The Super Mental Training Book (35 page)

34. Ibid.

35. Ibid.

36. Ibid.

MENTAL TRAINING STRATEGIES TIME LINE (SOVIET ATHLETE)

T R

A

I

N I

N G

P E R I

O D

D A Y S

L E A D I

N G

U P

T O

T H E

E V E

N T

T H E

E

V E N T

Mental Training Sessions

(Autogenic training, hypnosis, meditation, autosuggestion, and "psychic regeneration" employed by Soviet and East German elite level athletes, according to Dr. Kroger, Track and Field News, Kurt Krueger, and others; Dr. Pavel Bui's hypnosis work; Vladamir Kuzmin taught visualization to 600 athletes; Janis Donins practiced yoga; daily "relaxation sessions" for the Soviet national basketball team)

Uoal-setting, Self-assessment

(Zobkov trained young sprinters to engage in these, as well as learn "self-regulation," with the athletes experiencing great progress)

Hypnosis Tape

(Gamal played this to a group of wrestlers at night, and found it "wholly effective")

Use of Imagery

(Borzov did this while warming up)

Develop the Athlete's "Individual Style"

(Blumenstein and Hudanov recommended autogenic training, breathing exercises, self-commands to perfect one's "internal" or "external" orientation and emotional regulation)

Meditation Sessions

(Viktor Korchnoi cited these as responsible for his nearly winning the world chess title)

Actualize Goals

(Gorbunov says it is best to do this in the last few minutes or seconds before the event; five minutes before a race Olympic gold medalist Valery Borzov focused his mind on running, becoming angry with someone)

THE SOVIET ATHLETE:

ARE THE REPORTS TRUE?

There has been a lot of conjecture about the use to which athletes of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe put hypnosis, or other mental training strategies, in preparing themselves for competition. Reports have it that all Soviet Olympic athletes regularly participate in mental training sessions. If these reports are true, disappointing performances of U.S. athletes, when competing against their Soviet counterparts, could be rationalized. Apologists could say that the Soviet athletes possessed a clearcut mental edge over our athletes; therefore, our team members were not competing on equal terms.

Stories that all Soviet Olympic athletes have been using hypnosis for ages exaggerate the actual situation. It can be said that during the 1970s some elite level Soviet athletes used hypnosis, but probably not the majority. In the 1980s, however, it is likely the case that most Soviet Olympic athletes employed mental rehearsal techniques such as hypnosis. To better understand this development, this chapter will be divided into two parts: one covering the 1970s, the other the 1980s.

Let us look at some of the reports appearing in the 1970s about USSR athletes using hypnosis, and evaluate the validity of these reports. A typical comment about the Soviets using hypnosis appeared in an article by Dick Douce in the July, 1979 issue of Joe Welder's Muscle magazine. Douce remarked:

A stark reality the world of sports must face today is that the Russians are light-years ahead of the United States in using hypnosis to train their Olympic athletes. Many experts believe the Soviets will hold a big advantage over the American team in 1980 because of their adroit use of hypnosis to "psych up" their athletes. [1]

Douce did not provide the name of a single Soviet athlete who utilized hypnosis, nor did he give the name of any Russian coach who instructed his athletes in the use of hypnosis. This does not necessarily make Douce's remark false; for perhaps it was based on other reports (such as the one made by Dr. Kroger which we'll soon examine) that contained more specifics. Douce's analysis, if nothing else, conveyed a sense of urgency by the use of such expressions as "stark reality," "light-years ahead," and "adroit use of hypnosis." The implication seemed to be that the U.S. should close the athletic "mental training gap" that Douce felt existed between the Soviet Union and U.S.; this "mental training gap" allegation came up frequently during the '70s and '80s, as we'll observe throughout this chapter.

Dr. William Kroger also wrote about the Soviet athlete in his textbook on hypnosis, Experimental and Clinical Hypnosis (1977). In this book Dr. Kroger states:

The Soviets have developed the practice of "psyching up" athletes for sports competition into a science. They, too, have used hypnosis, autogenic training, and other psychologic methods. These technics were first employed on the Soviet bicycling team with such great success that they won a gold medal at the 1972 Olympic games at Munich. The technics were especially valuable for those facing a competitor who had always beat them. An institute in Kharkov holds regular classes for coaches who specialize in psychological technics to be used in preparing Soviet athletes for the 1980 Olympics. [2]

I telephoned Dr. Kroger, and asked him how he had obtained this information. Dr. Kroger replied that he had read about it somewhere (he was unable to be more specific). So, the question becomes: was the original newspaper or magazine article that Dr. Kroger read correct?

Without actually talking to the Soviet athletes themselves, we shall be hard-pressed to determine the validity of such reports. Dr. Kroger did not talk to the Soviet athletes or coaches; he just restated what someone else said about them. Even if the report in question proved false, though, Dr. Kroger is unlikely to back down from his belief that hypnosis can enormously benefit most athletes. He says in his book: "I cannot understand why more amateur and professional coaches do not use qualified, psychologically trained hypnotists to potentiate physical performance."[3] I fully agree with Dr. Kroger that a team might profit by having a hypnotist on the staff, providing the hypnotist, no matter how "qualified," enjoys good rapport with the players.

During the 1970s speculation was also rampant about what the East German athletes were up to. For example, Dr. Richard Suinn contended that "East Germany, a relatively recent entry into the Olympic arena, has introduced rigorous psychological training for its athletes. In the 1976 Winter Games, they carried away the second highest number of medals."[4] No amplification, unfortunately, on these intriguing remarks was made. Dr. Suinn did not define what the "rigorous psychological training" involved or how he knew such training was taking place. Also, his subtly linking the existence of the alleged mental training to East Germany's second place finish in the 1976 Winter Olympics reveals a certain bias on his part. This bias is quite understandable in light of Dr. Suinn's being a sports psychologist and his wanting to see wider use of the services of sports psychologists—such as himself, no doubt—by U.S. Olympic athletes. (Dr. Suinn did, in fact, work with several members of the 1976 U.S. Winter Olympics squad; refer to the Amateur Athletes chapter.)

Another report about the East German athletes appeared in the November, 1976 Track and Field News, and created a real sensation. The article, titled "East German SECRETS?", stated in part:

Out of the xerox jungle comes interesting information, purportedly the daily "treatment" regimen followed by East German weight-eventers during their pre-Montreal training.

It is noteworthy that in addition to closely monitored physical and mental training regimens, banned steroid substances, such as Deca-Durabol and Winstrol, are prominently employed. [5]

Thirteen elements of the weekly routine were then listed, including:

7) Mental training sessions, once or twice daily, including hypnosis, autosuggestion, meditation, discussion, psychology.

11) Awareness of physical and psychological highs and lows of biorhythmic curves.

13) Undisclosed "psychic regeneration" after hard training and competition. [6]

It was this mental training part of the article which aroused the interest of many U.S. athletes, who had hardly heard of anything like this being done before (keeping in mind that we are talking about the 1976 time period). Track and Field News, again, did not reveal the source of their information; merely saying that "the xerox jungle" supplied it implied that the story was surreptitiously obtained, perhaps from one of the East German athletes. Also, precise details about the mental training sessions and the "psychic regeneration" were not divulged. In short, the whole report was so mysterious it assumed incredible believability.

These reports of Soviet and East German athletes using hypnosis and other mental training strategies not only generated substantial interest but also controversy as well. Some people expressed opposition to mental training, incorrectly regarding it as a sort of mind control or automaton-creation process. For example, Henry Gris and William Dick, authors of The New Soviet Psychic Discoveries (1978), apparently consider this type of activity as unethical or wrong. Gris and Dick visited the Soviet Union several times from 1972 to 1977 in researching their book, and in the process interviewed a few famous Russian hypnotists. One was Dr. Pavel Bui, a Leningrad hypnotist at the Pavlov Medical Institute, who supposedly programmed a boxer to victory. As Gris and Dick relate it:

Bui had told us about the boxer who, worried about the outcome of his forthcoming bout, came to ask for help. Bui put the man in a hypnotic trance and told him not to be afraid, that he would be better than he ever was. Bui then told him he would lick his opponent, knocking him out with a series of vicious, destructive blows in the sixth round. [7]

Bui informed Gris and Dick that this is exactly what happened in the fight. The fact that these suggestions worked in this fight does not, of course, mean that they would work the next fight. Ken Norton, who used hypnosis in preparation for his fights with George Foreman and Ernie Shavers, losing by knockout in both, could tell you that. Gris and Dick reacted quite negatively to Bui's story, with Gris expressing his concern to the press this way:

There is no doubt this man was telling the truth. He is an internationally known scientist. What scared me was the ease with which he was talking about it... the possibility of hypnotizing people for any contest and defeating the basic premise of sport.

