The Super Mental Training Book (58 page)

Stevenson: Tell me about the mental training tapes Dr. Ravizza has made for your team.

Wolfe: We use one tape when Ken cannot be with us personally. It's his voice on the tape, and he talks to the team. Sometimes I cannot afford to take Ken along on an away meet, or he is busy doing other things and cannot spare the time. So, instead of taking Ken, we take the tape. For the home meets, Ken is always here.

Stevenson: In the week preceding a big meet, how many times during that week do your gymnasts listen to the tape, or engage in mental training sessions with Dr. Ravizza?

Wolfe: In terms of how we use the tape, with the exception of a relaxation tape, we listen to it immediately prior to the contest at 5 o'clock, with the meet beginning at 7:30. 5 o'clock to 5:30 is mental training; 5:30 to 5:50 is stretching on the mat as a group; 5:50 to 5:55 is a briefing by me. From that time until 7:20 is open warm-up. So, it's a long preparatory process.

Stevenson: What is on this general mental training tape?

Wolfe: The first instructions get the athlete into a relaxed state. Then, Ken puts them into a

"mental room"—they do down some stairs into their "mental room," which they've learned to create. The "mental room" is their safe place. That is where they can go and nothing can get to them or bother them. That's where they go figure their strategy. In the "mental room" Ken helps them set some goals; he'll say, "Go to your blackboard and write your goals for the meet." Then, there are some affirmations. Like, "I am a strong and powerful gymnast," and you say this six times. Or, "I am ready;" "I am prepared to focus on the meet;" "I'm committed to taking one trip at a time."

Stevenson: After the affirmations Dr. Ravizza no doubt brings the athletes out of the relaxed state.

Wolfe: Yes. They come back up the stairs. Once the tape is over, the whole team gets in a circle, and we make a big, loud yell, which starts with everyone bent over, shoulder to shoulder; it's a team unity thing. At that point in time I'll talk to them [give the briefing]. Then, down on the floor, I've seen Ken do some very remarkable things.

Stevenson: Dr. Ravizza told me about his work with the 1984 U.S. Olympic field hockey team, and how during competition some of the players looked at focal points to help maintain their confidence and concentration. Do your gymnasts use focal points?

Wolfe: Yes, we use focal points. But, you also have a problem with the responsibility of the athlete. For example, you may have a kid who is not using focal points, and you have taught him to use focal points, and you assume that he is using them. You've been coaching him for two goddamn years to use focal points, and ask him after the meet, "What was your focal point?" and he says, "Well, I didn't have one." "What do you mean you didn't have one?" and he says, "Well, I don't use focal points." These kinds of things can happen when you are dealing with a group of people—and I'm not dealing with that many people, maybe 14 or 15.

One of things that I strive for is for the athlete to be responsible. So, when an athlete misses and then I ask him "What happened?" and he replies "I don't know," then we have a problem. He has to sit down and figure out what happened, and take responsibility for his miss and learn from it. That's my goal, and Ken and I are right on track with that.

Stevenson: How helpful has the "Gymnastics Meet Feedback" sheet been? (This sheet asks the gymnast questions about his psychological state before and during the meet, how he handled stress, etc., and is filled out after the competition. It is presented in the Recent Developments in Sports Psychology and Mental Training chapter.)

Wolfe: Very helpful. It's important that the athletes be honest with their comments. So, I try not to judge what they say on the sheet. You want them to put down what is real, honest—and sometimes you're not going to like it. Sometimes a kid might write that he didn't care; he just wanted to get done and get out of there.

Stevenson: On a scale of 0% to 100%, what percent would you ascribe to mental training and what percent to physical training in helping one learn gymnastics?

Wolfe: I believe the best physical training is concomitant with the best mental training. If a kid is working on a skill which he is physically capable of learning, and possesses the right mental set, he'll acquire that skill. If he has the wrong mental set, he is not going to learn that skill. I used to say that in gymnastics mental training is 2%, physical training 98%, and without the 2% the physical training doesn't matter. But, I think I've evolved to the point where I cannot separate the mental training from the physical training, because they are both critical to the total process.

Take imagery, for example. You can develop good imagery skills. But, if I tell you, "I want you to lie down and image a Reverse Hecht," you don't know what the hell I'm talking about. You don't even know what event it's on, right?

Stevenson: I sure don't.

