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by Karlene Sugarman, M.A. Sport Psychology Consultant
Athletes spend so much time physically practicing to get an edge on the competition. Yet, what a team can really do to get an edge is right in front of their nose, or more accurately, right above their shoulders! You hear the same thing all the time, "Sports is 90-95% mental." Athletes and coaches at all levels say it, but how many of them do something about it? Unfortunately, not nearly enough. It may be common knowledge, but it is not always common practice. Maybe they don't have the time, maybe they don't have the resources, or maybe down deep they don't really believe it. Whatever the reason, the fact remains the same, they are not utilizing their most powerful resource, the mind. Most athletes fatigue mentally before they fatigue physically, due to the fact that their mind is not in as good of shape as their body. Charles Barkley succinctly puts it, ". . . I learned the secret of NBA survival: conditioning of the body and mind" (Barkley & Johnson, p. 164). The mind-body connection is a very powerful one. For everything you think in your mind, your body has a reaction, regardless of whether it is real or imagined. For example, have you ever had a bad dream? Usually, you will wake up and your heart is racing, you are sweating and very agitated, even though all you were doing was sleeping. But, in your mind there was something bad going on and your body was reacting to it. Here’s another example: if you are home alone and you hear a noise and interpret it as the wind, you are fine; but if you interpret it as a prowler, your fight or flight response takes over and you become fearful, your heart begins going a mile a minute, your eyes dilate and you are scared. These are just a few examples of how strong the connection is between your mind and your body. With this premise, it becomes unmistakable how necessary it is to train both the mind and body for peak performance. It was very encouraging to see that at the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta, there were approximately 20 Sport Psychology Consultants there working with athletes. It has also been noted that 1/3 of the golfers on the major tours work with a Sport Psychologist or Consultant. Slowly but surely athletes, teams, coaches and managers are not only saying that they feel sports is mental, but they are doing something about it. They are hiring Sport Psychologists, reading books, and devoting time to team building and mental training. The way I look at it is this - in sports so, many things are left to chance; sports are predictably unpredictable - why let your mental mindset be another one of those things? There’s no reason for your mental game to be your Achilles heel! You have the power and authority to control that. These tools and resources will help you remove psychological barriers that can get in the way of peak performance and give you some control over your own performance. Mark McGwire has worked with a Sport Psychologist since 1991, saying that the sessions help him find inner peace. He said it was totally his decision and the best one he made (Fernandez, 1994, A-10). Up until about a decade ago, a Sport Psychologist or Consultant was considered a person who athletes went to see only when they had a problem, not someone who healthy and productive athletes and teams spent their time with. Luckily, this stigma is changing; the change is slow, but it is evident. You see Sport Psychologists everywhere now; recreational athletes, colleges, professional teams, Olympic athletes, businesses, and corporations all seek them out. People are realizing that no matter how good you are, you can always improve, and one way to improve yourself is to become well-versed in performance enhancement techniques. There is no room for complacency - the complacent ones get left behind. This philosophy holds true not only in sports but in business as well. Competition is so tight, athletes are so physically fit, and the margin for victory so slim, that managers, coaches and players are realizing that to get ahead they need an added resource: and that resource is a trained mind. Yet still, many coaches are blind to how important the mental skills of their athletes really are. When there are two athletes that are physically equal, it is the athlete that is mentally prepared and confident that will come out on top. Keep in mind though, no mental training will compensate for ineffective technique. You need to be strong, technically and mentally. Unfortunately, many times you focus too strongly on one at the expense of the other, instead of giving equal attention to both, which is the ideal approach. You are given the talent, it’s your job to develop it and watch it flourish by combining physical and mental training with a great work ethic. You want to be prepared mentally and physically to the best of your ability to increase the chance of success. It all comes down to Darwinism: survival of the fittest: learning the necessary skills to survive in your environment. It's important for athletes to realize that athletics, especially running, is a full mind/body sport. You have so much time to think, which can be a help or a hinderance, that all depends on you, and how well you've trained your mind and how committed you are to being a complete athlete. Keep in mind, a philosophy of sport is almost identical to a philosophy of life: a strong commitment to one aspect of your life will have a ripple effect into other areas of your life. (Adapted from Karlene's new book, Winning the Mental Way: A practical guide to team building and mental training.) Copyright 1999 by Karlene Sugarman, M.A.
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Your mind is always working, why not have it work for you? An athlete's
strong will, determination and mental approach are of the greatest
importance when it comes to how successful he/she will be in the heat of
competition, and their ability to sustain success over a long period of
time. The reason an athlete does great one day and bad the next can be
explained in two words: mental approach. Their physical skills didn't
change, but their mental approach did, which has a direct effect on
performance. Since it seems that athletes use only a small fraction of
their mental potential, it becomes obvious on the days when they are using
those skills, and the days they are not.