The Sports Doc Chalk Talk

Ever since Junior Seau’s surprising suicide a week ago, the mainstream sports media has continued to rev up the coverage of false correlations suggesting brain damage, concussions, and head trauma are to blame for Seau’s (and others like him) troubles upon sport retirement.  This is surprising, especially as we have plenty of sport psychology research to examine over the last 20-30 years that actually points quite clearly to a number of inter-related psychosocial factors that are far more responsible for sport retirement difficulties.  From a personal standpoint, I have tried to reach out to a number of national outlets to help better inform people about what research has found, and not what many media folks are trying to develop as the primary reason why athletes struggle (the brain damage theory). Thus far, these attempts have been met with very little interest.

Although brain damage should certainly be considered when an athlete displays any kind of cognitive trouble, it’s also important to widen the lens and look at many of the facts we now know in 2012 to be true:

• First, millions of athletes each year struggle with sport retirement.  These athletes are sometimes from the professional level, but they are also found at the college and high school level, too.  In fact, I bet you probably know a young person who had difficulty with sport retirement, even if he/she wasn’t suicidal.
• The vast majority of athletes who have trouble with the sport retirement transition do not have brain trauma, and most come from sports that are low- or no-contact sports.  Athletes who compete in baseball, softball, soccer, basketball, lacrosse, and wrestling are at-risk, as are athletes from many other sports.  While it is true that these athletes do experience physical play, rarely do they experience concussions and/or head trauma.
• With athletes today often starting the sports careers as early as 5-6 years old, and many specializing in one sport and playing it year-round, it’s easy to see why so many develop an exclusive athletic identity that sometimes limits their self-value beyond that of “athlete.”  This paradigm has nothing to do with concussions of brain damage, but instead a product of how one perceives oneself, couple by how the world around the athlete often limits his/her worth to athletics.
• Many athletes, especially talented ones, foreclose on their future careers outside of sports and display what we call a low level of career maturity.  What this means is that they are often far behind in the “normal” career path that one takes, often having an unrealistic expectation of going pro in their sport (and as a result not very invested in looking into more realistic careers).
• Even though we know countless athletes from all different sports and age levels struggle with sport retirement, there are still very few programs available to help athletes with the sport retirement transition.  Making things more difficult is the “machismo” mindset many athletes have that served them well in sports (not asking for help but doing things on their own).  While this might make a strong athlete, it usually limits people from gaining the help they need in order to readjust to a new identity and learn more about potential future careers beyond sports.

It’s really amazing to me how the sports media continues to push a theory that at best is speculative, and at worst is incredibly irresponsible when you think of the empirical evidence we have ascertained over the last few decades.  Hopefully some of the sports media folks will begin actually talking to athletes (and not just football players) and explore the many issues they experience pertaining to athletic identity, role confusion, career maturity, future planning, and the lack of help available.  If they listen closely to retired athletes, they will see that the issues are far more tied to psychosocial variables than biological “brain damage.”

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Check out Positive Transitions for Student Athletes for more information on sport retirement and how you can help an athlete who is struggling with life after sports.

Many athletes struggle with sport retirement, and not because they have all experienced brain damage or concussions (although that sometimes occurs).  The more prevalent reasons for difficulties experienced during sport retirement have to do with psychosocial factors, including the identity and athlete develops, as well as the lack of programming available to athletes when they are no longer able to play.  Of course, every athlete experiences sport retirement in his or her own unique ways, but on this video I discuss some of the common issues athletes experience during this abrupt and often difficult transition.

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Athletes commonly experience an emotional roller coasting while competing — perhaps put no better than the late ABC Wide World of Sports weekly introduction that depicted the sport experience going from “the thrill of victory to the agony of defeat.” The point is that sports prompt athletes to become emotional — and herein is where aggressive and unsportsmanlike acts often originate (Sport Success 360).

Examining the recent Ron Artest incident where he blind-sided James Harden with his elbow —moments before the elbow, Artest felt excitement — and subsequently made a cognitive decision about how he would demonstrate his emotion. Rather than giving a positive and emphatic fist pump to the crowd, he decided to channel his emotion into a terrible cheap shot.  Think about what a “teachable moment” this can be for kids when they begin to learn that the emotions they feel from playing sports are great, but how they channel their emotions makes the difference between being a positive leader or getting thrown out of a game for displaying unsportsmanlike behavior.  Ironically, and simplistically, the direction in which Artest threw his elbow made all the difference — had it gone in the direction of the crowd rather than the back of Harden’s head, he likely would have helped his team continue to pick up energy, confidence, and mental toughness – variables linked closely to sports focus and athletic success.

Sports parents and coaches can teach student athletes to develop the sport psychology mental toughness skills needed to control emotions while competing and re-direct negative thoughts (that often lead to negative actions) into positive, facilitative, team-building emotions and actions (like giving high-fives to teammates).

Young athletes can learn early in their careers that how they think on the field will directly impact how they play.  By understanding that mistakes will happen, games will be lost, and possibly injuries will be experienced at some point, kids can prepare emotionally ahead of time by developing positive thinking routines to use when these situations eventually occur.

When adults take time to process with kids the teachable moments commonly experienced in sports — like effectively handling adversity — many really terrific things usually occur.  Perhaps the biggest change you will notice is a surge in confidence, which often triggers motivation, focus, and goal commitment. As you might guess, these are the athletes that reach their full athletic potential as a result.

The next time you go to your child’s game, keep an eye out for when a young athlete throws a glove, curses, or pushes an opponent after a play ends.  Remember, that same energy you witnessed in those acts could have all been turned into much better outcomes, like smacking a glove emphatically, telling the team “lets get them next time,” and helping an opponent up in the spirit of sportsmanship. Your child can learn vicariously from these experiences (meaning she can learn by watching others rather than being directly involved in the unsportsmanlike act), and quickly improve her mental toughness through your teachings.  As you help kids make these pro-social thought-behavior connections, talk about the many other ways these skills can be applied (or transferred), like toward academic success.

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Los Angeles Lakers player Metta World Peace (Ron Artest for the purpose of this article) viciously blind-sided James Harden in the head yesterday, prompting sports fans worldwide to attack Artest for his aggressive play and history of sport-related violence and suspensions.  There is no doubt that Artest has a checkered past when it comes to keeping his emotions under control, as his record of getting into fights speaks for itself.  It’s also very understandable that many fans are tired of Artest’s behavior, and rightfully so, as a shot like the one he delivered yesterday could have easily have been a career-ending hit.  Looking at the bigger picture, however, it becomes a very interesting discussion when you examine how intimidation, hard (but fair) play, and deliberate aggressive/violent acts all enter into sports.  What’s good, right, bad, or wrong? (Sport Success 360).

There isn’t much debate that Ron Artest has struggled with his emotional development throughout his career — many times admitting to his problems through various interviews over the years.  In fact, Artest has even talked about his work with a psychologist, which I find quite admirable that he would seek treatment (even if he is still showing signs of his uncontrolled anger).  But what about the aggression your child shows in sports?  Does he have an “anger problem,” or is his level of mental toughness good for the sport he plays?  Does your daughter have an appropriate level of intensity, or does she seem to cross the line with occasional cheap shots?  Many parents ask themselves these types of questions everyday, wondering if their child might, too, have an anger problem similar to Ron Artest.

What makes this a challenging conversation in sports is the fact that so many sports are physical in nature — making the “line” somewhat blurry when it comes to appropriate and inappropriate behaviors.  Case in point: If somebody in the office chucked you hard as you made your way to the copy machine, not only would this be inappropriate, it might also lead to that employee being fired – or even sued.  In a sport like hockey, however, players are encouraged to knock down the opposing player heading toward a goal.  Same behavior, yet the behavior is viewed quite differently across settings.

In addition to aggression being a part of most sports, there is also an emotional factor that enters into play that is very different than our day-to day work.  In other words, many athletes become emotional while being in the heat of a battle, and quite often they engage in physical play through the emotional experience.  Occasionally, they cross the line while in this mind state.  Of course, this doesn’t justify “cheap play,” but it may help us understand some of the contextual cues that enter in to aggression in sports.

When it comes to your child and sports aggression, ask yourself the following questions to see how he or she sizes up:

• Is her aggression usually tied to winning the game (i.e. blocking a player out under the rim, or checking a player into the boards), or is it tied to simply being frustrated (like hitting an opponent after the whistle)?  The first type of aggression is instrumental aggression, while the second is called hostile aggression. If your child regularly engages in hostile aggression, you might want to pay close attention to the situation to see if she might need help with controlling her emotions.
• Does your child regularly seem to be in the middle of fights while playing?  Sport psychologists will often look at prevalence and trends when it comes to aggression in sports, and if your son is seemingly always in the middle of scuffles there could be a problem.
• Has your child been disciplined for sports violence/aggression before?  If so, and he continues to display the same behaviors, you may want to seek professional assistance as it appears as though the consequences are not curtailing the behavior.

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Tiger Woods bombed at The Masters this weekend, even after ESPN did everything they could to manufacture his championship-caliber abilities again by promoting him far more than any of the other more deserving players in the field.  With only 1 win in the last three years, Woods was the main man in every ESPN promo of The Masters, yet still lost by 15 strokes.

I have been critical of Tiger’s excuses over the last few years as he regularly blames everything from caddies to injuries, but his biggest problem by far is probably something most sports fans take for granted – his mental toughness. Tiger Woods does something that most athletes do, and it’s actually a really big hindrance to getting better at a sport – more simply, he obsesses over a specific technical part of his game (his swing) while completely disregarding his anxiety, poor focus, and loss of confidence. Read the following from SI.com and follow up with some solid sport psychology advice (bold emphasized):

>Now his problem is his swing. He’s been reworking it with Sean Foley for more than 18 months, and it remains a work in progress.

”What’s frustrating is I know what to do, and I just don’t do it. I get out there and I just don’t trust it at all,” Woods said. ”I can get it on the range, I can get it dialed in there. We’ll work on the same things and it feels really good, and I go to the golf course and I just don’t quite trust it. It just means I just need to do more reps.”<

Woods is actually like most athletes – poor play only means more practice, right?  Surprisingly, the answer is NO! Lets take a closer look at passage above and how revealing it really is.

• First, it is reported he has been “reworking” his swing for 18 months.  While this dedication might sound admirable, it’s actually terribly counter-productive and can lead to focus and anxiety problems.  Remember, we are talking about arguably the greatest golfer of all time – his muscle memory is so refined and established that he certainly doesn’t need to rework a swing for a year-and-a-half!  A calm, focused, and confident Woods could make beautiful golf swings again (probably even blindfolded) IF he obsessed less on the swing and focused more on reducing his anxiety, improving his confidence, and refining his focus.  This is a very important message to all athletes because the common thing athletes do is practice more, even when the true skills they need to improve are actually cognitive/emotional skills, not physical skills! Sadly, most athletes simply “practice more” and never target their true areas of weakness, and the result is, in Tiger’s case, and 18-month long “search” for I don’t know what.
• Woods actually makes my point in his quote about playing well on the range but blowing it on the course.  Think about that for a moment – he gets “dialed in” when there is nobody around and no pressure, then seemingly loses it in match play.  Do you see the problem?  It’s almost impossible to “solve” an anxiety issue by simply going out and hitting tons of balls in a controlled, non-anxious condition (i.e. driving range) — is it any wonder all the old habits happen again?  You see, he hasn’t “solved” anything by playing beautifully on the range but never learning any skills to control his anxiety and sharpen his focus in real play. Take another example for a moment — lets say you have a child in Little League that is afraid of getting hit by a pitch.  Taking your child to the batting cage might help some, but batting cages throw precise pitches and usually do not present the real fear (of an errant pitch hitting the kid).  For more rapid and long-lasting improvement, the child needs to actually face his fear by gaining confidence against live pitching in real games – where there is a possibility he could get hit by a pitch.  The point is it’s tough to overcome anxiety by simply going back and practicing in very controlled conditions that do not represent the true anxious situations.
• Finally, Woods explains that the only way to improve his situation is “more reps.”  Actually, this is probably the worst way to improve athletic skills if you are really dealing with anxiety.  Don’t get me wrong, more reps won’t hurt (and it can actually help with muscle memory), but if you are anxious, unfocused, and have a tendency to get angry when making mistakes in games/matches, then you are really not addressing the true problems.  An analogy might be using a screw-driver to hammer a nail — if you hit the nail enough times with the handle of the screw-driver it might eventually drive the nail into the wood, but wouldn’t using a hammer make the job that much easier?!

Athletes who recognize their true areas of weakness and address the real problems are the ones who bounce back very quickly.  In the case of Tiger Woods, simply hitting a thousand balls a day at a tranquil driving range does little – if anything – to prepare him to make clutch shots during pressure times of matches.  Instead, a better way to go is to balance reps with cognitive/emotional skill building, like learning how to use relaxation strategies when pressure begins to set in during match play.  Unfortunately, the mindset of “more=better” still exists in sports, hence the reason why so many athletes still practice harder, not smarter – and see limited results from their efforts.

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The way an athlete perceives his situation makes all the difference when it comes to anxiety and confidence (Sport Success 360).  As we all know, athletes who experience anxiety often struggle with athletic success, while confident athletes usually play well (and sometimes even better than what others would expect).  Anxiety bogs down an athlete’s thinking (often self-talk is negative and counterproductive), as well as behaviors (instead of playing loose and free, muscles become tense and tight and throw off important mind-body synchrony).

Interestingly, anxiety, or pressure, is almost always a manufactured mind state that can actually be dramatically improved upon.  One sport psychology approach called Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy (REBT) suits this discussion perfectly.  Using an REBT model, there are three important facets to consider when looking to improve sports mental toughness:

A) The activating event

B) The BELIEF the person has when thinking about the activating event

C) The consequences that follow the event based on the belief of that event

Stepping away from theory and using a real-life example, take a baseball player who struck out earlier in the game and is now stepping to the plate for his second at bat (AB) of the game.  In this example the event , or “A” from the model above, is the upcoming AB.  Notice, AB’s are not “good” or “bad,” or “right” or “wrong.”  In other words, an AB is just that — an AB.

Now here is where it gets interesting – the BELIEF about the upcoming AB is completely subjective and under the control of the hitter. The batter gets to choose whether he will evaluate the upcoming AB as a scary threat (he might even say negative things to himself as he approaches the plate), or he can choose to look at the upcoming AB as a healthy challenge (in this example his mood state will be positive and his confidence will be high).

The consequences of thinking also play out according to thoughts – if the batter worries before approaching the plate, he will inevitably “feel” the nerves through a rapid heart rate, tense, muscles, and butterflies in his stomach.  In this example he will also likely say negative things to himself (like “Don’t strike out again!”).  On the other hand, if he approaches the plate looking at the AB as a challenge, his mind and body will stay in synchrony and his self-talk will be positive and productive.  Guess which mindset will likely lead to a hit?

Think about how the A-B-C’s play into our everyday lives — how many times have you allowed negative thinking to dictate a life outcome?  The great news is we get to choose the way we think, even if it is not always easy to do.  Athletes profit by learning this as they can then begin to play in the moment and disregard things that have happened earlier (like the 1st inning strike out) and instead get excited about the next AB.  This approach strengthens resiliency, too, as failures are viewed within a more accurate and responsible context — that is, everyone fails in life but it is what we do with failure that counts!

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Athletes regularly talk about “being in the zone,” but rarely can tell you how they got there — or what they need to do in order to get in the zone again in the future (Sport Success 360).  In essence, they know there is a “zone,” and for most athletes the only skill or knowledge they have as far as replicating the zone-mindset is to simply hope they will be able to do it again.  Using an analogy, this would be like an amateur chef in the kitchen who ever once in awhile cooks up a masterpiece — yet has no idea how he did it, nor any clue about how he might cook another masterpiece in the future.

The good news for athletes looking to “lock in” with their mental toughness and get in the zone is this:

• The zone, or being in Flow, is in fact a very real mind-state that does exist.  Psychologists have studied this phenomena and most agree that we do have the capacity to become absorbed into activities and ultimately play at a higher level as a result.
• Being in the zone is not limited to sports, as all people can learn ways to get in the zone with just about anything they do.  This means athletes can use this mindset to help in school, as well as their social and career-related experiences.
• The zone is actually a mindset that involves a number of inter-related psychological factors, including interest level, motivation, confidence, resiliency, and task difficulty

Breaking Down The Zone

Lets take each one of these psychological factors separately.  First, it is well accepted by psychologists today that the zone, or “Flow,” is in fact a mindset where people lock in and become absorbed by what they are doing (i.e. playing their sport).  In these instances, we often lose awareness of outside distractions, including time, and our focus on the task is heightened.  Similarly, when in Flow we are motivated to succeed, and often challenged by the task (meaning the task is not perceived as impossible, nor so easy to do that it is worthless to bother doing).

Second, being in the zone is not limited to sports — in fact, most of us experience Flow from many different things including exercise, hobbies, studying, artistic endeavors, and sometimes even work.  Ask yourself, how many times have you gotten lost in an activity because of the challenge and enjoyment of the activity?

Finally, the main features of Flow include interest level, motivation, confidence, resiliency, and task difficulty.  When you are interested in things you have a much greater chance for Flow, while having no interest in an activity makes it nearly impossible to reach Flow.  Similar to interest level, when your motivation to complete (or succeed at) a task is high, you also increase your chance for Flow.  Confidence is also key, as you need to believe you can be successful or it will be near impossible to experience the zone.  Athletes must also be resilient, and not have thin-skin when it comes to frustration, stress, and adversity.  Finally, and perhaps this is the most intriguing aspect of Flow, is that the task you are engaged in must be challenging, and not too easy or too difficult.  This makes sense when you think about it — if the task is too easy you will become bored, and if the task is too difficult you will likely become frustrated.  The key, then, is to find tasks that are very challenging and will keep your focus and motivation high.

Athletes & The Zone

Most athletes have serendipitously experienced moments of Flow, most likely because they greatly enjoy playing sports, are motivated to succeed, and regularly compete against other athletes who are roughly the same ability.  It is in these moments where the athlete feels he “couldn’t be stopped,” or that the basketball rim was 10 feet wide. odds are confidence was high and that he was competing against a challenging opponent.

While there is not a recipe for getting in the zone, there are some things athletes can do to help them get in the zone while competing:

• Love playing your sport. As was mentioned previous, without a strong interest it is very difficult to get in Flow.  The key is to find “games within games” – especially at practice – that keep interest level high.  For example, a basketball player might challenge himself to stop the guy he is guarding at practice, and keep track of how many times he succeeds.  In this example he has taken a sometimes boring drill and turned it into a challenging task.
• Take advantage of pre-game routines. Athletes stand a much better chance for getting in the zone when they make it a point to engage in a pre-game routine that allows them to think about the upcoming game, elevate their mood state, and lower their negative anxiety.
• Keep a daily journal, and take note of your improvement over the course of the season. When you see success, your confidence will improve, leading to greater chances for Flow.  By keeping a journal you can also identify patterns and trends that you can use to help you improve your mental toughness for the future.
• Bounce back quickly from frustration and failure. Rather than act out, yell, or call negative attention to yourself when you come up short, make it a point to turn adversity into learning experiences.  When you develop your resiliency, it allows you to more quickly get back in the game, and inevitably have a much better chance for Flow to occur.
• Challenge yourself. This means picking challenging opponents to compete against, as well as setting challenging individual goals

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I am very fortunate that I have had the opportunity to work one-on-one with many amazing athletes during the course of my career, and from those experiences I can emphatically state that in the vast majority of cases the success these athletes accomplished did not happen as a result of casual efforts, but instead due to a lot of hard work, mental toughness, and perseverance.  Similarly, I have also been lucky to teach many college psychology courses over the years, and again, the most successful students I have had in class weren’t “naturally gifted,” but instead the hardest workers in class. Are you starting to see a connection here?

Nature v. Nurture

Often we make the mistake of attributing the success seen in others (athletes, students, etc.) to their natural abilities, and while genetics certainly do contribute to our abilities, it’s actually the work we put in that matters the most. In sports, some athletes do have an advantage over others because of their natural size, speed, or strength — but if they rely exclusively on those gifts and do not put in the work needed to continually improve, it’s very likely they will “max out” early in life and fall short of reaching their full potential.  Conversely, and perhaps more interestingly, athletes who are average in natural abilities – but develop a strong work ethic and mental toughness – often make up for their average physical abilities through their motivation and effort.

Excellence in the classroom is really no different — simply having natural abilities in math, science, or foreign language will only take a person so far without putting in the work needed to continue to excel.  Most students can only “show up” for so long before being awakened to the fact that if you want to acheive excellence, it won’t happen through casual efforts.

We often do not see all the extra time, work, and effort great athletes, students, and business people put into their craft that allows them to become the best.  Instead, we tend to overlook or ignore all of these efforts, and falsely assume these people had God-given natural abilities that lead to their success.

The Value of a Strong Work Ethic

In my direct experience working with many outstanding athletes, as well as  everyday people, the common denominator to their success has always been a strong work ethic. These are the people who are first to practice and the last to leave — and they are the most resilient when it comes to dealing with stress, frustration, adversity, and failure.  They really don’t have as many natural advantages over the competition as you might think.  Instead, they simply want it more.

Yes, it really is the “blood, sweat, and tears” that is at the core of champions, or everyday people who seem to excel at whatever it is they do.  The reality is there is no substitute for hard work, and our natural abilities can compensate for causal work efforts for only so long.  The good news, however, is that a strong work ethic will not only level the playing field, but it can actually lead to even greater success when compared to the individual with the natural talent but a minimal work ethic. 

Find passion and purpose in what you do, and develop a conviction toward your future success.  If you do, you will be amazed at how quickly things change for the better in your life, and how these positive changes will be a result of the efforts you put into your craft.

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