The Super Mental Training Book (43 page)

Performing well by using visualization or other mental disciplines is, as we have repeatedly discovered, not a sure thing. Sean Salisbury, starting quarterback at USC for much of the 1985 season, took up imagery before the season opener. He had a couple of mental training sessions with sports psychologist Dan Smith, who is noted for his work with the University of Illinois football and basketball teams. Of the sessions with Smith, Salisbury declared, "Unbelievable, it really works."[21] The USC quarterback, being stationed in Los Angeles, apparently found it impractical to continue to meet with Illinois-based Smith, and turned to a local provider for assistance with his mental preparation. He told Mai Florence, L.A. Times staff writer, the following:

I've been seeing a sports psychologist, Dr. Muriel Fuller at UCLA, to help myself with creative imagery and to stay mentally focused. I'm usually thinking about 2,000 things at once and I need to relax. I think (the therapy) is going to work. [22]

The 1985 season did not turn out too well for Salisbury. With two games left freshman Rodney Peete replaced him as starting quarterback. The creative imagery evidently did not "work wonders" for Salisbury, though practicing it might have benefitted him more than if he had performed no mental training at all. But, the '85 season cannot be replayed, so all we can do is speculate.

Mental Preparation for the Rose Bowl

Arthur Ellen, in The Intimate Casebook of a Hypnotist, tells some stories about hypnotizing players before their appearance in the Rose Bowl. Though a Los Angeles area resident, Ellen tried to be even-handed in the way he conducted the hypnosis sessions with players from the two opposing teams. He says, "I avoided post-hypnotic suggestions about winning—which, incidentally, are not necessarily effective." Nonetheless, when he hypnotized the UCLA and Michigan State teams prior to the 1966 game, Ellen's subconscious preference may have influenced his efforts. He confesses, "You may recall that UCLA stunned the experts by winning—14 to 12—and I wonder now whether local pride made me work a little harder on the California team."

The University of Illinois football team, based on outward appearances, seemed to have their mental preparation in order for the 1984 Rose Bowl. Sports psychologist Dan Smith worked with the team all season, arousing the interest of Stan Isle of The Sporting News, Isle reported a week before the game that Smith "has University of Illinois athletes working on a psychological skills training program, using mental imagery, goal-setting, and other methods to help them relax, gain self-confidence, improve concentration and perform better in game situations."[23] The sports psychologist, formerly an assistant basketball coach at Illinois, apparently taught these methods to the basketball team, because Isle related that "his (Smith's) success with Coach Lou Henson's 1982-83 basketball team convinced football Coach Mike White that Smith should work with the Illini gridders." As a result, the university changed Smith's assignment to that of a full-time sports psychologist. Continued Isle, "The Illini football record (10-1, with the team headed for the Rose Bowl as Big Ten Conference champion) and the unbeaten Illini basketball team (8-0 going into Christmas) stand as testimony to Smith's contribution."

Orange County Register reporter Steve Grimley added more details about the sports psychologist's work with the Illinois football squad, informing us:

Smith employed techniques to try and help Illini players to relax during game situations. Among those who claim Smith has helped them are wide receiver Mitchell

Brookins, quarterback Jack Trudeau, Ail-American defensive tackle Don Thorpe and punter Chris Sigourney. Eighty percent of the players used Smith's services, White said. [24]

One is interested in knowing how the players managed to relax during game situations, because this is an extremely useful capability for athletes to possess. According to Grimley, Smith devised a "trigger" for the players, one reminiscent of the "triggers" Dr. Ravizza created for the 1984 U.S. Olympic Field Hockey team (see Recent Developments in Sports Psychology and Mental Training chapter). The trigger the Illinois sports psychologist chose was a color—perhaps the wrong color. Grimley made a thought-provoking observation about this, saying before the game:

If Smith's relaxation techniques really do aid relaxation, the Illini should be really loose today. The color Smith randomly selected at the beginning of the year to trigger relaxation was light blue. . . UCLA's jersey color.

