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Flooding _________________________________________
Another technique that can be used to extinguish anxiety reactions is flooding. Like systematic desensitization, flooding can be conducted through imagery or in the actual situations themselves. The procedure consists of exposing the individual to the fear-provoking stimuli directly. For example, if an individual is afraid of water, you might take him out in a boat and throw him into the water. If the guy you throw into the water is a friend of yours, and you prefer that he doesn’t drown, it’s a good idea to make sure the water is not over his head. When he first hits the water, he’s going to experience a little anxiety…perhaps more on the order of shear terror. Note this is not a good technique for making friends, but an excellent method for getting rid of one. However, after he’s in the water for a prolonged period, several minutes or even an hour or more, his anxiety will significantly decrease. Of course, you have to ensure that your subject does not experience any aversive (that means bad) stimuli while he’s in the water. In other words, you want the experience to be positively reinforcing. For instance, you don’t want to put the individual in a situation were he might fail or might get hurt. Failure or getting hurt would only go to reinforce the individual’s fear. Research has consistently revealed that repeated exposure to anxietyprovoking situations will gradually evoke significantly lesser anxiety and will eventually completely eliminate the response. In other words, by repeatedly exposing an individual to anxiety-provoking stimuli, eventually the stimuli will lose their capacity to evoke anxiety. As mentioned, imagery-based flooding can be used rather than engaging in the actual situation. As you probably have guessed, the subject would first induce deep muscle relaxation and visualize the anxiety-provoking scenario for an extended period of time (30 minutes or more). As the treatment progresses and the individual has successfully associated relaxation with the anxiety provoking scenario, eventually he or she will be able to imagine the situation without experiencing anxiety. The stimulus that previously elicited the anxiety response will no longer do so. Moreover, the changes in the individual’s anxiety response are not restricted to images or thoughts about the situation, but eventually extend to the actual situation. Of course, the application of flooding to competition is rather obvious. If you were petrified of competing in front of spectators for instance, you would simply perform in front of spectators for a prolonged period of time. The more you performed in front of the spectators, the less anxiety-provoking the situation would become. Eventually, through repeated exposure to the situation, your anxiety will be completely eliminated. In all candor, I see a major drawback in using flooding in the field of sports. The subject can become so terrified by being placed in anxiety-provoking situations that the subject will not be able to perform at an optimum level. As a result, the process may actually reinforce the belief that the subject cannot perform in that particular situation. If, flooding is used, I believe it’s imperative that no unpredictable consequences actually occur in the situation. This is not always easy to do in the unpredictable world of sports, unless you are into boxing where everything can be set up, including your opponent. Because of the unpredictable world of sports, I believe it’s best to use imagery-based flooding at first. Note however, that even with imagery-based flooding, the direct presentation of the fear-provoking stimuli can be terrifying and scary.
Model Training ______________________________________________________
Another technique that lends itself extremely well to the world of competitive sports and one that has been extremely successful in controlling competitive anxiety is model training. During practice, an athlete will usually experience only a minimal amount of psychological stress when compared to the stresses exposed to in actual competition. I’m sure you really needed someone to tell you that. Still, most athletes do not account for added competitive stress during their practice sessions. As a result, a lot of these athletes have difficulty in adjusting to the competitive environment.
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Instead of identifying competitive-stress with optimal performances, they associate competition with fear and failure. Not surprisingly, their performance usually falls far short of their potential. In recent years, sports psychologists and coaches have attempted to teach athletes to adapt to the competitive environment by inserting into their practice sessions the variables that are present in competition. In case you have not been paying attention, this process is called model training. Essentially, model training involves inserting some combination of social, psychological, and technical stresses into the practice session in order to more closely duplicate the competitive environment an athlete is about to face. Actually, the F.B.I. has been using model training for some time. This reminds me of something I need to tell you. I know what I have to say is going to shock some of you and repulse others, but I just can’t take it any longer. I have to come clean. It’s something I feel my readers have a right to know. So here it goes. On March 4, 1984, I killed six people and wounded three others. In law enforcement terms, that’s a double hat trick plus. I’m happy to say that one of the victims was a notorious criminal with two killings of his own under his belt. His name was Eddie Mustafa Johnson. I hit him with two slugs, one piercing the left side of his chest cavity and the other hitting him above the right temple. During the mayhem, I fired close to seventy rounds. That’s kind of embarrassing considering I only hit nine people, but again it was probably a God-send since all but one of my victims was innocent. To be honest, a lot of the rounds I fired at had no intended purpose. I kind of fired at them just for the effect. I’ve always been a little wild with guns. Anyway, once I started shooting up the place and dropped two or three people, the police department sent out a Code 7 or a 10:33 in universal law enforcement terms (emergency in progress). After I blew away an eleven year old girl and her grandmother, they sent out a Code 23 (a flamethrowing jackass on the loose). I took out Eddie Mustafa Johnson a few minutes later. Now I know this is going to sound a little bizarre, but after I blasted Johnson, I decided to give it up. The truth is Johnson had already been killed a few hundred times before I got my chance. The eleven year old girl and her grandmother were new meat. You see, I killed him on DxTer. DxTer is a combination of video and computer technology that’s used to train agents in the F.B.I. and Secret Service. DxTer teaches the same way flight simulators help train pilots. I got to use DxTer through a friend who works for the Secret Service. He was aware that I was doing some research on model training and decided that it would be neat to give me a real-life, face-to-face encounter with the real thing…DxTer. It was great fun and a super learning experience. I learned that if I was a cop, I’d probably be a cross between Dirty Harry and Andy Griffin. I cried when I killed the old lady and the kid. Don’t worry though, I’m not going into law enforcement. I’m already a sports psychologist. Now, that’s really scary. What I really saw in DxTer was not my future, but its future. DxTer has infinite possibilities, but before we get into that, let me tell you exactly what DxTer is all about. According to Agent Lockett, my Secret Service friend who got me access to DxTer, DxTer consists of a computer program, a video disc player, and a collection of video discs on which different cases are recorded. The cases are shootouts, stabbings, robberies, etc. All of the cases are based on real criminal cases and have been staged as short dramas with actors and excellent special effects. This means that everything looks real. When you see Johnson pullout a .357 magnum you get the feeling that he’s going to make your day. I know that my DxTer experience made me glad that I was a sports psychologist and not an FBI agent. The cases, or episodes, are stored on video discs because a computer can immediately call up to a monitor any part of a disc. The interactive video disc and computer combination do not have any of the rewinding and fast forwarding required with video tape. DxTer’s computer program is the heart of the system. It determines the exact section of the video disc to show and tells the computer when to switch from the emergency drama to a printed menu that offers various courses of action for the viewer to take. The screen is touch sensitive, so all you have to do is push and you are offered a new list of possible alternatives. The program specifies a response to
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every possible decision a viewer can make whether it’s to blast somebody, or simply beat them to shit. Like I said, it’s great fun. In case you would like a DxTer in your living room, you can purchase one from IBM for the very reasonable cost of $87,000 (not including shipping and handling). At present, I believe IBM only has three simulator systems, one each for doctors, lawyers, and law-enforcement. Of course, the possibilities are endless. I think IBM should be a bit more selfish and make its fourth simulator capable of training corporate executives in leading a mega, multi-national, computer corporation that is headed for bankruptcy, complete with unemployed carnage bleeding the office hallways and a boardroom take-over scenes. Did I say that the possibilities are endless? A representative for IBM told me that an idea was being kicked around to develop a training simulator for situations that are inherently dangerous, like terrorist bombing, armed robberies, or marriage. Great ideas, but I was thinking more along the sports line. You know, like training simulators for professional sports. Why am I telling you all of this? DxTer is a primary example of what model training will be in the future. Interestingly though, the research conducted on DxTer is in accord with the research conducted on the more conventional method of model training. In short, both DxTer and conventional model training works…like real good. Research indicates that while training under conditions duplicating the competitive environment, athletes will learn to adapt to the competitive environment much faster. Accordingly, they will improve their performance much faster in this environment. Obviously, the old cliché that practice makes perfect is really rather naive. The quality of practice is much more important than the quantity of practice. If you do not deal with the stresses of competition while in practice, these stresses can overwhelm you in competition. In essence, you can learn that competition is a fearful experience. Without model training, you have only one chance to perform as desired. If you are not prepared for the stresses of competition by way of model training, the stresses may be so great that your performance will be substandard. This can cause you to associate an unpleasurable feeling with competition rather than viewing it as an arena for optimal performance. When I was competing, I would go to great lengths to incorporate model training into my practice sessions. For starters, I would arrange my practice environment so that it looked as close to the actual meet setting as possible. The bench press, squat racks, even the chalk box were arranged to simulate the meet environment. I also tried to replicate meet conditions during some of our practice sessions. For instance, I would go through the exact ritual…chalking my hands, wrapping my knees, psyching, and etc. that I would use at the competition. I’d even use a time clock, judges, judges’ lights, and crowd noise (cassette tapes) to duplicate meet conditions. By duplicating the technical, psychological, social, and situational stresses of competition prior to its actual occurrence, I was able to adapt to competition much better than my competitors. In fact, because of model training, I was always at ease during competition for the simple reason that I knew exactly what to expect. I had been there before. You know, like déjà vu.