The Super Mental Training Book (49 page)

Level

Now you can leave the competition, but keep this winning feeling. When you now move forward in time, you take this feeling with you.

Dr. Unestahl includes in his "New Paths of Sport Learning and Excellence" paper the outcomes of many different studies on mental training he has conducted. The most interesting result, presented on the preceding page, shows how IMT-trained athletes have fared in competition. The charts show that 49 out of 170 members (29%) of Sweden's 1980 Olympic team underwent Inner Mental Training. However, 58% of the 1980 Swedish Olympians who made it to the finals of their particular sport were IMT users. The percentage keeps rising as the performances improve. For example, 12 Swedish Olympic team members won medals in 1980; 8 of the 12, or 67%, practiced Inner Mental Training. Next, 7 Swedish Olympians in 1980 won gold or silver medals; 6 of these athletes, or 86%, followed Dr. Unestahl's IMT program. The other chart shows an impressive number of European and Swedish champions using Inner Mental Training to help them win.

In talking to Dr. Unestahl, he told me that one reason why such a high percentage of Swedish national and Olympic champions happen to be IMT practitioners is because they are motivated, perhaps by necessity, to investigate ways to improve their performance, to squeeze out of themselves the extra 1% or 2% improvement required to capture the title. Explained Dr. Unestahl, "If you are good already, you are looking for things that can make you better. You are more eager to start mental training, to try things that will help you further." A self-selective process in effect occurs. Athletes not in the elite category have less cause to incorporate mental training into their regimen, and therefore do not gravitate as easily toward IMT. By default, the elite athletes seemingly end up being overrepresented in the totals of athletes winning gold medals, European championships, etc. I said "seemingly" because there is another reason—a reason many sports psychologists would not hesitate to trumpet—which can explain this overrepresentation phenomenon. I refer, of course, to the fact that Inner Mental Training might work superbly, providing athletes adopting the approach a competitive advantage over opponents who still rely on superficial and primitive psych-up methods. Naturally, it appears immodest to promote this explanation, and by and large Dr. Unestahl lets the results speak for themselves.

I am a firm believer in you, the athlete, assuming full responsibility for your own mental preparation; and, Dr. Unestahl apparently shares my philosophy. The Swedish scientist states that "it is important to feel that what you (the athlete) are doing, what you are achieving is dependent on what you are doing, not dependent on another person." He goes on to say that although 5,000 Swedish athletes through 1981 had completed the Inner Mental Training program, he himself only "personally worked with 500, because the training is mainly self-instruction." As for those athletes he personally works with, Dr. Unestahl insists that they take an active role in the self-improvement process. He explains:

I don't want to see the athlete, even the first time, until he has finished three weeks of mental training. Because it shows that the athlete has taken responsibility for his situation; it shows that he has motivation to do something about it, and is willing to do something himself.

This may seem a harsh policy, but really it is as it should be. An athlete who will not expend any effort to help himself does not deserve the assistance of others. Remember, also, Coach Winter saying that "they (the San Jose State track team members) have to want to get into the (relaxation) course;" certainly there was no coddling in his program.

Dr. Unestahl's thoughts on mental training can be summed up in one comment he made to me: "If an athlete depends on a coach shouting from the side of the field, then something is wrong." Regrettably, this is the typical situation encountered today in sports, despite the inroads mental training has made in recent years. Most coaches still think making appeals to the athlete's conscious state, while ignoring the player's subconscious altogether, is what coaching is all about.

They continue to rant and rave from the sidelines, bringing disrespect upon themselves, the schools and teams they represent, and humanity in general. These coaches and most athletes as well are ignorant of the benefits mental training affords, and so they persist with their futile pep formulas. To correct the "something is wrong" situation Dr. Unestahl describes, therefore, ignorance of mental training and its payoffs needs to be replaced with widespread awareness of how athletes can prosper from regularly practicing self-hypnosis, visualization, and related disciplines.

Unfortunately, even the "experts" who are supposed to liberate athletes and coaches from the old ways often fall down on the job, pushing back the day when mental training becomes a standard element in sports programs. As Dr. Unestahl observes, "The steadily increasing interest in mental training has led many sport organizations to consult psychologists or psychiatrists with or without a background in sport. But in many cases the results have been discouraging, and this has given rise to a distrust of mental training."[24] The Swedish scientist says that athletes and coaches interested in employing mental training can insure against disappointment by seeing to it that two conditions are carefully observed, and two expectations are always kept in mind:

Conditions

1) The mental trainer should have a very good knowledge about sport in general and the specific sport in question. In fact it seems better to have a good coach who learns about mental training than a psychologist who tries to learn about sport.

2) Stress must be laid on the motivation needed for mental training. It might even be a good idea to exaggerate the difficulties of mental training, in order to prevent drop-outs.

Expectations

1) During the first weeks very few positive results can be expected. There are actually even chances of negative effects, due to changed routines and too much awareness of the mental procedure.

2) The greatest effects of mental training cannot be expected until after so long a period that the athlete has not only learnt the training, but has automatized it—it has become a way of thinking, a way of goal-programming, a way of behaving, which comes quite naturally and automatically. [25]

Condition 1 is interesting because it calls for the coach to become a mental training expert, which brings to mind Professor Alexi Medvedev's remark that "our (Soviet) coaches must be psychologists" (see Weightlifting chapter). It remains to be seen whether coaches heed the advice of Prof. Medvedev and Dr. Unestahl. Meanwhile, you, the athlete, should not wait for your coach to become proficient in mental training, or for him to bring in a sports psychologist to work with you and your teammates. Instead, learn and regularly practice one of the mental rehearsal techniques on your own. That way you will become self-sufficient as far as your mental preparation is concerned, and more immune from any follies or well-intentioned but counterproductive psych-up ploys of your coach.

Mental Training Books

When I interviewed weightlifting champion Russ Knipp in 1977, he stressed that "there needs to be a course or book or something" to teach weight lifters and other athletes confidence. Knipp's wish has been fulfilled, and the task now is to inform athletes and coaches about all the sports-related mental training materials—books, audio and videotapes—currently available for reference. Without passing this task onto others, I shall describe here a few of the more prominent mental

training books which have appeared in recent years.

In Pursuit of Excellence (1980), by Dr. Terry Orlick of the University of Ottawa, was one of the first such books geared to athletes to hit the scene. Dr. Orlick presents many mental rehearsal techniques for athletes to try out; these techniques include imagery, self-hypnosis, etc. Unfortunately, Dr. Orlick rarely identifies any athletes who have benefitted from mental training. For instance, he states, "I once worked a cross-country skier. . ." but never reveals exactly who this was. Elsewhere he talks about a "top Swedish sportsman" and a "young figure skater," again keeping their identities a secret. Dr. Orlick's few examples therefore are weak, thanks to their being so vague. Because the author's examples lack punch, the reader of In Pursuit of Excellence might not wind up inspired enough to try out the mental rehearsal techniques contained in the book; this is too bad because the mental disciplines themselves are substantive.

Six years later Dr. Orlick tried again, authoring two complementary works— Psyching for Sport (1986) and Coaches Training Manual to Psyching for Sport (1986.) These books discuss the advantages of and mechanisms for establishing and following a detailed mental training program. Sample forms are provided in each which, if utilized, can help the athlete devise an individualized mental training program, and aid him and the coach to evaluate on an on-going basis the effectiveness of such a program. Psyching for Sport, in contrast to In Pursuit of Excellence with its foggy examples, specifically identifies and records the experiences of a number of Canadian athletes who profited from the incorporation of mental training strategies into their training regimen and the pre-competition period. These athletes include canoeists Larry Cain, Alwyn Morris, Sue Hol-loway, and others on the Canadian National Canoe Team, who worked with Dr. Orlick for three years prior to the 1984 Olympics; this long-term linkup paid dividends as the Canadian canoeists ended up winning 6 medals at the Games—2 gold, 2 silver, and 2 bronze. The mental training experiences of other athletes, such as Sylvie Bernier, the gold medalist in springboard diving at the '84 Olympics, are also detailed, and often include direct quotes from the athlete whose case is being discussed; such quotes render the stories completely believable to the reader, and provide an impact that no amount of theorizing can ever deliver. All in all, Dr. Orlick's two Psyching for Sport books constitute a major improvement over his earlier work, and definitely can be studied to advantage by athletes and coaches.