The 1984 Rose Bowl turned out to be one of the most lopsided affairs ever, with UCLA crushing Illinois, 45-9. Smith came up with several excuses explaining why the team performed so poorly, with his first excuse, as reported by UP I, dealing with pre-game chaos:

The atmosphere those last 48 hours was all wrong, and was totally unlike anything we had ever been through. Families were actually holding reunions with their sons, and one of the players told me, "I didn't know my aunt was coming; I hadn't seen her in years." It was totally out of the control of the coaches. [25]

The situation may, in fact, have been "out of the control of the coaches." However, one wonders what the hired sports psychologist—the supposed expert in such matters—did to prevent the distractions from occurring. Maybe he was powerless to intercede. [26] Perhaps, though, he was convinced of the effectiveness of his mental training program (after all, the team was 10-1), and felt that the players would play well, despite any pre-game family reunions and other disruptions.

Smith then offered another reason for the debacle:

First of all, you tend to tense up when you attempt to prepare mentally at the last moment. We were very tense, while UCLA came in relaxed, having slept in their own beds and many of them driving their own cars and coming to their own field. It was a perfect setting for an underdog team. [27]

The sports psychologist's remarks about the players tensing up "when you attempt to prepare mentally at the last moment" is quite puzzling. The Illinois football players, under Smith's guidance, had been practicing imagery, working with a trigger, and performing other mental training all season. Now suddenly, the sports psychologist raises the argument that "last moment" mental preparation proved counterproductive and ineffective. Mental training was not new to the Illinois players. Any game day mental rehearsal session, therefore, should have been old hat to them, and not caused them "to tense up," as Smith contends.

The sports psychologist does not refer to the trigger situation Grimley highlighted. One would think that looking all game at one's trigger to relax—unavoidable because light blue, UCLA's jersey color, was the trigger—might prove highly detrimental. Occasional use of a trigger during a game situation has yielded impressive benefits in many cases, but one questions the appropriateness of constant viewing of the trigger. Players placed in such a situation conceivably could find themselves continually preoccupied with trying to achieve a relaxed state, rather than concentrating on playing the game. If a color is to be used as a trigger, it seems that a color not worn by the opposing team would be preferable. The players could glance at such a color as needed, instead of having to always be confronted by the trigger.

We recall Dr. Eugene Gauron's mental training work with the University of Iowa athletes

(refer to Swimming chapter and Amateur Athletes chapter). One of the athletes he helped out was Gordy Bohannon, quarterback of the 1981 Big Ten champion Iowa football team.

A very nice and informative testimonial by Bohannon appears in the Preface to Dr. Gauron's book, Mental Training for Peak Performance. The Iowa quarterback stated in part:

I decided to work with Gene twice a week. His services are available to all sports at Iowa. The primary emphasis in our initial meetings was on relaxation and visualization training. We first got my body to relax completely by deep rhythmic breathing, and once the body was relaxed, my mind was very open to suggestion. It was important for me to be able to tell myself these suggestions and not have to depend on someone else.

One day in July (1981) when we had achieved this state of mind, Gene asked me to visualize the front page of a newspaper. My visualization resulted in this headline: "Bohannon leads Iowa to Rose Bowl." I continued this exercise daily until I felt confident about it becoming a reality.[28]

Bohannon describes in detail what he pictured in his mind during the visualization sessions; such things as "the defensive secondary in different positions on the field," "feelings I would be experiencing during a game," "jersey numbers," and so on. A game day visualization session always took place, lasting from 30-45 minutes. "The main purpose of the game day meeting," noted Bohannon, "was to visualize a positive outcome. This developed confidence because I then expected to do well."