Wolfe: It's a skill on the high bar. So, I have a responsibility to help you, if I were coaching you, to get a picture of what a Reverse Hecht is before you use imagery to help you learn that skill. So again, we got the physical training and mental training overlapping.

Stevenson: Discuss spillover effects, if any. Your gymnasts have learned imagery and other mental techniques, using them for their meets. How about for the classroom? Have you seen an improvement in grades?

Wolfe: Oh yes. And whenever a guy says he's got a physics test which he is nervous about, I ask him, "Did you prepare?" He'll say, "Yeah, I really studied and feel I know the material, but I'm really nervous." So, I tell him, "Remember your breathing," and to apply his mental training skills. I try to suggest to the athletes that they use their mental training skills outside of the context of gymnastics—in the classroom, in social and family situations. Ken and I are always excited to get feedback from former athletes who say that they used their mental training skills in business and careers. Without exception they tell us that they do use what they learned in the mental training program in their after-college life.

Stevenson: Dr. Unestahl says that it would be better for a coach to learn mental training and present it to his team than for a sports psychologist to try to learn gymnastics, for example.

Wolfe: That's very true. You know, Ken is very good at what he does for us because he understands the sport. One of the things that Ken is able to do really well on the floor with our team is nothing.

Stevenson: Nothing. What do you mean by that?

Wolfe: There are times when you should do nothing, and there are times when you should do something. And if you do not have the ability to recognize those two things, then you don't belong on the floor with the team. We took Ken to a very important competition a couple of years ago. During the meet I asked my captain, "How's it going?" and he said, "Fine, I'm really glad we brought Ken." "What did he do?" and my captain answered, "Nothing." I found out later that all Ken did was check in with him, and my captain had the best meet of his life. It was Ken's presence that was important, and that is what my guy was saying.

Stevenson: Do you think that you could assume the role of sports psychologist in the event that Dr. Ravizza moved to another college, let's say? Do you think you could take over what he is currently doing with your gymnasts?

Wolfe: I think it would be difficult for me to step into that role. I think I'm just as good as anybody in terms of behavior and motivational types of things, and so on. But, in terms of putting on the hat of sports psychologist, I don't think so.

Ken acts as mediator, also. If I'm having a problem with an athlete—a communication problem you can call it for lack of other words—I can be very destructive. I'm a very powerful guy with a young person: I got my gray hair, my experience, my accolades, all that, and I can ice the guy if I choose to. I'm in a powerful position, and sometimes the athlete is in a powerful position because I need him. So, you can get very destructive to each other. If I see that situation developing—if I'm frustrated in how I'm dealing with the kid, frustrated with how he's behaving, how he's treating me, and how he's responding to my coaching—what I do is set up a meeting between the kid and me, with Ken acting as the mediator. Ken is very good in this role because he doesn't have anything at stake. I got something at stake, and so does the kid. So, we do a "5 and 5."

Stevenson: What's that?

Wolfe: You put a timer on. Let's say it's you and me. You have five minutes, can say whatever you want, and there's no rules at all. You can call me a (expletive) and use any kind of language

you want. It's a real deal. There's nobody there but the three of us. I can take notes, but I can't respond. Then, after you get done, I have my five minutes. What Ken does is force the athlete and me to talk to each other, look at each other, listen to each other. Like, if the athlete says, "That makes me so mad!" then Ken may say, "Turn and tell the coach 'You make me so mad.' Isn't that what you really mean?" And so on back and forth. The purpose of this mediation session, from my perspective, is that when we are done, there are no walls. There is now a genuine opportunity to communicate, to go into the gym and experience a better learning process.

Stevenson: I gather that quite often you and the athlete do not walk out of the room buddy buddies, but nonetheless you had the communication, which had not been existing before.

Wolfe: That's right. In every case that I can think of where it's happened, there has been such a change in the performance level for the best that it's profound. I once had a pommel horse kid that could not hit it at all. He was scoring 7s. We had an encounter—we set aside 15 minutes, and ended up coming out of the room 1 1/2 hours later; he and I were screaming at each other and everything else. He went his way and I went mine. When he came into the gym the next day, he was scoring 9.7s and 9.8s. Of course, that was his physical ability. But, the two of us had built up walls to the extent that he couldn't function, and I wasn't functioning properly as a coach with regard to his performance. Encounter sessions are not something we use all the time, but I firmly believe in communicating with the people I work with, and if there are walls, you cannot communicate.

