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.

When we first wrote the book Positive Transitions for Student Athletes in the late 1990′s, our primary intention was to help college student athletes prepare for life after sports (since the reality was that most would not be continuing on with their professional sports careers).  The trend that was already in motion at that time was that increasingly more student athletes were exiting from their collegiate athletic careers confused, sometimes depressed, and often unprepared to leave their athletic identity behind and enter what some jokingly refer to as “the real world.”

Since Positive Transitions was released, the book has assisted thousands of college student athletes prepare for sport retirement by helping them better understand their unique athletic identity, the role confusion they experience when re-defining themselves, and specific tips and strategies designed to help them identify and use athletic transferable skills to help develop the self-confidence and skill set needed to excel in their future careers (similarly to how they succeeded in their previous athletic careers).  Interestingly, while the times have changed since then, the issues athletes commonly experience while exiting from sports have remained relatively stable — perhaps the biggest change, ironically, is that the same issues that were once unique to DI college (and professional) athletes have now “trickled down” into the younger ranks of sports, including small college sports (DIII) as well as high school athletics. What this means is that younger athletes, including those far less likely to move onto professional sports, still experience the same challenges when all of a sudden the identity, lifestyle, and mindset they have developed over the last 10, 15, or 20 years of their sports career is suddenly stripped away from them in a moments notice.

If you are a parent of a student athlete and your gut tells you that he or she may one day be heading toward a difficult sport retirement transition, I encourage you to check out Positive Transitions for Student Athletes. While the book was written primarily for college student athletes, I am confident that there are many tips, insights, and strategies that you can use with your teenage son or daughter in preparation for when sport retirement occurs — an inevitable transition for every athlete who competes in sports.  In the case of sport retirement, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” is very true, and can make all the difference between your son or daughter using the sport experience to excel in life, or allowing it to hold him or her back because of a lack of confidence and belief in his or her talents beyond sports.

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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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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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Sport Success 360 – get your school or league signed up TODAY!

There is a delicate balancing act between integrity and success when it comes to sports fans and their desire to align themselves with a sports winner.  On the conservative side of the argument, it appears that some fans will tolerate very little from coaches/programs that lie, cheat, and break every rule of integrity in their quest to become a winner.  In these instances, the fan base believes that winning should come a distant second to “doing it the right way,” implying that playing by the rules is paramount to a credible sports program.  On the other side of this argument is the “win-at-all-costs” type of fan who could care less about playing by the rules as long as the team wins.  Rules, ethics, and sportsmanship are merely words to these fans, as the only thing that is really important is winning.

The reality is most people actually fall in between these two polar opposites – meaning most fans would like to win and play by the rules, but if the rules need to be tweaked a little (or conveniently overlooked) it’s still OK if the team is winning.  In some cases, sports fans feel the need to align themselves with a winner so much so that they will put on convenient blinders when their team/program gets in trouble.  The most recent example of this behavior is at Arkansas where Head Football Coach Bobby Petrino is catching fire for his less-than-professional behavior involving an extramarital affair with a 25 year old office staffer.  Conservative fans have already called for his resignation, while “win-at-all-cost” fans have minimized the incident as Petrino has proven to be a pretty good football coach on the field.  In fact, there have already been rally’s in Arkansas to save Petrino’s job!

The big question I have is why is there such an incredible desire by some sports fans to be a part of a winning program, so much so that many will completely overlook, disregard, challenge facts, or even fool themselves into thinking “nothing happened” when many of these stories break?  The urge is so strong to be aligned with a winner that these fans will not only tolerate, but even accept behaviors from their coach and athletic program that they would never tolerate or accept from a family member, friend, or employer.  But when it comes to sports, we commonly hear things like “It was no big deal,” or “Look at what other programs do.”  In some cases these fans even justify the crimes in their mind, pointing to the unjust system as the reason why it’s OK to break rules.

From a sport psychology vantage point, it makes perfect sense that we as people strive to be the best, and aligning ourselves with people and programs that exemplify excellence also makes sense.  The problem, however, is when this urge to be the best contaminates our objective, logical, and fair thinking — sometimes so much that we lose our own sense of what’s right and wrong in our efforts to defend “the winner.”  For example, take any one of the NCAA problems that have surfaced over just the past year alone.  If you were a fan of one of these schools, there is a good chance you minimized (or even outright dismissed) the “crimes” that were reported.  But how would you have reacted if the same thing happened at another school? Or how would you have reacted if the same crimes occurred at your rival school? Would you have reacted the same way?  Honestly?  Do you think the Arkansas fan base supporting Coach Petrino right now would think the same, no-problem-here way if these same circumstances happened at another rival SEC school?  I don’t think so, and neither do you.

My point here is to not to push a high and mighty position of moral authority, but to challenge sports fans to think about the relationship they have between winning and doing it the right way.  Where do you draw the line?  If you happen to be from the “who cares” so long as we win camp, is this the same set of values you would want your kids to espouse?  And if you are from the “win the right way” camp, have you set your standards so high that they are impossible to live by?

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Spring sports means sports performance apps, and we have them plenty to choose from – learn more at Advanced Human Performance Systems!

Sports channeling occurs when young athletes are slotted for specific sports or positions based on factors like height, speed, overall athleticism, and even race.  For example, when a youngster is above-average in height he is almost always nudged and encouraged to play basketball (what chance do you think current Harlem Globetrotter  7’8″ “Tiny” Sturgess had to not play basketball?).  The erroneous assumption many adults make is that if a youngster has a talent, skill, or attribute that would help in a particular sport, then the kid must also love and want to play that sport.  Think about it — how many times have you witnessed a tall kid (boy or girl) be immediately directed to start playing basketball?

Sports channeling also crosses racial lines, as African American kids – especially in predominately white communities and schools – are regularly slotted in skilled football positions, like running back or wide receiver.  To date, there does not appear to be any scientific empirical evidence suggesting black kids are better than non-black kids at those positions, yet you regularly see this happening in schools and youth football leagues across the country.

It’s understandable that people like to make shortcuts (called “heuristics”) when making decisions and appraising talents, but some of the shortcuts that are being made are quite fallible.  In the previous examples, not all tall kids are good at (or even like) basketball, while not all black kids are the best for skilled positions in football.  Similarly, not every flexible kid wants to be a gymnast, nor does every tough kid want to go into wrestling.  Still, many people use these markers to make these decisions for kids.

The best thing to do is to keep open communication with kids interested in sports, and listen closely to what they say interests them (even if it goes against your sports logic).  Keep in mind it’s very possible that a tall kid may not want to play basketball, and a black kid might actually like to play on the offensive line.  You might even meet a tough kid who likes a relatively passive sport (like baseball), or a flexible kid who enjoys a sport like bowling more than gymnastics!

Regardless of what sport(s) a kid plays, the most important thing is that it’s a fun, safe, and meaningful experience – do your part to maintain an open mind and help kids reach this goal.

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With the NFL Bounty-Gate in the news, it prompted me to think about sports aggression and the differences between healthy, competitive hitting versus violent and illegal physical play.  The New Orleans Saints organization is paying a big price (especially head coach Sean Payton) for the bounties that were set by previous defensive coordinator Gregg Williams, yet some are arguing that the hits would have been just the same regardless whether they were done to receive bounty money or not.  After all, this is the NFL and aggression comes part and parcel with football, right?  Actually, sport psychologists identify two types of sports aggression, presenting an entirely different view of what may have happened in New Orleans.

For sports parents, this is a great opportunity to teach kids about how violence and aggression play into sports, including the differences between healthy and unhealthy aggression.  The two types of aggression commonly seen in sports, instrumental and hostile, are broken down in more detail below:

Instrumental Aggression

This type of legal aggression occurs in sports when an athlete is in pursuit of winning and playing within the competitive spirit of the game. The aggression, in actuality, is needed and used in order to make plays, stop the opponent, and ultimately win games.  This type of aggression is not designed to hurt players, or purposely knock opponents out of the game to make it easier to win. One way to think of this instrumental aggression is to think of the aggression as helpful, and not intentionally harmful.

Some examples of instrumental aggression would include a hockey player checking another player in order to get to a loose puck, a basketball player using his body to position for a rebound, or a baseball pitcher pitching inside to gain better control of the plate.

Hostile Aggression

This type of aggression differs from instrumental aggression in that the sole intention of hostile aggression is to hurt another player.  In these instances, the aggression is not directed at scoring points or tackling a player, but instead purposely designed to physically hurt another player. When you see a cheap shot in sports, most likely it’s an example of hostile aggression.  In  New Orleans, the aggression could be called hostile aggression as bounties are designed exclusively to “knock guys out.”

Helping Your Child Understand Sports Aggression

So how does your child stack up?  If she plays hard and within the rules of the game, then she is likely displaying instrumental aggression.  On the other hand, if your kid engages in aggression that clearly is designed to hurt another player, it’s likely he is using hostile aggression.  Of course, there are fine lines between these types of aggression, and the distinctions get even more blurred when you factor in the intimidation factor that plays in to many sports (like when a pitcher hits a batter intentionally to gain back the plate, opposed to simply “pitching inside”).  Still, most types of hostile aggression are easy to identify and usually result in penalties and suspensions when they occur.

In all likelihood, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell probably factored in the type of aggression displayed when he made his final decision with the New Orleans Saints.  In his mind, he saw the aggression as purposeful and designed to hurt players (and possibly end careers) — and how that type of aggression steers away from the competitive spirit of football.

Talk to your kids about the different types of aggression in sports, and reinforce instrumental aggression while calling out harmful and unhealthy hostile aggression.

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The Sport Performance Assessment (SPA) app for the iphone is an easy-to-use teaching tool that has been helping athletes around the world improve their mental toughness and reach their full athletic potential.  The SPA was developed using the latest sport psychology theories and applications, and provides users with an easy testing devise that reveals their current level of sports mental toughness.  Users benefit by learning their specific areas of strengths and weaknesses along the lines of confidence, focus, and resiliency, and are provided specific tips and feedback for future improvement based on their scores.  The unique trend data capture allows athletes to track and record their progress throughout the season, making it easy to see personal improvement and athletic gains.

The Sport Performance Assessment series has grown to include many sport-specific SPA apps, including baseball, softball, soccer, basketball, and wrestling to name a few.  Pick up your SPA app today!

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Working in sports, I often hear stories about “out of control” sports parents — in fact, I have even seen a few as clients over the years (The Parents Playbook).  Usually what I hear are stories about parents yelling obscenities from the stands, with the occasional push/shove incident that (thankfully) ends quickly and before any physical harm occurs. Bad stories, yes; but they hardly compare to the attack that took place in Massachusetts last Friday — a melee so violent it left behind beat up coach with a chunk of his ear bitten off. Timothy Lee Forbes has been charged with beating up the winning coach, and biting part of his ear off — all this over a game.

Unfortunately this is not the worst story I have ever heard – the tragic “hockey dad fight” that resulted in a man being killed over a youth hockey game in 2000 is my watershed moment for when sports hit rock-bottom.   I remember thinking back then about what youth sports were becoming, and the fears I had that a new threshold had been established pertaining to sports anger. Since then, aggression at youth sporting events has become so normalized that we hardly react to many of the ugly stories we hear.

When I played youth sports in the 1970′s and 80′s, the worst thing I ever witnessed was an occasional rude remark from the crowd (generally over an obvious blown call by the referee), or a momentarily angry coach who might grumble a profanity under his breath. I never saw a fight, and I can’t remember even seeing an argument that looked like it might turn into a fight.  Sports were fun and people seemed to “get it,” as evidenced by their appropriate fan etiquette.

Sadly, it seems we have become desensitized to youth sport aggression these days.  Similar to how school shootings rarely make the front page of the news, neither does the violence in youth sports that results in serious injury, and sometimes even death.

Sport psychologists often help athletes with developing mental toughness, but perhaps the bigger task is to recalibrate the climate at youth sports so that violence will not be tolerated by administrators, coaches, parents, or players.  The recent fight that occurred in Springfield should serve as a reminder of how far out of whack things have gotten over the years, and inspire us to prevent aggression and violence at youth sports games in the future.

Help create a positive and safe culture in your league with Sport Success 360!

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As a college sports fan, do you ever wonder where all the corruption, loss of integrity, and sometimes outright cheating originates?  More specifically, I am talking about the stories about student athletes receiving improper benefits followed by extremely light penalties  from the university?  Alvin Kamara’s recruiting experience with the University of Alabama might just provide us with many of those interesting answers.

It should be noted that to date Kamara is still an uncommitted high school junior RB from Georgia and has done nothing wrong, nor has he been accused of any wrongdoings to my knowledge.  Similarly, as bizarre as the story you are about to hear sounds, apparently Alabama has done nothing wrong yet, either.

It was reported today that Alabama is so incredibly interested in recruiting Kamara that they sent him 105 recruiting letters…in one day.

The Invincible College Recruit

Of course, in this day and age where amateur athletes receive many more valuable “gifts” than recruiting letters, this story seems at first to be nothing more than funny.  Upon closer inspection, however, it becomes much easier to see where the future potential problems lie after this stunt, and how blurred the paradigm between university and student athlete has just become due to Alabama’s actions.  Some might say this “genie” isn’t going back in the bottle anytime soon.

When student athletes are recruited to colleges there is a normal ego rush in learning that they are one of the select few to be chosen to play at the next level.  The job of the coach, and athletic department at-large, is to entice the athlete to choose their school, and to do this they usually give the recruit the royal treatment.  As you might expect, there are always potential problems during this process, most notably when the psychological paradigm between college and player shifts so dramatically that the player knows he actually calls all the shots.  In these instances, the athlete becomes infallible, invincible, unstoppable, and inevitably “the man.”

Assuming Alabama lands Kamara, can you see how upside-down this relationship has already become — even before he has attended his first practice??  How do you say “no” to the kid you gushed over so badly that you sent him 105 letters in one day??? How do you maintain the same discipline measures for this player as you do the walk-on players, or even any of the other scholarship student athletes from the other teams at Alabama?  This kid’s “different,” remember?

The Difficulties in Enforcing Discipline

If Kamara chooses Alabama and he eventually messes up, is it fair to hold him 100% responsible for his actions after his college treated him like Elvis during the recruiting process?  After all, this young man has been developed into a superstar by Alabama’s letter writing campaign (amongst other things) — and when 18 year old student athletes feel like this, it’s pretty easy to see why they sometimes make really bad decisions based on their self-perceived invincible status.

For the institution (Alabama in this case), how will they play by the rules if Kamara chooses their school and then goes out and breaks rules and laws?  How do you come down on a guy when this is the same guy you laid rose pedals at his door?  He came because of the royal treatment you gave him, and now you want to discipline him??  You want him to play by the same rules as every other player, but you didn’t treat him like that during recruiting — so why now the change? You did everything you could to make him feel immortal, and now you want him to be held accountable and responsible?? I mean, you sent him over 100 letters in one day telling him that he could walk on water, eat fire, juggle chainsaws, and leap tall buildings in a single bound —- and now you want him to comply with those silly NCAA rules and regulations???  If I’m Kamara and this eventually happens, I want to know who changed the game?

Kamara and Alabama are not the only examples of this warped psychological paradigm that often develops.  Letter writing campaigns like what was recently done at Alabama happen at other schools, too (or some other similar practice).  The student athlete is given the keys to the castle, while the university sports administrators and coaches nearly break their collective necks trying so hard to not look or notice when rules are broken.  I mean, how do you crack down on the new “money man” for your school?

How Does a Responsible Coach Really Act “Responsibly?”

Responsible coaches know the importance of playing by the rules and maintaining the integrity of the sport, but they also know that you don’t just roll up that red carpet you had out for the top recruit, throw it in the back of the van, and then all of a sudden crack down on him.  No, it doesn’t work that way — remember, this kid can transfer so you better learn to become aloof and look the other way — it pays better if you do.

Coaches also know that if you don’t roll out the red carpet and surf & turf dinners, then you probably won’t land him, as there are hundreds of other coaches out there that will spoon feed his every need if it results in an eventual signing.

“Amateur” sports are really an impossibility when you think of them in these terms.  In order to get the best kids you have to be over-the-top, outlandish, endearing, and full of promises.  Some might even say you have to sell your soul to the devil. But after the young man signs, it is expected that you alter the landscape and coach-player dynamics 180 degrees, and “hold the young man accountable” for his actions.  Then, when a kid screws up, society wants to blame him and hold him accountable — but the reality is he was never held accountable from the start of the recruiting process!

Unfortunately, this model simply doesn’t work, and it’s really obvious the reasons why.

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