The Super Mental Training Book (36 page)

Tal was amazed... They played three more games. "Now he was expansive, brimming with energy and imagination, daring and at times brilliant. He was immeasurably better. He acted as if he really believed he was Morphy," Tal said afterwards. The grand master still won two games, but the hypnotized student managed to stalemate the third. [11]

Afterwards Dr. Raikov provided this explanation of the incident to Gris and Dick, commenting, "Under hypnosis a person's level of aspiration increases. He is sure he is capable of doing the work achieved by anyone else, Repin, Raphael, Rachmaninoff, or any other famous person you want to name."[12] We must observe that Dr. Raikov does not promise hypnosis will provide a victory; instead, he merely states that it raises one's level of aspiration. Even so, striving for, let alone achieving, this higher level can make the difference between victory and defeat, assuming the competitors are evenly matched.

Hypnosis also seems to have played an important role in a controversial championship chess match involving two Russian grand masters. In October, 1978 Anatoly Karpov narrowly defeated Viktor Korchnoi for the world chess title. Korchnoi, a Soviet defector, bitterly complained that he lost because of the activities of a Soviet parapsychologist, Vladimir Zoukhar, working for Karpov.

Korchnoi contended that Zoukhar directed interfering brain waves at him during the deciding game. Before this final game both Karpov and Korchnoi had won five games; whoever scored the next victory gained the title. Interestingly, Korchnoi had once trailed 5 to 2. Approximately at that point Korchnoi began practicing yoga and meditation.

As reported in an October, 1978 L.A. Times article, Korchnoi engaged in "yoga exercises and meditation sessions with the Americans, Stephen M. Dwyer of Wichita, Kansas, and Victoria Sheppard of Maryland, and he said it was a big factor in his comeback."[13] The yoga and meditation, however, could not prevent Korchnoi from becoming upset when Zoukhar showed up for the final game. An October 19, 1978 UPI report describes what happened:

Korchnoi protested Zoukhar's presence in the chess hall in Baguio, Philippines, and the Soviets agreed to remove him from the front row and put him in the balcony. But during the last game Tuesday, Zoukhar could be seen with his head buried in his hands, deep in concentration, near the front.

Whether the "mind-bending" really affected Korchnoi was not the point, observers said. The challenger believed Zoukhar could interfere with his concentration, so for all practical purposes Zoukhar did. [14]

In other words, perhaps Korchnoi psyched himself out by worrying about Zoukhar's presence. This seems a more reasonable explanation for what occurred than the alternative: that Zoukhar possesses parapsyetiological powers, and used them to upset Korchnoi's thought processes. Whichever explanation is correct, it is quite possible Zoukhar served as Karpov's hypnotist during the competition; for we read in the Times article that "Karpov credited the parapsychologist, Vladimir Zoukhar, with helping him, but declined to give details. 'He helped overcome the types of nervous pressures that crop up in this kind of match,' Karpov said." It is rational to assume that Zoukhar hypnotized Karpov, and gave him confidence-building suggestions. Such suggestions could dispel the match pressures Karpov mentioned. At the same time we can understand why Karpov would not want to admit he had been hypnotized: he did not want to lend credibility to Korchnoi's charges, and fuel the controversy further.

Again, here is an instance where the inference can be made that a top Soviet chess player used hypnosis on his way to winning a world championship. We do not know for sure, however, because we do not possess all the facts. In any case, a 6-5 decision is no runaway victory. If Karpov used hypnosis, and hypnosis is supposed to ensure swift victory as some people mistakenly believe, why didn't Karpov close out the match when he was leading Korchnoi, 5-2?

We recall Russ Knipp's remark that "every Russian Olympic athlete takes classes in hypnosis," and that Knipp learned this from talking to the Soviet athletes (see Weightlifting chapter). This comment was made in late 1977, not long before Soviet scientist P. M. Kasyanik published interesting information about USSR weight lifters and their minimal use of "psychological tuning." Kasyanik stated this in 1978:

A survey of 52 top lifters showed that most (96%) attach critical importance to psychological tuning before lifting. Nevertheless, only 10% of them are taught methods of tuning and utilize them in workouts.[15]

While Knipp may be correct in contending that all Soviet Olympic team members "take classes in hypnosis," certainly hypnosis was not universally employed by top Soviet weight lifters during the 1970s. In fact, the "psychological tuning" Kasyanik talks about resembles visualization more than hypnosis, and even at that he found only 1 out of 10 lifters utilizing "methods of tuning" in their workouts. What this indicates is that, assuming Knipp is correct and the situation described by Kasyanik still prevails, if a Soviet athlete is good enough to make his country's Olympic squad, he will be taught hypnosis; and if not, no special effort will be made to teach him hypnosis,

"psychological tuning," or any other mental discipline.

There is no question that the 1970s witnessed much research in the area of mental training strategies by Soviet scientists. Some of these scientists' studies are particularly noteworthy. For example, E. I. Gamal took a group of wrestlers, and played what may be called a hypnosis tape to them as they went to sleep at night. Gamal relates his experiment and the results:

Sixteen young competitive wrestlers took part in this study. The experimental group was composed of two sub-groups: (a) those who were not sure of their good physical preparation for competition, and (b) those who possessed poor "obstacle readiness" in relation to unfavorable external and internal influences. The experiment took place at the end of the preparatory and during the competitive period, during the night when they were going to sleep. A taped lesson was played to the subjects as they slept. At the beginning of the tape, to help ensure more rapid falling asleep, there was monotonous, quiet music for 15-20 minutes. The lesson then began and included material relative to how well prepared they were, that their opponents were weaker, both physically and technically, and they must wrestle with confidence, carry out their moves and combinations freely as in practice, take the initiative right from the beginning and hold it to the end, and that it is necessary to fight only for first place.

The length of the sessions varied, depending upon the subject and the period of preparation. There were a sufficient number of lessons to show a positive effect. It was concluded that the psycho-prophylactic method applied during sleep is wholly effective; however, the small number of observations do not allow for a final conclusion. [16]

We do not know to what extent Soviet coaches and athletes have adopted this method of programming the subconscious and conscious mind. But, Gamal concluded that listening to specially prepared hypnosis tapes while one is entering the sleeping state is "wholly effective" in improving one's athletic performance. So, if Soviet coaches and athletes have not yet picked up on this approach, maybe we should. In doing so we would hardly be exploring uncharted territory, for champion athletes mentioned throughout this book have performed similar mental training while drifting to sleep (refer to the experiences of Muhammad Ali, Mark Spitz, Russ Knipp, among others).

Soviet sports psychologists also spent much time during the 1970s researching a psychophysiological process called "psychical self-regulation" (PSR). Basically, this process involves learning how to voluntarily control what normally are involuntary bodily functions—heart rate, temperature, muscle tension, emotional reactions to stress, etc. PSR therefore is what Canadian canoe champion Bill Griffith can be said to have employed after he mastered Triple Imagery, a mental rehearsal technique promoted by Bennett and Pravitz (see Amateur Athletes chapter). Mike Spino and James Hickman, writing in the March, 1977 issue of Runner's World, presented one of the first reports about Soviet research in PSR. After relating that "in 1973 a conference on PSR was conducted in Alma-Ata, USSR," Spino and Hickman noted this:

Thirty-five papers pertaining to athletic-related subjects were presented. Researchers reported their use of techniques to augment the physical training of fencers, gymnasts, basketball players, weight lifters, divers and figure skaters, among others.

The PSR was reported effective in preventing "pre-start fever," training for specific movements, increasing perception and reaction time, stabilizing movement, and decreasing sensitivity to pain. [17]

It should be evident that psychical self-regulation accomplishes what self-hypnosis and, as Bill Griffith's experience shows, imagery can do; that is, athletes properly employing self-hypnosis

and imagery can also attain decreased sensitivity to pain, increased perception, elimination of "pre-start fever," etc. Examples of these benefits, produced by "different" techniques, appear elsewhere in this book, illustrating again how meaningless it often is to assign a name to a mental discipline; for what is "psychical self-regulation" to one athlete is "imagery" or "self-hypnosis" to another. [18]