The visualization worked for Bohannon, as far as he took it. Iowa defeated Michigan State to earn the Rose Bowl berth, but for the Iowa quarterback this victory was like reliving history. He recalls:

The feeling after the game was unusual. It seemed like a deja vu because I had visualized this outcome so frequently. It seemed strange to pick up a newspaper which had my picture on the front page with a rose in my mouth. The caption read, "Hawkeyes to Rose Bowl." Amazing how close my visualization came to the actual reality. [29]

Unfortunately, Bohannon experienced a harsher reality in the 1982 Rose Bowl game. Iowa lost to Washington, 28-0. The Iowa quarterback blamed himself for not setting "my goals high enough. I never saw us winning the Rose Bowl. My goal was just getting there. Once my goal had been attained there was no motivation to keep performing at a high level." In the next chapter (Recent Developments in Sports Psychology and Mental Training) the importance of proper goal-setting is discussed at length. Bold goals, such as "win the Rose Bowl," or "go through the season undefeated," generate motivation and interest, especially for elite level athletes; more easily attainable goals tend not to inspire athletes so much. Bohannon, therefore, diagnosed his mistake perfectly, and also prescribed the correct remedy, commenting: "If I had to do it over again, I would have set goals including the outcome of the bowl game."[30] This insight is similar to what Lisa Vogelsang realized halfway through her discus competition at UC Irvine (see Track & Field chapter). It dawned on her that her autosuggestions had not specified that she throw a PR "in the meet," an oversight she rectified for subsequent competitions. When you engage in mental training, what seems to be a minor or hypothetical detail—one of those things which can be dealt with "if and when"—can develop into something major later on in the season. So, be careful when you set your goals not to limit yourself or omit critical steps.

The 1985 Iowa football team also found themselves on their way to the Rose Bowl. However, Coach Hay den Fry, recalling his team's 1982 experience and undoubtedly seeing what happened to Illinois in the '84 game, opted to keep his players home until December 26th. On the previous visit the team had arrived on the 19th, with bus trips to tourist attractions, fancy dinners, and V.I.P. treatment occupying much of their time. Remarked Fry: "You name it, we did it. If we

missed any of the places around here, I wasn't aware of it."[31] The Iowa coach found the constant entertainment quite distracting, and decided the second time around to test the theory that his players could concentrate on the game better if they practiced more days at home and then, after arriving in Pasadena, avoided most of the hoopla. He observed:

Whether or not it's important (to stay home longer), I don't really know because they don't let me play. But assuming that it is, we're going to practice at home, then come out here for four days of workouts and see what happens. [32]

It would be interesting to learn what role Dr. Gauron played with the '85 team; one suspects he was involved in some way. Meanwhile, Iowa's opponent, UCLA, was conducting a partial simulation of playing conditions during their workouts. Dave Strege of the Orange County Register reported that "during most of the pre-bowl practices, the Bruins have been running a crowd-noise drill by piping in tape-recorded crowd noise. It's a drill they've been doing all season."[33] Simulation is a useful technique for athletes and coaches to employ. It helps make the actual competition familiar and more like a workout (where commonly little stress is experienced). Coach Terry Donahue of UCLA was smart to run the crowd-noise drill all season; it was not something he suddenly introduced after the team earned a Rose Bowl slot, making it some new element for the players to adjust to. Instead, the simulation was a standard feature of UCLA's practices. One has to believe that other football teams could benefit from acclimating their players to game conditions (via simulation).

The '86 Rose Bowl game saw UCLA playing well again, and winning, 45-28. Iowa's mental preparation may have been as thorough and as focused as possible; if so, this only underscores the point that mental training cannot win games by itself. There is an opponent, for one, to deal with. If the opponent does not cooperate, but instead plays with intensity and confidence, anything can happen, as UCLA aptly demonstrated to Iowa.

Personality Tests

One question I asked Kevin McLain in 1977 was whether or not the Rams coaching staff had ever had the team take a psychological test. He said that the coaches had never done this. But, psychological testing has been conducted on players on other professional teams. For example, Dr. Thomas Tutko, the Sports Psyching author and founder of the Institute of Athletic Motivation, acknowledges that in 1963 the Dallas Cowboys took a personality test developed by his institute. Called the Athletic Motivation Inventory test, it reputedly measures these traits: Drive, Aggressiveness, Determination, Guilt Proneness, Leadership, Emotional Control, Self-confidence, Mental Toughness, Coachability, Conscientiousness, and Trust. Theoretically, the results of this test would help the coaching staff make better decisions regarding the players; such as, position assignments. The coaches would also gain a deeper understanding of their players, which hopefully would lead to greater rapport—once again, theoretically.