Stevenson: Well, Dr. Ravizza says his role should not be that of a fireman, to put out fires. But certainly, fires do arise occasionally, and holding a mediation session is one way to handle them. Is there anything else you would like to mention about Dr. Ravizza and his mental training program?

Wolfe: Ken has added another dimension to me as a coach, and I'm very grateful for that. I suspect that if I had tried to explore mental training with some other sports psychology type of person, it might not have worked. I feel real fortunate that Ken and I have had the kind of communication that we've had. I believe that I have learned a great deal from Ken, and that he's learned a lot from me. The reason it's worked out is because we have the same things in mind: we're both after the truth and a successful performance for the athlete.

We have witnessed throughout this book many different arguments in favor of making mental training programs voluntary. I made the point in the Swimming chapter that the athlete should be exposed to mental training, but not "hassled or pressured" into using mental rehearsal techniques (such as focal points). I also stated that if a mental training program is well presented, its benefits explained and clearly demonstrated to the athlete, then the athlete will probably voluntarily go along with such a program. A problem arises, however, when a coach makes mental training an integral part of his overall program, and the athlete would just as soon have nothing to do with imagery and the like. Coach Wolfe believes that his responsibility as a coach is to see to it that his gymnasts participate whole-heartedly in Dr. Ravizza's mental training program, because in Wolfe's opinion mental training definitely benefits the person. This position, of course, clashes with the individual athlete who might disagree. So, the question becomes: should the authority of the coach or the free will of the athlete prevail? Dr. Ravizza, according to Coach Wolfe, is more inclined to let the athlete do as he wishes regarding the mental training. Coach Wolfe, by contrast, sees difficulties in this tolerant position. If the athletes are allowed to choose whether or not to participate in the mental training program, and some exercise their option to forego it, then you could have half the team doing one thing, and half something else. Team unity and cohesion perhaps suffer as a result. "Do I have one team, or two?" Coach Wolfe might ask himself, were he

confronted with such a situation. He avoids having to deal with this possibility, however, by making "a kid go see Ken" if necessary, and dispensing "consequences" on those who "do not listen to Ken, come late, or miss a mental training session." In other words, Coach Wolfe makes participation in the mental training program mandatory or semi-voluntary. That's the reality. The athlete, keep in mind, never loses his free will: he can always go to another college where mental training is not part of the gymnastics program. But, apparently, no one is scared away from Coach Wolfe due his embracement of mental training; as he states, "when the new people come in, they're ready to go and they accept the mental training program because it has been successful" and because "it's an acceptable part of sports."

When the gymnasts are listening before a meet to the mental training tape, and are in their "mental room," affirmations are either presented by Dr. Ravizza or the athlete creates and repeats his own. Because the athlete is in a highly relaxed state at this time, these affirmations can also be called autosuggestions or hypnotic suggestions, depending on whether it is the athlete or Dr. Ravizza saying them. Again, nowadays the trend is to call mental rehearsal techniques by any name, so long as "hypnosis" is not used.

Coach Wolfe states that it would be difficult for him to step into the role of sports psychologist should Dr. Ravizza's services become unavailable for any reason. In the future necessity may force Coach Wolfe to either take that difficult step or to drop the mental training from his gymnastics program. We have seen many examples in this book of people conducting mental training suddenly changing jobs and/or becoming unavailable to the athlete at critical moments. With the departure or unavailability of the mental trainer came the dissolution or nonoccurrence of the mental training program or session; this generally had a negative impact on the athlete and overall sports program. To insure against this unwelcome development at the collegiate level, athletic departments should create a position for a full-time sports psychologist. If the sports psychologist moves to another college, retires, or whatever, still the position remains, and another sports psychologist can be hired to fill it. Professional teams should make similar provision. It should be recognized that the hired "mental training coach" may not always meet expectations. In such a case, management should do what it does with head coaches who fail to deliver: bring in a replacement (while still retaining the position). If the Cal State Fullerton athletic department, for example, has as a policy the permanence of a sports psychologist position (which it presently does not), and Dr. Ravizza moves on, then another mental training expert would be brought in. Coach Wolfe, therefore, would likely be able to continue to incorporate mental training into his gymnastics program. In the absence of such a policy, the recommendation of Professor Medvedev, Dr. Unestahl, and Dr. Nideffer for coaches to become their own sports psychologists takes on added significance.