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.”

www.drstankovich.com

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.

In sports, unlike most other life endeavors, participants are often more readily known and recognized because of their number as much as they are their name.  In basketball, #23 will always be Michael Jordan’s number, and in hockey #99 belongs to “The Great One” Wayne Gretzky.  Baseball fans know that Derek Jeter is #2 (another number the Yankees will undoubtedly retire once Jeter calls it a career), and there are dozens more numbers that we have come to associate with famous sports figures over the years. Unlike non-athletes (the majority of society) who go to work each day without wearing a numbered jersey, athletes are unique in that they often become one with their number, which contributes to their unique “athletic identity.” (Sport Success 360)

Even though few athletes will become successful enough in their athletic careers to have their number retired one day, most do become closely associated with their number, sometimes as early as pee-wee youth sports.  Similar to how the professional athlete becomes his or her number, amateur athletes involved in youth and interscholastic sports often begin their association with their number quite early in life, which in turn becomes their major identity in many cases.  This in itself is not a good or bad thing, but it does present an interesting view and better understanding of the life of an athlete (even amateur athletes), and how much of who they are is tied to their athletic persona and player number.

The Implications of Athletic Identity

The Benefits:

• For many kids having a sports number and developing an athletic identity is a great thing, as it gives them (and the world) a lens to view them through  — “she’s #20 on the soccer team.”
• Kids often take pride and develop self-confidence in their role and status on a team, allowing them to appreciate the privilege of being a part of a team.
• When kids are proud of their team and number, they are often more committed and motivated to continue pursuing team and individual goals.

The Negatives

• When an athletic identity and sports number becomes the exclusive identity of a child, it could be too limiting and actually stunt the growth of the child’s overall identity.  While being an athlete is great, most kids also have other parts of their identity that are important to embrace and nurture — including academic, artistic, musical, and social interests.  In other words, “#20 on the soccer team” might also want to be known for her abilities in the classroom, as well as her above-average talent in playing a musical instrument.
• Scientific studies have shown that the more exclusive an athletic identity, the less likely an athlete will be prepared for his or her inevitable sport retirement transition.  This inverse relationship makes sense when you think about it — the more exclusive (and often rigid) we are with our identity, the less prepared we are to move ahead in life without it (and have to develop an entirely new identity).

The sports number and athletic identity are very unique to sports, and as such bring a host of related issues for us to learn about.  While we want all athletes to take pride in their sports number, we also want to make sure that they don’t over-invest in this single identity at the expense of developing holistically as people.

Do your part and learn as much as you can about your kids or the kids you coach and the implications of their sports identities – for more help on this topic, check out Positive Transitions for Student Athletes or Sport Success 360 today!

www.drstankovich.com

Human fear can be a really tough thing to deal with, and this is especially true in sports.  In fact, sport psychology studies regularly show that when athletes become fearful they often change their entire outlook and paradigm with respect to mental toughness - quickly going from “playing to win” to “playing to avoid losing.”  If you are an athlete, then you already know that when confidence decreases and anxiety increases, the chances for success become greatly reduced.

Acknowledging that fear impacts sports performance is probably not much of a surprise to anyone, but did you know that fear can be broken down into two types — real fear and irrational fear.  In both cases otherwise talented athletes can be reduced to average (or even below average) if they are unable to adequately respond to the fear they experience.

The first type of fear, real fear, is the type of fear that is you might think of when you are legitimately in harms way.  For example, in contact sports there are certainly things an athlete might fear, including the pain associated with a crushing tackle or block.  Interestingly though, this is not the type of fear most athletes struggle with in my experience.

The second type of fear, irrational fear, is when an athlete allows non-threatening factors to impact his or her thinking.  Examples of irrational fear — or threats to one’s ego, not necessarily physical well being — include worrying about the other team, the athlete’s coach, or even the fans in the crowd.  As you can see, in each of these examples there is no physical threat, yet many athletes still experience fear nonetheless.

Fear > Anxiety

What is truly amazing is that regardless of the type of fear an athlete experiences, the body will respond in the same exact way with physiological anxiety. Think about that for a moment – your body will react with the same increased heart rate, shallow breathing, butterflies in the stomach, and tense muscles whether you are running to safety or simply nervous about what the coach might do if you mess up a play!  In other words, anxiety has no preference when it comes to whether human beings are experiencing real or irrational fear.

Irrational Fear in Real-Life

Have you ever been nervous about going on a date?  Or how about a job interview?  What about going to watch a scary movie?  In each of these examples there is obviously little “real” fear we should experience, as none of these examples should put us in harms way.  Still, we often become very nervous in these situations, even though when we think rationally we really shouldn’t be worried at all.

Goals for Athletes

Since we know irrational fear can be a major hindrance to athletes and their athletic success, it is imperative that dedicated efforts be made to prepare for and respond to the times when irrational fear rears it’s ugly head.  “Forewarned is Forearmed” is one way to approach the situation — in other words, if you know that you will likely feel nervous playing in front of big crowds, then it makes sense to develop skills to help for when those situations occur (relaxation skills work very well).  Athletes who do nothing to prepare for this type of stress usually experience it time and time again (as you might expect).  This is sad as often it is the anxiety, and not the athlete’s true talents, that play the biggest role in whether the athlete succeeds.

Think about the impact that fear has on athletic success — and especially how irrational fear prompts the same type of response as real fear does.  If you want to take your game to the next level, it is imperative that you work to minimize irrational fear, and as a result confidence will increase (which is a variable closely associated with athletic success!).

Check out Mind of Steel for help with relaxation strategies and techniques, as well as many more sport science training skills!

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Parents always want the best for their kids involved in sports, especially when it comes to playing time and the ways their child is used within the team structure.  So it goes without saying that there will always be some degree of dispute between what parents think the coach should do, and what the coach decides to do based on his or her coaching evaluations.  In most cases, upset parents keep their opinions to themselves – but sadly, this is not always the case, as evidenced by a breaking story about a high school basketball team in Michigan.

Regarding this latest story where head coach Wayne Gigante stepped down from his high school coaching position, it’s impossible for us to know all the reasons that led to his decision.  Maybe the parents were out of line, maybe his coaching style had inherent problems, or maybe it was simply a bad combination of both.  Regardless, there has been a disturbing trend in American youth sports for many years now, one that illustrates the powerful influence some angry parents can have on a team — even to the extent of pushing coaches out.

Assuming Gigante didn’t do anything out of line and was simply trying to use his coaching judgements to get the most out of his players, it’s sad to see him leave because of parental interference.  Gigante seemingly reached his “tipping point,” where the enjoyment he got out of coaching kids eventually became outweighed by some parents who lost sight of the effort, dedication, and complexities involved in being a coach.  As we all know, it’s a lot easier to “coach from the sidelines” than it is to actually be the one on the front line having to make the tough decisions.

Each year we see fewer adults want to go into coaching, as evidenced by the rapidly shrinking number of teachers who want to coach.  In just the last 20 years alone, we have seen a dramatic spike in the number of non-teacher coaches (over 70% of high school coaches today), prompted by the fact that schools in America simply cannot find teachers in the building who find the job of coaching worthwhile when considering all that comes with it.  Sadly, if more stories like the Michigan basketball story emerge in the future, there may be even fewer people (teacher-coaches and non-teacher coaches alike) interested in coaching.  This is a terrible concern for Athletic Directors nationwide, trust me.  With fewer adults interested in coaching, more schools will be forced to consider the unthinkable – the possibility of cutting the athletic team altogether.

Unfortunately, too many parents today are unaware of this changing landscape and the reasons why fewer adults are going into coaching.  Instead, there seems to be a modern-day template for some parents that presumes some kind of “ownership” over the team and the decisions that the coach makes.  The pressure from parents can be overt in nature (i.e. yelling obscenities from the stands), or covert (i.e. creating some behind-the-scenes backlash against the coach).  In either case, it creates a toxic coaching environment.

