.

Computerized Biofeedback

In a fascinating August, 1985 Omni magazine article (see "Ultra Sports"), Mark Teich and Pamela Weintraub reported on sports psychology research that borders on the fantastical. The work of Dr. Dan Landers, psychologist at Arizona State University, is especially noteworthy in this respect. Says Teich and Weintraub:

(Dr. Landers) wires his athletes with electrodes that measure heart rate, temperature, brain waves, and muscle activity during training. By analyzing these data on a computer, he can often tell why athletes go into a tailspin. He then uses biofeedback to eliminate the problems they may be having. [9]

The writers go on to cite instances where Dr. Landers helped certain athletes. For example, world class archer Rick McKinney used biofeedback to overcome an unconscious squinting habit that had been adversely affecting his performances. This was accomplished like so. Dr. Landers, state Teich and Weintraub, connected "an electrode from the muscle under McKinney's eye to the computer. He then had the computer's amplifier 'crackle like firecrackers' every time the electrode detected muscle activity." According to Dr. Landers, "The sound was so loud it helped him concentrate on what was going on. After just ten arrows he'd reduced that squint to a blink. Soon even the blink was gone."[10]

While this type of work with biofeedback is not particularly unique, Dr. Landers' future efforts will be. The Arizona State University psychologist plans to teach tomorrow's athletes how to use biofeedback to "achieve the optimal mind-set for each situation." Such instruction will be combined with technological advances in biofeedback instrumentation, providing the athlete a real-time, self-monitoring capability. The athlete will be able to adjust his mind-set as needed—as indicated to him by the computer— during actual competition, Teich and Weintraub describe exactly what Dr. Landers has in mind:

Each year, he notes, computer components grow smaller, and it may soon be possible to make a heart, brain, or muscle sensor the size of a dime. These sensors, attached to the athlete's body or clothing, would radio information to a nearby computer for analysis. An instant biofeedback tone would be transmitted from the computer to a tiny plug in the athlete's ear. "This is imminent," Landers predicts. "We've got to put the components together, but most of the basic technology is there." [11]

When this technology is perfected and applied, it will be interesting to see if rules are adopted by sports governing boards disallowing its use. Because what you would have is a situation whereby a machine—the computer—is aiding the athlete during competition. Proponents of the computerized biofeedback technology will no doubt claim that really it is the athlete aiding himself; but, this occurs only thanks to the computer-generated signals provided the athlete. While it is unobjectionable for athletes to utilize the assistance of machines and computers to get in top physical and mental condition before competition, one can imagine resistance arising to allowing an athlete-machine combination to exist during competition; this, opponents will probably argue, is carrying the peak performance concept too far.