From his point of view, it was merely augmenting the abilities of people with reserve which we all have within ourselves but never use... Now, if one man has been hypnotized to win a bout, there is no reason to believe they (the Soviets) will have any special consideration for the tradition of the Olympic Games. [8]

Gris clearly feels that any athlete who uses hypnosis is "defeating the basic premise of sport." This contention does not address the basic rationale of hypnosis in sports. First, while the athlete should always participate in sports for the enjoyment, he also should always want to perform up to his potential. Hypnosis can be a tremendous assistance in this respect and should be utilized, therefore, by the athlete. Furthermore, any athlete wants good competition. He usually prefers that his opponent play his best—even if the other guy wins, and even if hypnosis is what helped make him play well. The opponent's strong showing raises the performance of each participant, at least in the long run. As most athletes know, you only get better by competing against tough opponents.

Gris's statement further implies that hypnosis can guarantee victory (when he says "if one man has been hypnotized to win a bout..." ). This is an assumption that has little going for it. What happens when Ken Norton or some East German or Soviet boxer uses hypnosis but gets knocked out instead? I seriously doubt that such a losing performance can be classified as one "defeating the basic premise of sport."

I have never been under the impression that "the tradition of the Olympic Games" forbids the use of hypnosis by athletes, as Gris suggests. If so, perhaps weight lifter Russ Knipp of the United States should have been banned from competing in the 1972 Munich Olympics. Knipp used self-hypnosis throughout his competitive days, setting nine world records and 34 national records along the way; he also used self-hypnosis during the '72 Olympics (see Weightlifting chapter). But, Gris does not complain about U.S. athletes who use hypnosis, though maybe he would if he were aware of the fact. He lambastes the Soviets in any case.

Gris predicted to the press in 1978 that in the 1980 Moscow Olympics the Soviet athletes "will

appear to be totally normal. You will never recognize the fact they have been hypnotized." All I can say about this statement is this: especially whenever Soviet athletes lose (as happened to the Soviet hockey team against the U.S. hockey team in the 1980 Winter Olympics), no way will you be able to "recognize the fact they have been hypnotized."

In all of Gris's comments he leads you believe that the 1980 Soviet Olympic team members would be using hypnosis, but he provides no supporting evidence. So, how did the Soviet athletes perform in the 1980 Moscow Olympics? They won 80 gold medals, 197 medals overall; finishing in second place were the East Germans, who won 47 gold medals, 126 medals overall. These accomplishments under normal circumstances would be considered spectacular; but, because of the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan, the U.S. and 57 other nations boycotted the Olympics. The results, therefore, are hard to evaluate, and certainly cannot be attributable to a hypothesized use of hypnosis by the Soviet athletes. In the '84 Games with the conditions reversed—that is, with the Soviet Union and most Eastern European nations boycotting the '84 Olympics—the U.S. won a record 83 gold medals, 174 medals overall. Again, given the special circumstances, one would be naive to credit an increased use of mental training by U.S. athletes as being responsible for their bountiful gold medal harvest. So many other factors—such as, the absence of competition, the home field advantage, etc.—have to be accounted for first before one can even attempt to weigh the impact of mental training on the athletes' performances.

Discounting Gris and Dick's apparent anti-mental training bias, they did uncover good information on Soviet research in hypnosis. For example, they interviewed a noted expert on hypnosis, Dr. Vladimir Raikov of the Moscow Psychoneurological Clinic. Raikov conducts classes in hypnosis. His students—some of them chess players—come from all walks of life. Though chess is unquestionably a mentally demanding game, Dr. Raikov has demonstrated that with the assistance of hypnosis players can handle the pressures of the game. According to Gris and Dick, Raikov introduced one of his students to the Russian Grand Master Mikhail Tal: "Awed at meeting someone of Tal's fame, the student could hardly talk. Raikov suggested the student play three games with the grand master. Ruffled and fidgety, he sat down across the chess board from Tal and was soundly thrashed."[9] They played two more games; the same thing happened. After the third game "Raikov took the student into another room and hypnotized him. He induced him to think he was the late American champion Paul Morphy, then led him back to where Tal was still seated at the chessboard."[10] Contrary to what you might think, the student did not defeat Tal; but, he vastly improved his play: