CHAPTER
1 Sports Psychology... A Secret Weapon
Chapter 1 - Sports Psychology…A Secret Weapon _______________________________________________________________________
Introduction ________________________________________________
If I had to point to one factor that would enhance your athletic performance beyond any other, it would have to be sports psychology. As a sports psychologist, the importance that I assign to psychological factors may have been anticipated, but I’m also a realist. I’m aware that performance is affected by many factors such as genetics, nutrition, psychomotor development, training, etc. However, I think that you will agree that such factors are not equally important, and that it is legitimate to ask about the comparative effects of such factors. Theoretically, it would be possible to write a sport equation with terms properly weighted to reflect the average contribution of each factor. I’m not going to do this, for the simple reason I can’t, and at this time, neither can anyone else. But, I can demonstrate the importance of sports psychology in another way. If you are a competitive athlete, you have a lot in common with other athletes. The nature of the sport guarantees this. For instance, you probably train up to twenty hours a week, take vitamin supplements, and cuss like a sailor. But, so does every athlete. So, although a given factor may contribute heavily to performance, there may be almost no individual difference with respect to that factor. In other words, the factor becomes a constant with no advantage to be gained. Consequently, only factors that are not constants will afford the athlete an advantage. Dr. Judd, one of the authors of Take anabolic steroids for example. Athletes who were among the first this textbook, was the first sports to use anabolic steroids had a tremendous advantage. The drugs clearly increased psychologist ever. their strength. When this became common knowledge, the other athletes started using steroids in order to stay competitive. As a result, individual differences that existed when one athlete used drugs and another didn’t were wiped out, or at least reduced. The secret weapon effect of anabolic steroids was eliminated. Now, let’s take a closer look at psychology. I believe that psychology still has “secret weapon” status in sports. As mentioned, most athletes are not paying much attention to psychological factors, nor do they know how to use psychology to enhance performance. Despite the fact that the majority of coaches and athletes that I talked to feel that the psychological aspects of sport is extremely important, they, more often than not, completely ignore this in training. They talk a lot about psychology, but they rarely practice what they preach. It is strange. Many of the world-class athletes I know train three to six hours a day for as many as six days a week. They push themselves to their physical limits and then return the following day for more. When they are not training, they are either talking or reading about how to increase their performance. They spend hours calculating biorhythm charts in order to predict their physiological highs and lows. They won’t smoke or drink and even abstain from sex if they deem it necessary in order to reach peek physical performance. They use any mechanical device they can find or afford that promises to increase performance. Nevertheless, during the 30 to 40 hours per week that these athletes are involved in the sport, usually not one hour is consciously spent preparing for the psychological aspects of the sport. In fact, other than the athletes I work with, I know of only a handful of other athletes who use a systematic program for mental training. Thus, on the surface at least, there appears to be a great inconsistency between coaching philosophy and coaching practice. Obviously then, what makes psychology so important to an athlete is that it is a highly relevant and beneficial variable, but also a much neglected variable. Of course, this begs the question, “Why is such an important aspect of performance neglected by most athletes and coaches?” I believe there are a number of reasons for this inconsistency, but perhaps the lack of knowledge concerning psychology is the most salient factor. The fundamental reason for this stems from a lack of formal training. Many coaches and athletes have not taken college courses in psychology and have not been exposed to this field as a science. Hence, most of the coaches and athletes knowledge of psychology is based on personal experience and unscientific sources. Mass media sources emphasize the unusual and sensational fringe areas of psychology which
Chapter 1 - Sports Psychology…A Secret Weapon _______________________________________________________________________
deal with topics such as ESP or witchcraft. The few articles that do appear in sports magazines are often devoid of any useful systematic approach to problem solving, and many times these articles create unrealistic expectations which eventually lead to further discouragement. Also, a lot of what is written is just pure unadulterated bull. Professional research journals and textbooks in the field of psychology are not much help either. Although these articles and books are not developed with methodological inelegancies or inaccuracies, they are written in a language only a Ph.D. could understand. Without any schooling in statistical research or psychological principles, it is difficult, if not impossible, to cut through all the technical jargon. Not only have that, but the books that are on the market seldom applied behavioral principles to sports in a meaningful way. The reason is that most psychiatrists or clinical psychologists are not that knowledgeable about sports. They are not familiar with the customs, aspirations, or motivations typical of most athletes (nor are they concerned with such things). Their writing generally revolves around clinical patients who have deep-seated emotional problems. In short, they are more concerned with the abnormal than the normal. Then too, very few psychologists have ever participated in highly competitive athletics. Consequently, such individuals do not know how it feels to make a comeback from a serious injury or what it is like to perform under extreme pressure. Nor do they know what it is like to fail or win at an important competition, or for that matter, what it’s like to really exert oneself physically. Psychologists may read about these experiences or observe them, but there is a big difference between those vicarious experiences and the real thing. In reality, they are worlds apart. In a nutshell, because of the aforementioned, most athletes and coaches perceive athletic performance as primarily a complex physiological process. Thus, coaches and athletes are more preoccupied with the physical and often ignore the mental and sociological. The problem with this viewpoint is that the athlete, like any human being, is a unified and integrated living system. Therefore, behavior is a function of physical, mental, and sociological aspects. It stands to reason then, that we can only reach an optimum level of performance when we account for the physical, mental, and social factors that influence performance. That is to say we must perceive ourselves as an incredibly complex system which contains a body and a mind and which functions among and reacts to those who surround us. If we focus on only one aspect of performance, chances are that we will significantly limit our performance capabilities. Only when all systems are taken into account can we reach our optimum parameters. So, one more time, just for emphasis…what makes psychology so important to coaches and athletes is that it is a highly relevant factor that is all too often neglected. Now here’s your chance to change all of that.