It’s unfortunate when good coaches are pushed out because of uninformed and/or irresponsible parents, but it’s also becoming more of the norm.  Interscholastic coaches don’t make much money coaching — they go into coaching for the love of the job.  Sadly, when the “fun” element gets removed (like in Michigan high school story), many good people decide to walk away as a result.  Why would a coach making very little money and devoting enormous amounts of time and energy into coaching continue to stay around when the parents involved are doing everything to make his life miserable? Perhaps it’s for this reason that we all need to take a step back and appreciate all that goes into coaching, rather than try and run coaches out of town who don’t coach the way we would like them to with our kid.

www.drstankovich.com

By now you have probably seen those little bottles at the cash register promoting quick, 5-hour energy boosts — and recently you may have noticed the newest addition to the quick-fix energy boost market: Energy Strips.

If you have followed my columns in the past, you already know that I am a big fan of the placebo effect, and regularly talk about how when human changes take place it is the belief about the expected change that serves as the catalyst for the change, and not the protocol, pill, or recommended procedure.  Placebo effects become very powerful when we believe something is going to happen, especially things we really hope to happen (like putting a film strip on your tongue and moments later being magically awakened!).

Similar to the bottled water boom of 10 years ago, where all of a sudden folks were duped into thinking that bottled water when compared to tap water A.) tasted better, and B.) was safer — many people are falling prey to the same paradigm today concerning quick energy (* for the record countless empirical studies have shown bottled water is no safer, nor does it have any better taste, than normal tap water).  Energy strips are convenient, cool, and to the untrained eye a very fast way to make up for the lack of sleep you had last night — but be careful, folks, as great marketing does not make a product (even if it’s LeBron James pitching it).

The reality is that there is no safe, effective solution for making up for the fact that you didn’t get enough rest/sleep.  Similar to how a cup of coffee might give you a quick (albeit limited) “jolt,” at best that’s what you will get from the little bottles and strips of energy sold at the gas station.  If you are vulnerable (typically don’t get enough sleep), and hopeful (would like a quick fix to your sleep problems), then you are a perfect target for these marketing campaigns (even though you are really buying more of a placebo than any legitimate energy booster).

Rather than getting jacked up on drinks and strips, you would be far better served to simply make it a point to get an adequate amount of down-time and sleep into your daily schedule.  And while your first reaction to that comment might be “I’m too busy for rest,” I would challenge you to reconsider that statement and instead look for ways to better manage your daily living.  I don’t doubt you are busy — we are all busy — but my question has to do with how you manage and prioritize your day, and how you do things like delegate, multi-task, and communicate?  In my experience we can all do a better job in those areas, thereby freeing up more time for rest, relaxation, and sleep.  The end result?  No need to spend $3-4 for little bottles of liquid lightning or film strips of energy!

www.drstankovich.com

Mind of Steel is the ultimate sport performance science training program – pick up yours today!

Nearly every athlete who competes in sports understands that injuries are always possible, especially in contact sports.  Interestingly, sport psychologists note that when athletes experience injuries almost all focus is directed toward the physical aspects of the injury, while the mental (or emotional) aspects of injury recovery are typically overlooked.  That’s both ironic – and troubling – as most athletes actually suffer far more from the emotional aspects of injury than they do the physical pain and discomfort they experience (Sport Success 360).

Interestingly, the physical pain associated with injuries usually subsides within the first 24-48 hours of the injury, yet the emotional anguish associated with injury rehabilitation can last days, weeks, months, and sometimes even years.  When athletes first learn that they will likely miss a good number of upcoming games, this news is often met with shock, disbelief, denial, anger, and/or depression.  These emotional responses can, in turn, lead to poor coping strategies (i.e. drinking or recreational drug usage), unusual behavioral patterns (i.e. isolating from teammates, friends, and even family), and even risky behaviors (over-spending on credit cards, gambling, speeding, etc.).

If you are a parent, coach, or other helping professional involved in youth/interscholastic athletics, be sure to take a wide lens view of all the issues the injured athlete may be experiencing – physically and emotionally.  Some of the more common issues injured athletes experience are listed below:

• Loss of Personal Identity – When athletes experience injuries, especially long-term injuries, they often experience a loss of their athletic identity.  Not only do others temporarily stop viewing them as athlete (the athlete’s social identity), but their self-identity is also impacted where the role of being an athlete fades into the background of the person’s overall personality.  This change in perceived personality can cause distress for athletes.
• Isolation – Injured athletes often miss out on practices and other team-bonding experiences, leaving them to feel as though they are no longer an important part of the team.
• Fear of Losing Starting Position - In the old days injured athletes never lost their starting position because of an injury, but this old-school coaching mentality may be an antiquated way of thinking anymore.  Unfortunately, some coaches today don’t hold starting positions for injured athletes, making the injury recovery process that much more stressful.
• Ambiguities About the Injury – While most sports injuries are well understood to team physicians, athletes do not always understand their injuries and/or the length of their rehabilitation, making the recovery that much more difficult.
• Sport Retirement - Athletes who experience a career-ending injury are by far the most at-risk for future psychological issues.  Unlike other traditional jobs where retirement is planned for, with sport retirement the transition can be quite abrupt and unexpected, leaving the athlete to deal with a host of problems related to personal identity, future career plans, and overall self-worth.

Learn more about the mental aspects of sports injury recovery by picking up your copy of Sport Success 360 here.

www.drstankovich.com

As we head down the final stretch toward the end of the school year, there are still thousands of senior student athletes wishing to continue their athletic careers but unlikely to receive D1 scholarship offers (Positive Transitions).   Athletic scholarships are very hard to come by, as reports show that less than 5% of high school athletes will receive any kind of athletic scholarship (full or partial).  While this can cause athletic pressure, the good news is that there are almost 450 D3 colleges and universities around the country that currently offer varsity athletics, creating a greater number of opportunities for student athletes to continue playing their sport at the next level.

While it may not be Ohio State, Notre Dame, or Stanford your family is entertaining during the college recruiting process, DIII schools offer quite a lot to prospective student athletes that might not be seen on the surface.  If you have a son or daughter who still wants to play sports in college, but isnt likley to earn a DI scholarship, check out some of the advantages DIII schools offer:

• While DIII schools don’t offer athletic scholarships, they do offer financial aid (studies show that almost 75% of DIII student athletes do in fact receive financial assistance).  In fact, families with hardship may be eligible for grants that would be the same as an athletic scholarship at a DI school.
• DIII schools have become very competitive in recent years.  Long gone are the days where some DIII schools could barely field a team due to low student interest — today, DIII schools are full of incredibly talented student athletes!  Without a doubt the competition level at DIII schools has increased in 2011 to levels never seen before.
• DIII schools have a different philosophy when it comes to the integration of academics and athletics – unlike DI programs that often overly-emphasize athletic commitment (sometimes at the expense of academics), DIII schools look to integrate a balance between academics, athletics, career, and social endeavors.
• The overall education at many DIII schools is quite impressive – sometimes ranking with some of the country’s best colleges!  In fact, in some instances being a student athlete could be the final push over the top to help a student even get in to one of these schools.
• While it is a long shot, it is still possible that a DIII student athlete may still make it to the pros.  Of course, it is true that most DIII student athletes will end their athletic careers after their college eligibility expires, but there are still a few unique examples of student athletes who have made it to professional sports.
• DIII schools may also provide for immediate playing time, unlike some of the big DI schools where a student athlete may not see the field until he or she is an upper-class student.
• Many DIII schools have amazing, multi-million dollar athletic/recreational centers.  In fact, some schools have built these amazing structures in an attempt to “beef up” their athletic programs – great news for future student athletes!

It is important for families to take a wide lens view of college athletics, including DIII athletics.  The good news is that DIII schools have a lot to offer, and can extend a student athlete’s atheltic career as well as provide for a fantastic education.

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