Head Games

Head Games - By: Krista Weidner http://statecollegemagazine.com/featured-articles/show/article/head-games/

Penn State’s sport psychologist Dave Yukelson helps student-athletes achieve their best, both on and off the field.

Kevin Kelly, photo by Mark Selders/Penn State Athletic Communications

Maddy Evans, , photo by Mike Gridley/Boston Breakers

Emily Giannotti, photo by Mark Selders/Penn State Athletic Communications Penn State’s all-time football scoring leader Kevin Kelly says his biggest problem from day one was trying to do too much too fast when he kicked. “For some reason I would try to kick the ball as fast and as hard as I could, and the combination of both of those things was a recipe for disaster,” says Kelly. “Dr. Yuke helped me figure out how to slow down using visualization techniques.”

“Dr. Yuke” is Dave Yukelson, director of Penn State’s Sport Psychology Services, who came to Penn State nearly 30 years ago as part of Joe Paterno’s “Grand Experiment” to build a football team that would excel in the classroom and on the field. Paterno realized the pressures that student-athletes experienced and thought that a full-time sport psychologist would be a valuable resource for the athletes as well as the coaches. Yukelson was hired in 1987 and since then has been an ear, sounding board and friend to more than 4,000 student-athletes and coaches, including Kelly, who was the Nittany

Lions’ starting placekicker from 2005 to 2008.

“Kevin was one of those kids who got what it was about,” Yukelson says. “I would tell him, ‘The kicker is what you do, it’s not who you are.’ But how do you get to the next kick and not worry about what happened last time?” When athletes try too hard and think too much, they get stuck in a “mental goo,” Yukelson says, and they get in their own way. His role is to help student-athletes overcome the mental goo and get back into the rhythm and tempo of the game.

Yukelson introduces himself to teams at the beginning of each school year, taking a few minutes at team meetings to let the student-athletes know who he is and what he does. Throughout the year, he shows up at various practices. “I’m there in the athletes’ world, and I understand the demands and pressures,” he says. “I know the commitment they’re making. They see me at practice and often it’s a reminder: ‘Oh, there’s Yuke — I need to go in and see him tomorrow.’ Or they’ll just take a few minutes after practice to talk with me.” Some student-athletes are more reticent than others to seek Yukelson’s counsel.

“When people hear the word psychologist sometimes they are a little apprehensive — is he going to get into my head and psychoanalyze me?” says Yukelson. “It’s not that at all. These are elite studentathletes striving to be the best they can possibly be — on the field, off the field, academically — but ultimately they’re still just kids. I’m there to teach them skills that will help them with preparation and focus and composure.”

One of those skills involves visualization. Yukelson encourages student-athletes to visualize what it looks like and what it feels like when they’re playing with confidence. Playing with confidence means great focus, and the goal is to sustain that focus, even in the midst of uncertainty. “You get those little seeds of doubt — ‘I’ve got to go against this guy from Cornell, and he’s really good.’ From there you need to come back and say, ‘I love this stuff, this is what I’ve been working for all year and here’s what I’m going to do to go after it and compete with confidence and focus.’”

Penn State Women’s Gymnastics Coach Jeff Thompson knows firsthand how visualization and other mental training techniques help his team. “Dave meets with our girls and does relaxation and visualization training as well as team-building exercises,” he says. “He has been invaluable in one-on-one sessions with individual gymnasts because he can hone in on the issues and give each one strategies that work for them. For instance, when a gymnast is about to compete and she starts to feel anxious, using the strategy of saying ‘I feel so excited’ instead of ‘I’m so nervous’ can make a world of difference in the performance.” For competitive college athletes, it’s hard to deal with losing, but even more so, it’s important to let go of mistakes. Yukelson reminds athletes that not everyone is going to win the championship. “These kids are doing the best they can and so is the other team. You give it your best shot, and all of a sudden you lose on a particular day to someone who’s just better. Welcome to competition,” says Yukelson. “How do you let go, keep your composure, get to the next game or the

next at-bat or whatever it is? I help them develop strategies to get back on the right track.”

When counseling young athletes, Yukelson emphasizes the “circle of control,” encouraging them to distinguish factors they can control from factors they can’t. Emily Giannotti, a senior distance runner on Penn State’s women’s track team, knows all about issues with control. “As a distance runner in high school, I constantly struggled with relaxation and focus, particularly during longer races. When I came to Penn State, I continued to deal with those things, combined with the pressure I put on myself for every big workout and race to be perfect. I used to lose sight of the reasons I love to run,” she says. “Yuke has taught me ways to keep things in perspective, to focus only on what I can control. He’s given me specific tools such as deep breathing and the use of positive mantras.”

That transition from high school to college is a tough one for all students, and student-athletes have the added pressure of excelling athletically as well as academically. Yukelson helps freshmen studentathletes navigate all aspects of that transition— whether it’s struggles in the classroom, roommate issues or personal relationships. He also helps them adjust to the university-level sports environment.

“You take an athlete who was everything in high school and recruited here,” he says. “In high school, the coaches may have been kind of like your buddies, taking you out to Dairy Queen. And here it’s all about performance, and you’re trying too hard to impress them. How do you adjust to a new coaching staff?

That’s a hard transition to make, but ultimately I believe the skills we learn through athletic participation — perseverance, teamwork, sacrifice — are life skills. You can put those on a job application.”

Maddy Evans, a former Penn State soccer player who is now a professional midfielder for the Boston Breakers, credits Yukelson for helping her learn important life lessons. “One of the great things about Yuke is that he sees the big picture,” says Evans, who graduated in August. “He not only helped me become a stronger, more confident soccer player and leader, but he also helped me with my public speaking. “There are plenty of ‘Yuke-isms,’” Evans says, “but the one that has stuck with me is ‘Speak from the heart.’ It’s a seemingly simple piece of advice but I can’t thank Yuke enough for encouraging me to be myself. I recall talking to him before heading to my first couple days of professional preseason training. I was pretty stressed out. As we chatted about soccer and the upcoming training, he kept saying, ‘Just be Maddy.’ I remember walking out of his office feeling like I could accomplish absolutely anything in the world — he inspires and empowers every single day.”

Although it’s rare for a Division I university to employ a full-time sport psychologist, Yukelson feels it should be the norm, having devoted his life’s work to the field. Yukelson, who served as president of the Association for Applied Sport Psychology in 2001–2002, is recognized nationally for his contributions to sport psychology. “Our field is stronger today because of the many efforts of Dave Yukelson,” says Jack Watson, president of the association. “He was a visionary leader who played a pivotal role in our organization’s development. He was also one of the first full-time consultants hired by a university athletic department in the country, and he has had a large influence in the development, growth and

direction of the field of sport and exercise psychology.”

The healthiest model, Yukelson says, is when the sport psychologist, coach and athlete are all working together. No one is more on board with that concept than Charlene Morett, Penn State’s 26-year veteran field hockey coach — the longest-tenured coach in the Big Ten. Morett says that Yukelson helps her field hockey players keep their composure by having them use relaxation techniques and imagery that lets them refocus, techniques she used herself as an athlete. Morett worked with a sport psychologist when she was training for the 1984 Olympics Games in Los Angeles, where she won a bronze medal. “I was fortunate to work with Ken Ravizza, who is actually a good friend of Dave’s,” she says. “When I came to Penn State, I implemented some of the techniques that Ken taught me, and then within a year Dave arrived so it was an easy transition for me and my team. He is great with players who may need a little confidence boost and with injured athletes — he helps them feel they are still part of the team.”

Thompson is another coach who appreciates Yukelson’s availability and his ability to help both students and coaches. “Dave is always there for us,” he says. “I think he knows every student-athlete and where they’re from, and he has a good story about each of them. We’ve spent time discussing different strategies for individual gymnasts based on what he knows or feels about each one. Other times, if I just want to vent and blow off some steam about this or that, he’s there to listen and lend some advice.”

Yukelson feels privileged to be at Penn State, particularly after the challenges of the last couple of years.

“This last year was phenomenal,” he says. “Coach Bill O’Brien came in, and he’s helping people deal with adversity. That’s what leadership is. He is leading by instilling within the whole athletic department what we can do. Let’s focus on what we can control and not worry about the things we can’t. Last year, our teams bonded together, and our kids supported each other at each event. They showed the world what being a Penn State athlete is all about. I’m so proud of these kids.”

More than anything, Yukelson says, he loves the opportunity to develop relationships with studentathletes and coaches — to get to know them as people. That quality continues to impact Kelly, who now works as an educator for Nathan Sports, a Philadelphia-based company that creates hydration products for runners. “Every time I met with Dr. Yuke, we’d meet for an hour. Football would take up about 10 minutes of our conversation, and the rest would be, ‘How’s your mom doing, how’s your dad doing?’

We really connected on that friendship level. From that there’s a lot I can learn about respecting other people and finding ways to connect,” he says. “We could have spent the whole hour talking about football and what techniques he thinks would work, but he knew there’s more to the whole equation.

And that’s something I learned from him that I take with me every day, that you need to get to know the whole person.” •SCM