Similar books promoting mental training have come out besides Dr. Orlick's, most notably: The Miracle of Sports Psychology (1982), Sporting Body Sporting Mind (1984), Peak Performance: Mental Training Techniques of the World's Greatest Athletes (1984), and Mental Training for Peak Performance (1984). These works have been discussed at length elsewhere in this book. In general, they contain a few anecdotes, usually poorly documented, of athletes benefitting from mental training, and then the balance of these books is primarily devoted to hyping the authors' pet mental rehearsal exercises. Of the four books just listed, Dr. Eugene Gauron's Mental Training for Peak Performance offers the best documentation of athletes' experiences with mental disciplines. Dr. Gauron does an excellent job at times of answering the 5 W's: who, what, when, where, why—especially in his Preface, where pro-mental training testimonials of elite level athletes are presented. He also delivers some of the most lucid commentary one will ever encounter on mental training's place in sports programs. One example of this is where Dr. Gauron points out the tunnel vision possessed by a multitude of coaches and athletes, and what they need to do to broaden their focus:

Mental training for athletes is an idea whose time has come. For many years, coaches and athletes devoted themselves to improving physical training programs and refining ways to develop and improve the human body. The focus on this aspect of the human being seems to have gone about as far as it can. And yet coaches and athletes still search for the "extra edge". . . If you have devoted years of effort and labor to practicing and developing the body and neglected or ignored mind development, there

is much yet left untouched. Sooner or later, in order to be all you can be, you will have to have the mind for it too. [26]

In 1985 Dr. Robert Nideffer, author of The Inner Athlete, came out with another book— Athletes' Guide to Mental Training. This book is essentially a reorganized and updated version of the former. As is the case in other mental training books, we find in Dr. Nideffer's work a few brief stories of athletes benefitting from mental rehearsal techniques. Dr. Nideffer, for instance, says that Greg Louganis, the 1984 and 1988 Olympic double gold medalist in diving, "uses imagery extensively in practicing his dives." Continues the sports psychologist:

He is thinking about them (his dives) away from the pool, between dives during competition, and when he is actually on the board or platform. He goes over them very systematically again and again, rehearsing from several different perspectives. He can visualize himself doing the dive, or take the perspective of someone in the audience watching the dive. He can image from inside his own body, generating the kinesthetic feelings as well as the visual images. Finally, he rehearses to music, using the tempo and rhythm of the music to assist him in his timing and execution. [27]

This is certainly interesting information, partly because Louganis, the first person to win both diving events in an Olympics (3-meter springboard and 10-meter platform), is widely recognized as the greatest diver in sports history. What would make the story completely convincing, though, would be a quote from the athlete himself. Dr. Nideffer does not provide us with such a quote, so we either have to take the sports psychologist's word on faith or entertain some doubt about the story's accuracy. The main goal of anyone who writes a mental training book should be to convince and inspire the reader to try out mental training strategies. Dr. Nideffer could have really presented a blockbuster mental training story had he quoted Greg Louganis; and, if such a story could not motivate the reader to try out imagery or other mental rehearsal techniques, then probably no other story could, either. But, Dr. Nideffer, as I said, did not go to the trouble of presenting a testimonial from Louganis; nor does he indicate how the diving champion learned imagery (from a book, coach?).

Dr. Nideffer does much the same thing in relating how he worked with javelin thrower Tom Petranoff. Petranoff, recalls the sports psychologist, "began practicing the psychological skills which I describe in this book"—such mental skills as Centering and Attentional Redirection. After working for two weeks to improve his mental concentration and tension control, under the guidance of Dr. Nideffer, Petranoff increased his javelin mark from 300' to 327 f 2". This latter distance, thrown at the 1983 Pepsi track meet in Los Angeles, set a world record in the javelin by 10 feet! Again, we have here an outstanding mental training story, with the exception that the athlete's own words are excluded.