The late 1970s saw Soviet sports psychology research and thought rapidly evolve, becoming extremely sophisticated at times; two striking examples of this require our attention. The first example we shall examine is a highly advanced experiment involving long jumpers and triple jumpers; this was conducted in 1978 by B. Blumenstein and N. Hudanov, and reported in the March, 1980 issue of Soviet Sports Review, Blumenstein and Hudanov, after talking to athletes and observing them in competition, identified four types of individual style commonly found in sports participants. The term "individual style" was defined by the two scientists to be "a specific system of inter-connected purposeful modes of behavior, conditioned by nervous system characteristics, by which people who have different characteristics achieve equally high results in activities."[19] According to Blumenstein and Hudanov, one of two styles—"steady" or "explosive"—can describe the athlete's emotional regulation of his activity (activity referring to the workout or competition). Also, one of two styles—"internal" or "external"—can describe the athlete's orientation to his activity. The two researchers elaborate on these styles:

"Steady" indicates performance at a relatively steady emotional level. A stable background of excitation is maintained throughout the competition. Attainment of one's personal best does not depend on strategy and is not linked with use of risky tactical-technical actions.

The "explosive" type is characterized by sharp emotional lifts and peaks of emotional excitation prior to competition. The athlete does not execute all jumps at maximum power because the level of excitability after a successful jump is reduced, and a temporary pause for recovery and reactivation of neuro-muscular readiness is necessary. Attainment of one's personal best is dependent on strategy and is linked with use of risky tactical-technical actions.

In the case of "internal" orientation, the athlete displays maximum concentration when switching attention from external objects and situations to his own internal state. Prior to an attempt he uses ideomotor images to activate conditioned reflex programs.

An "external" orientation is distinguished by the fact that the athlete follows the behavior of his main competitors and uses different tactics of psychological influence on them (strong trial jumps, demonstration of his readiness, personal contacts). One's competitive result often depends on the competitors, external conditions, and purposes (to defeat a specific person).[20]

What Blumenstein and Hudanov uncovered was that with "top-class jumpers, the 'explosive' type of emotion is more dominant than 'steady,' and 'internal' orientation is more dominant than 'external.'" These jumpers raised their level of emotional excitement, said the scientists, "to coincide with execution of the jump" (the "explosive" part of their individual style), while the athletes' "internal" orientation facilitated their jumping just as well in competition as they had in practice. ("Jumpers must reproduce performances that have been achieved in workouts," note the two researchers, and "internal" style jumpers can best do this because of their reliance on "ideomotor images to activate conditioned reflex programs." ) Having presented this information, Blumenstein and Hudanov next emphasize four points:

1) A definite individual style should be formed long before crucial competition.

2) The coach identify his protege's psychological characteristics (temperament,

character and behavior during workouts and competition).

3) (The coach should) note corrective actions that should be introduced when planning psychological preparation to develop and form an individual style.

4) (The coach should) define means of achieving this goal.

Blumenstein and Hudanov then offer six ways the coach can develop and sharpen his athlete's individual style in the area of emotional regulation. These ways include such staples as massage and appropriate warm-up exercises, but also, as the scientists relate, the following psychological methods:

Autogenic training ("calming" when forming the "steady" type; "mobilization" when forming the "explosive" type).

Breathing exercises (slowing down breathing in the former case; speeding up, in the latter). [21]

In the area of orientation ("internal" or "external") four methods are proposed for the coach to shape his athlete's individual style. One of these methods is special breathing exercises, while another corresponds very closely to self-hypnosis, it being:

Voluntary switching of attention to different emotional stimuli (with the help of self-commands — "to concentrate"; self-calming — "all is O.K.," "be calm"; self-encouragement—"well done" and so on).[22]

The self-commands, self-encouragement, etc. the athlete is to give himself are essentially autosuggestions. Though the word "self-hypnosis" is not used, it appears that this mental training strategy is employed here. For all this to occur, however, the athlete would first need to be taught self-hypnosis, and then guided in its application—with the coach serving as the instructor and overseer, if Blumenstein and Hudanov could have their way. In fact, it appears that something of this sort was tried out in the experiment conducted by the two researchers. They relate the stories of a long jumper and triple jumper, both remaining unidentified, who benefitted substantially from efforts to create an individual style suitable to each athlete's personality. The case of the long jumper was reported as follows: