Question. I do not score goals, run for touchdowns or make baskets: I do not make passes, receive passes or make errant passes: I do not stop goals, make tackles or cover the opposition: I do not dribble, or stick handle around opponents: and I do not sacrifice my body physically for the team. But I am involved in sports and get the most close ups and individual airtime on Television than anyone else during a sports cast. Who Am I?

Answer. THE COACH

With the NHL and NBA in progress and the Super Bowl coming up and with the just completed World Cup in the books, sports fans watch countless hours of team sports on TV. The camera’s focus on many sports personalities but it’s the coaches that will literally hog the TV screens with most of the close ups. Although sport has always identified the coach as an important person in the scheme of things, the expectations put on a coach, especially as an entertainment value, has increased substantially in the past decade. It is quite common for cameras to be solely focused on the coach to see what their reaction is in the game. We see close ups of their reactions to goals and touchdowns and now the coaches are practically part of the replays.

If a player has a scoring opportunity, in many cases the coach may have thought out the play to create the chance but ultimately, it is the skill of the player that will decide the fate of that moment. But we still want to see how coaches react, look, cheer, curse or whatever else they do during a game

We want to see how coaches react, cheer, & curse

The media has certainly helped glorify the coach and his/her importance to the athletic results on the field, floor, ice or diamond. But does the coach actually deserve this attention? TV stations will do what it takes to improve ratings and if fans want to see a coach’s reaction then they will get it. Unfortunately, too many youth coaches think they need to behave as though they are coaching the pros and are on TV. Some coaches believe all eyes are on them to produce winning results. Some coaches may want to coach at a higher level but while they are coaching kids, they must understand that their role is not to produce winning teams at the expense of the child’s social development and certainly not in an entertainment, ratings grabber sort of way.

What is the role of the coach and how important are they in that job?

I remember asking this question to Keith Eddy, in 1979. He coached the former Toronto Blizzard of the NASL in the days when the Blizzard averaged over 20,000 fans at Exhibition Stadium. I’ll never forget his answer to that question. He quickly and very confidently said, “ The coach has to be a psychologist. The coach, in the rest of the world is called a manager. He has to manage individuals and they’re all different and they’re all individuals. A coach needs to get respect from his players and if you’re honest with them you’ll get the respect.”

The coach, regardless of the age group he or she is coaching, has a very important role in the relationship with the athletes of the team outside of simply teaching skills and tactics. In fact, this role is probably more important than most coaches themselves understand. Studies have shown over and over that a coach is a very influential person in a child’s life and actually is the second most important person in children’s lives next to the parent. In cases where there are parental problems or a child has lost a parent, the coach can take on those roles as well. At each age group, the coach influences players in different ways. How a coach interacts with the athletes can either create a positive or negative experience for the athlete.

In other studies that looked at the drop out rates in children’s sports, the coach has been shown to be very influential. How enjoyable they make the sport, can either increase or decrease the chances of their players playing the sport for a long time or quitting. Their role in the development of the child as a person will be a much more important aspect of their coaching. Players and parents will remember them in how they or their child was treated and not what they won. Unfortunately, coaches themselves are often under the wrong impression that they are there to only teach kids how to play and then to make their team a winning team.

The biggest misconception coaches have is that they feel the parents of the players they coach want them to produce a winning team.

This is the biggest misconception a coach can have about his or her performance as a coach. Most parents don’t care if the team wins or loses. All they care about is how their kids play. Everyone plays to win but the parent is concerned that his/her child plays. Are they enjoying the game, making friends, keeping fit, demonstrating fair play, and learning the values of competition and cooperation? These are life skills that are applicable to the real world. Playing in the NHL or the World Cup is not going to be the real world for most kids. Of course, there are parents who actually think their child will be the next superstar but most are reasonable and just want their kids to do their best and use sport as a life learning tool. That can only happen if kids stay in sports. Of course players need a goal that there may be a future in athletics but coaches must realize that young kids will search for that goal on their own. Parents are actually expecting you to get to the other goals. Ultimately, to learn life’s lessons.

Therein coaches make grave mistakes and are the prime reason why kids quit sports. In a study of over 11,000 kids, the number one and two factors for why kids quit sports are:

1. It was no longer interesting and
2. It was no longer Fun.

This was the same for boys and girls. Quitting because the coach was a poor teacher was the 6th on the list for reasons why boys quit sports and not even in the top ten list for why girls quit sports.

Who else can be blamed for kids quitting sports based on the top two reasons but the coach? If the coach cannot make playing a sport interesting or fun, than he/she has failed as a coach in being the leader and role model that he or she needs to be. The coach has failed in the player’s eyes. Parents also consider the coach a failure. Championships are not what parents care about. Players want to have fun first and foremost. If this is not achieved, the coach has been a poor psychologist.

Spectators at youth games are there for one reason and one reason only.

The issue of kids quitting sports is huge. Soccer’s drop out rate hovers above 75% in boys and at 65% in girls by age 12. Learning skills, tactics and strategies does play a role in keeping players interested and coaches need to understand that learning is important but winning is not. Take a good look at the spectators at a youth sporting event. Most are parents and they are not there to watch the team. They are there for one reason and one reason only. They are there to watch their children and in reality, that’s all they care about.

A parent would rather see their child play a fair share of the game and risk losing the championship rather than sit out. A victory would be more rewarding if the child played in the game rather than be embarrassed in front of his or her peers for not playing. Parents couldn’t really care less if the team won or lost if it was at the expense of their child not playing. This year I watched a nine-year old boy cry so hard that he created a crowd after his house league coach barely played him in a playoff game. I also witnessed a coach of a house-league select team act like a monkey on the sidelines and get thrown out of a game.

I’ve seen house-league coaches act like monkeys and make kids cry.

Whenever I put on house league coaching sessions I say to coaches: “Coaches, you are not on TV! There are no close ups of you and you are not being judged by weather you win or lose.”

Coaches often make that assumption because the one or two parents out of 18 that they coach, are giving them suggestions of what he or she should do to win. Those parents are giving coaches the wrong impression. They do not represent most of the other parents of the kids they coach. Unfortunately, those type parents are also often the most vocal parents on the team and use language that would make the coach feel that all other parents share his or her views. Rarely is that the case.

Children want to have fun, and they are eager to learn but things need to be kept interesting. The coach occupies a special place in the eyes of a young player. They look to the coach as a role model, leader, problem solver and someone who will enlighten their lives. Coaches must not turn them off sports by ignoring these psychological cues that children fail to shout out at them.

Ultimately the coach will be judged and remembered by how they treat their athletes, the officials and the opponents. An important note to coaches:

You are very important in more ways than you think. It’s time to re-define your real job as a coach of our youth. You are not there just coaching a sport. You are there to help guide kids through life. Those coaching very young kids will have different issues than coaches coaching teenagers. Also, each child is different emotionally, mentally and coaching is a challenge. Please be proud and honoured of the fact that you have been given a huge task with our youth and learn what you can about dealing with the age bracket you are coaching. Take it professionally and respectfully.

Success will come automatically if you can accomplish this task.

Your real job is to keep kids in the game, while teaching values and ethics. Make it fun first, and interesting to the point that the kids you coach will love what they’re doing so much that they will thrive to repeat what you teach them at home and look forward to coming to games and practices

And about losing your players to poachers. Don’t worry. If you accomplish those two goals, no one will want to leave and the parents will not want them to leave. You’re real success as a coach will be judged by how many players you keep in sports and by the impression you left on that child’s life forever. Will the players you coach seek you out 20 years later and thank you for your time and how you treated them as individuals?

Strive for those goals everyday as a coach and success will come automatically in more ways than one.

Be the reason kids stay in sports, not the reason they quit sports.

Coaches! You are glorified because you do make a big difference in a child’s life. Unlike television you are not glorified because the audience wants to see you act immaturely on the sidelines. That’s not your place when you coach kids. Your are not on TV. You are not in the entertainment business of pro sports.

If you coach kids, please be the reason kids stay in sports, not the reason they quit sports.

Enjoy the challenge, have fun and thanks for reading.

John DeBenedictis is currently the Executive Director of the National Soccer Coaches Association of Canada. He received his Bachelor of Science Degree in Physical and Health Education with an advanced certificate of Coaching from York University. He has studied the psychological and sociological factors that affect sports including children’s drop out rates in sports for over 25 years. He has written numerous articles, made films and lectured on these issues. He has coached and instructed professional soccer players and continues to work to promote soccer through his lecture, video and slide presentation- For The Love of Soccer. John DeBenedictis can be reached at (416) 291-7184 if you require more information on these issues for your club or organization.

Morne became one of South Africa’s most successful captains in the history of Rugby and, in 1995, managed the Springbok side that won rugby’s World Cup in Johannesburg in its first attempt. He played for the national team for 10 years, captained it for 5 years and played position number 8. Morne du Plessis is the founder of the Sports Science Institute of South Africa in Cape Town (www.ssisa.com). Also, he is the co-founder of Bioenergetics of Exercise Research Unit of the University of Cape Town and the Medical Research Council headed by Prof. Noakes (ESSM).

Psyched: What sport project is close to your heart today and taking your attention?

Plessis: We started a sports training program in our townships – part of it is a life skills training program. I was interested in being a sports psychologist myself. Our mission is to help people improve their performance in sports and in life.

Psyched: I want to follow up on your program that you are creating in South Africa with young people.

Plessis: I would be glad to send you information about it.

Psyched: Can you tell me about your experience as a Rugby player? What motivated you?

Plessis: It’s a long time ago since I played. My situation as a member of a team sport … I had to learn it all on my own. Every individual has his own drivers. They may be unmentionable sometimes. Sometimes easily mentionable. Sometimes identifiable and sometimes unidentifiable. In my case I was driven to succeed in a very competitive environment – to rise above athletic situations could help me rise above life’s troubling situations and I loved the game. When I saw a ball I wanted to play with it and pass it. Also, I loved to read situations before they happened. I had a drive to get myself out of the ordinary. I had a great family support situations.

Psyched: What were your motivators in keeping the interest in training?

Plessis: In training I always remember focusing on one opponent on the team that I was playing against. Focused on him. If I am running up a hill in training, I focused on him saw, myself running past him. There might be some suggestion that he was better than I was. And I focused during my training to beat him. I visualized beating him. He’s not going to do an extra one now – and if he does – I’m going to do an extra one (a run, a push up).

Psyched: Are there additional mental and physical ideas you have come to believe in regarding performance? Like how to handle anxiety?

Plessis: I am a great bio-rhythm proponent. If I felt down on my game, I would just battle through it knowing I am not on top of it. I used experience and skills to get through it. Sometimes I was anxious. Very rarely. It’s easier in a team sport because you hide in the team’s anxiety. I play golf now. I am more worried playing golf than when I competed in the team sport because I am there by myself.

Psyched: How did you deal emotionally with injuries?

Plessis: I didn’t have many injuries.

Psyched: Was money an important motivator for you in playing your sport?

Plessis: My livelihood was not my sport. My sport was not professional back when I was playing. The sport gave me opportunities to make money in other ways. I did industrial psychology. I run a sports science institute. We have sports psychologists there. I’d like to look at your web site and talk to you afterwards. I will show you our website. I have financial interests in a number of professional rugby teams. We have equity. The professional side of the sport has been put into a private company. We never interfere with the outcome of a match. The economics of a situation is too small to have one team – it wouldn’t work. So we have to make a business of it. We invest in the industry.

Psyched: Do you get involved in choosing players for the teams?

Plessis: Choosing personnel. I was the manager of the rugby world cup team. In 1995 we won the world cup. The reason we won the World Cup is that we put the right family of players together. A sports team is a family. There is no text book solution.

In Part I of this series, many benefits of girls participation in sports were described: greater sense of self develops when they can trust their bodies abilities; improve capacities for rolling with life’s ups and downs; intrinsic motivations are established; ability to make quick decisions and execute them; and higher thinking skills while in motion. Part II will round out the list of benefits of sports participation for girls as well as provide additional pointers for their parents and coaches.

Risk Taking and Mental Toughness

It has been said that new-born infants are brought into this world with only two fears. The first is the fear of falling. The second is the fear of loud noises. If that is so, then all other fears are taught. And if taught, it is important to be aware of what we say to children and how we say it. When a young child trips and looks up at the parent, the child is looking for a signal to know what to feel. If the parent remains calm and smiles, the child gets up and goes about life. “Hockey is too rough for girls.” “Skateboarding will break your legs and if that happens don’t come crying to me.” Sound familiar?

Raising girls with courage is not an easy task. It takes parents’ and coaches’ willingness to face their own fears of getting hurt. By helping a child face the challenges and possibilities of getting hurt, the adult improves the skills in themselves. Running from risk is a habit. It can be overcome by changing the response in the present. We are not recommending recklessness. Evaluate the activity and make an objective assessment. Girls will model how to handle situations that you haven’t tried in a way that reduces chances of serious injury. An allied bad habit that responsible adults slip into is not letting the child try something on her own. The anticipation that something will go wrong causes the parent to leap in prematurely. The result can be a girl reaching a road block in developing a life/sport skill.

Coaches can help a girl live with and overcome or not learn any fears. Fear of failure can become one of the greatest fears of all. It is important to let girls know that failure is just a part of the learning curve – and that if we didn’t come up short sometimes we would never improve or find better ways of doing the same task. Unique to girls is something called fear of success. The consequences of winning can be to lose the identification of being daddy’s or mommy’s little girl. Parents need to show the girl that she is adored as she achieves goals in sports. Fear of criticism can be overcome by using player-friendly language. Coaches should consult with parents if it is noticed that there is a hyper-sensitivity to even softly spoken criticisms. Fear of what other players will think of them can cause paralysis. Girls will struggle with feelings of humiliation if they are not performing as well as others. A coach might help by letting her know that you have been there too. Give her an experience from your past! The girl will nod and smile which a sign of emotional mastery.

Help girls make the link between reaching goals and taking risks. Set up little goals with little risks. A pattern of attempting new behavior or new activities can be created. It is good to condition the girl to the positive connection between risk and reward. Efforts made by parents and coaches to manage emotional risks can pay off when they are sincere and unwavering.

Another area of risk-taking is developing communication skills. By letting your daughter try to handle problems that come up between her and her coach, you will be helping her express her thoughts and feelings. Taking into consideration the girl’s age, you might want to accompany her in a discussion with the adult in question. Even in that case, it is important not to rescue her too soon. Standing up for herself by voicing her concerns will have payoffs throughout her life. Have her practice with you a conversation she needs to have with a coach. Instruct her to write down the ideas she wants to get across. Of course, you should let her know that you support her goal. If you go with her to the discussion, open up the talk and then let her take the center stage.

One of the greatest challenges girls need to face is learning to deal with the fear of injury. By attempting controlled risks repeatedly, girls who take chances with their bodies learn to become mentally tough. The U.S. Naval Academy demands that females take boxing and wrestling every semester. Direct physical threat helps build confidence. Providing varying opportunities to take physical risks and succeed is critically important. Beginning girl athletes need almost a 90% chance for success; intermediates should get 50% chance of success; advanced female athletes will try even if there is almost no chance of success.

Here are a few more recommendations we offer to parents and coaches of girls: if you challenge girls with goals that are way beyond their capacities, they will develop fear instead of courage; embarrassing girls in front of significant others will create intimidation and embarrassment; should the girl express fear do not turn your back on her – instead talk with her about where the fear is coming from – most fear comes from feeling inadequately prepared; providing too much assistance is going to create a belief in her that she can’t handle the problem.

Self-Discipline

Developing the confidence to start and stick with an activity, and thereby achieve a goal, is a life-long journey which sports participation can promote. Athletics put girls in situations in which they must be disciplined – being self-disciplined creates productivity. Participation in sports is about self-mastery.

The way you talk to yourself is a major component of developing the nerve to believe you can do something. This optimistic approach is called “positive self-expectancy.” If the mind can picture going for the best, the body will move toward the best. If a girl is having a negative vision, redirect how she sees herself and find a goal she believes that she can achieve. If girls are put in sport situations where they can make positive self-talk, they are more likely to succeed and believe in the idea of positive self-communication.

All too often, girls get the message that they shouldn’t expect much of themselves. Society expects boys to be good at sports and girls not to be courageous and persistent. Coaches and parents must help girls overcome this barrier. They need a loud and clear communication from authorities that lets them know about higher expectations in sports. Girls need to be taught how to speak more positively to themselves – they need to evaluate themselves in a more positive, confidence-building style. Help girls erase negative self-talk and come up with more supportive communications. Let her know that how she speaks to herself will determine if she advances to the next level. When you evaluate girls make sure to keep self-defeating words out of your vocabulary.

Goal setting is a necessary technique that helps girls learn to discipline themselves. It is the moment-to-moment goal setting that makes the most impact. Repeat the word “goal” as often as possible. Work with short term goals. It is important with younger girls to make the goals as attainable as possible. Help girls to set the goals themselves – it will help them believe that they are ready for the next goal.

Organizing time effectively develops self-confidence. Parents and coaches need to demand that the homework must be done if they want to play sports. Let your daughter set up her own routine. By helping your daughter stick with the schedule, she will get a sense of teamwork.

Learning to cooperate with others to develop a cohesive unit and achieve goals is acquired in team sports. This skill is harder to come by when there is less than two parents in a household. If a girl grows up with siblings, she will learn to share space, responsibilities and time with their parents. Family dynamics affect how girls respond to pressure and compromise; how they support their teammates, and whether they rebel, confront or remain silent when they are upset about something. When girls enjoy and respect each other, you will have cohesiveness unlike any association you’ve ever had with boys. It is important to offer support when you see a girl doing something for the team. Never put a player down in front of other teammates.

Some behaviors are not in the interest of the team and must be pointed out quickly. Even though this may require some negative communication, it is in this case unavoidable. The primary focus of the group or team must be to achieve its goals. Horseplay (making jokes, fooling around at inappropriate times) distracts the team. Name calling is very undermining to cohesiveness. The girls involved should be taken aside individually. If you don’t know who is involved, the coach could try a team meeting – put the responsibility on the girls by saying “this behavior is causing us to lose points.” If the coach sees a girl becoming withdrawn or depressed, it is usually caused by feeling like she doesn’t fit in or is having significant difficulty learning the sport’s skills. Before deciding to go to the parents, try to draw her out. A player, who constantly objects to directions from the coach, undermines the flow of a practice or training session. One approach is to ask the player if the issue can be addressed after the session. If she insists that it be dealt with immediately, ask the other players for input about how to handle it. Dominating behavior sometimes needs to be taken care of in a one-on-one meeting with the coach. When a number of players are not giving 100%, the rest of the team has to pick up the slack. Resentments can grow in this atmosphere. The coach has to address this dynamic with the entire team before frustrations get out of hand.

Tolerating others’ attitudes, beliefs and feelings is a concern on the sports field and off. One negative characteristic of girls is that they tend to talk behind each others’ back and gossip more about other people than boys do. Coaches can try these steps to improve tolerance: point out common ground, have issues discussed in the open, quickly, by the teammates, let them come up with the solution, impose one if they don’t, encourage quiet girls to speak their minds.

There are few characteristics as important as persistence – it creates more stories of success than any other trait. One of the mechanisms used by coaches to improve persistence in girls is to provide small goals where they can see their improvement. Using numbers is very effective. How many practice swings will it take to learn how to hit a shot out of the sand-trap? Number of baskets needed to be shot to hit the foul shot 80% of the time? The girls will learn that if they just keep going they will be successful. Another way to improve persistence is to use visualization of success. When the image of the goal is kept alive, its pull to keep going is improved. The coach can also remind the player how far she has already come since she hit her first foul shot. A girl’s level of persistence can be evaluated by the coach asking the following questions: Does she enjoy the sport only if she has a particular coach or group of teammates? If injured, does she stop going to all practices or keep practicing those skills she can attend to? If the she loses, can she put it behind her and keep trying to improve her skills? When faced with additional challenges does she become excited or worried? If a teammate is better, does the girl stop trying?

Summary

Participation in sports provides girls the opportunity to develop personal skills that will last her a lifetime. A girl can learn to be decisive after weighing her options, feel confident in her problem solving skills, be a team player, communicate effectively, take risks and be persistent. Put together she will be prepared to move into her adult life with confidence and self-reliance. Regardless of whether she becomes a professional or a serious amateur athlete, she will have learned how to be a part of communities, handle authorities, live with people who have different points of view and maintain a sense of herself. All of these skills will assure her a healthy advantage in the game of life.

Dear Psyched:

I am high school senior and I play center on the varsity basketball team. Lately, I seem to be missing my free throw shots. I can usually make most of them in practice, but when I’m playing in a game I miss about half of them. I don’t know how to make these shots all the time and the coach won’t put me in the game if I can’t hit them. What can I do to improve? I practice every day with the team and go home each night and practice on the hoop in my driveway, but I still cannot make the shots during a big game! Please help me!!!!!!

Signed,
Can’t make the big shot

TO: XXXXXX@earthlink.net
FROM: questions@psychedonline.org
SUBJECT: Re: Free-throws
DATE: 11/28/02, 10:04

Response: I’m sorry to hear about your problem but I can assure you it is fairly common, just look at Shaquille O’Neal.

First of all, I think that you haven’t signed your letter very well since it seems that you can make free-throws sometimes. The fact that you can hit the shot in practice is a good sign and should provide you with some encouragement. It seems like your problem is due to performance anxiety in front of a crowd. In order to deal with this you have to make the situation seem more familiar to you. Here’s an example, when you are using your microwave, you are able to do so fairly easily with very little thought. However, when you are visiting at a friend’s house you have to struggle with it (although to a minor degree for the most part) to figure it out. When you are in a familiar situation – like practice or your drive way – you have almost no problems performing, but when you are in an unfamiliar situation – like games – the task becomes much more difficult. The solution to this is to develop a pre-shot routine.

A good pre-shot routine builds a sense of familiarity with the task at hand no matter what the situation. usually they have three parts:

1. Try to put the “excess baggage” (i.e., thoughts of what you are having for dinner or the consequences of missing the shot) out of your mind and focus on the task at hand. If you are having trouble doing this, you might want to take a look at the article on Thought Stopping. Some people choose to make a positive self-statement such as “I’m going to do it.”
2. Take your stance at the line and bounce the ball a few times until you feel comfortable. Take a few glances in between bounces at the rim. It is important to try and bounce the ball the same number of times EVERY time so that the situation is familiar to you.
3. When it’s time to shoot the ball, keep the target in the center of your vision, this will help you to focus on the task at hand – shooting the ball. Right before you take the shot, you might want to take a final cleansing breath (click here for more information on breathing techniques).

The above is just a rough guide of what you should do, you can tailor it to fit your own needs. The key is to be CONSISTENT so that there is a sense of familiarity with the situation (just like using the microwave at your house). It is also important to use the routine EVERY time. The pros do it, why shouldn’t you? Finally, make sure that you practice it, since the more you practice, the more likely that game situations will be familiar to you.

Miguel Humara, Ph.D.

If you are involved in organized youth or school sport in any capacity, you have one of two choices that you can make:

1. You may keep the current and traditional team model where children focus on sport-specific skills, with ambiguous life skill messages taught verbally, varying from team to team, or;
2. You may try to change the team model to one where children learn from a structured, written curriculum that teaches life-long, self-worth building mental skills as the focal point of the team, using sports as an educational vehicle.

The choice is yours. Just as we tell athletes, we can work hard to be better – or not. The choice is ours.

Recently, the Newton Public Schools of Newton, Massachusetts made the choice when they funded the first program in the country to implement a written sports psychology curriculum on its sports teams. At Newton North High School, (pop.2200), coaches and kids are attending a hour and a half workshop, reading a simple, straightforward text, taking a quiz on it, filling out a mid-season evaluation form and, most importantly, practicing mental skills every time the team meets. In addition, this large school is plastered with flyers declaring what the Performance Psychology Culture is at Newton North – building self-worth through the skills of hard work, creating a positive environment, proper goal-setting, visualization, meditation practices, task-orientation, recognizing harmful thoughts, positive self-talk and imagery. Most parents would opt for teaching long-lasting development for their children as the focal point of their team, if they knew there was a choice. There is.

Maybe you think that the manner in which youth and school sports is taught and learned is fine. From personal experience as a coach and watching my two kids go through the system and go on to make their college basketball teams, I know that it can be a lot of fun just as it is. However, since there is so much time spent between coach and player, shouldn’t we put the effort into improving the experience, not only for the elite athlete, but for the 95% participating who are not part of the elite?

Newton is an affluent suburb of Boston, but the program is also at Cathedral High School in downtown Boston’s South End. This small, inner-city Catholic school (pop. 300) has followed Newton’s example, despite their being so dissimilar in almost all respects, except that both Athletic Directors were thinking about how to improve the system, were presented with an opportunity to make a choice, and made the choice when they saw it was a good thing for their students. Other high schools are also poised to take the same action, pending funding to train additional facilitators. There are clearly not enough sports psychologists and psychiatrists to deal with the vast numbers of children who play organized sports nationally every year, but there is no reason why all children and coaches cannot practice very basic skills regularly for personal growth. As a bonus, their athletic performance may actually improve.

The Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA) has adopted the program as part of their award-winning, state-wide Wellness program. Doctors, educators, athletic directors and people from all backgrounds support this creative concept. This movement is nascent, but quite healthy due the very simple logic of this educational initiative.

Why are we interested in changing the traditional verbal model of sports teams? Because it makes educational sense. The curriculum is based upon sport psychology, a body of knowledge that has grown exponentially in the last two decades. We write down our curriculums for academic subjects because what we teach kids matters. What kids learn in sports matters as well. Written curriculums provide a standardized education for each child so we know what they will be learning. If implemented, a written curriculum takes the “luck” factor out of what type of experience children will have on a team. With a written curriculum based in sport psychology, all players, starters and non-starters, are striving for personal progress and trying to re-define success in those terms. With a written curriculum, coaches will eventually conform to one of the basic tenets of sport psychology, e.g. “people perform better in a positive environment”.

The mental skills taught are simple and reflect most of the mistakes people make in sport. More importantly, they are transferable skills that mirror our community values. A sports team offers a place to practice these skills (in high school on a daily basis). As a result, the athletic program becomes an applied mental training program, using sports as a fun way to learn. Lastly, the skills support the premise that people who feel good about themselves as people, perform better in anything they do. Students are given specific exercises to improve the following self-worth building skills:

• Be positive with others because people perform better in a positive environment.
• Be positive with self as what a person thinks effects the quality of their performance.
• Work hard as it makes people feel good about themselves when they do.
• Focus and recognize when thoughts stray so our chance of success is better.
• Set proper goals that assist in attaining success daily.
• Concentrate on the details of a task, not the outcome, for better results.
• Visualize successfully completing a task to improve chances of success.
• Meditate to control your thoughts, feelings and actions.

In the Journal of Applied Sport Psychology (“Conceptualizing Excellence: Past, Present, Future” p. 140, September, 2002), authors Patricia S. Miller and Gretchen A. Kerr, offer an “Athlete-Centered Sports Model.” Advocates of this model maintain that “performance excellence is thus made possible only through personal excellence.” They continue, “performance goals are only one of a myriad of important objectives. In this way, athletes develop as athletes, but also as contributing members of society.”

There is estimated to be 29 million children nationally playing organized sports annually. Practice visualization now by seeing a day when 29 million children are growing up practicing the mental skills that make people successful. We can make the choice right now. Aren’t these skills what we want children to learn?

Mitch Lyons is a president and founder of GetPsychedSports.org,, a 501(c)(3) non-profit Massachusetts corporation, which can be found at www.getpsychedsports.org. Mr. Lyons is not a psychiatrist or psychologist, but a coach of youth, school and college sports for 17 years. He is currently an Assistant Coach for Lasell College Men’s Basketball Team in Newton, Massachusetts. He practiced law for 26 years before retiring to try to make positive change in youth and school sports.

Jeff Dumas, 37, enters his second season with the Staten Island Yankees as the club’s general manager, after spending five years with the Watertown Indians. He talked with Psyched at the stadium about his responsibilites as a general manager and what it means to be a Yankee.

Psyched: Want to get a sense of the responsibilities for your job as general manager of the Staten Island Yankees.

Dumas: Being a gm of a minor league team is substantially different than being the general manager of a major league team. Once the players get on the field, I don’t have anything to do with them. I take care of all their off-field issues. If I see someone at a high school or college game here, I will call the GM of the major league team. The New York Yankees sign them and they are in contract to the New York Yankees. I don’t have a lot to do with who comes and why they are chosen.

P: You don’t get involved with the manager or coaches?

D: Only to the extent of when they want to travel. Do they want to spend an extra night here or there? Do they want to rest in one city or travel that day and rest in the next city another day. Any issues with discipline I might get involved with.

P: Discipline?

D: The players live at the dorms at St. John’s University here in Staten Island. They are young men. There could be an alcohol issue, an under age girl. Those players that are born outside the US have had different life styles. They are not used to living up to the laws of the US and we have to stay on top of those things.

P: If one of these issues came up, what would be your responsibility?

D: Bring it to the attention of the manager first, contact Mark Newman, the director of minor league operations in Tampa, and then contact the police. It has never been an issue. The Yankees do a great job in screening. There has only been one issue in all the years and that player was released.

P: Your job is primarily promoting the team?

D: Part of what I do is promoting the team. I am basically the business operations person in terms of running the facility. I have final say as to how to handle tickets, advertising, promoting the team, and concessions. I need to get business reports done. I deal with schedules and the league. I arrange for how the facility is used when baseball is not going on.

P: How difficult is it to have a good relationship with the parent Yankee organization?

D: It is a major part of my job. Steinbrenner wants to be successful on every level. I want our team to get more exposure. So, we developed a logo that is similar to the parent organization.

P: If a player has a problem with a personal issue, do you get involved? How?

D: This is rookie ball. Most guys have just come out of college. Very few players are married and have children. They are mostly single. First day they come in we give them a list of the do’s and don’ts. Sometimes family and friends come into town and we coordinate housing and transportation so they are not preoccupied with these issues. In the AA level, we get more involved with personal concerns. I keep things confidential if an issue comes up. Jane Rogers is my assistant and she is helpful to the ballplayers. I have been involved in design and implementation of the stadium here. Once the season gets underway, I’ll talk to managers and coaches to see how things are going. The players play 76 games in 79 days. We don’t know who is going to be on the team until four or five days before the season begins.

P: What happens to players after the first year?

D: Generally speaking players stay at least two years. Either the players stay for the second year or move up in the organization.

P: Aggression in athletes has been a present issue in sports.

D: Baseball is such a cerebral sport. So, aggression is less predominant an issue. With other teams there was a problem with players going from the game into the nightlife. With the SI Yankees, it has not been a concern. Even after a bad game, you see them out signing autographs. It is odd that it has not happened more. It is a complement to the organization. The scouts are responsible for drafting people who are not only talented but also good citizens. They may look past prior problems, but they make sure there is none today. Once you put on the Yankee uniform, you have to be a Yankee.

P: What does a Yankee do differently?

D: Everyone dresses exactly the same. Never wear the Yankee hat backwards. Those little things are huge. They are minute things, but you walk down the street and see the kids wearing the hat backwards. It drives me bananas. When the kids are working here, it doesn’t happen.

P: What about fan involvement like what happened in Chicago with the first base coach of the Kansas City Royals?

D: I am very aware of fan behavior. I am wired to it. I am the head of security here. We put in some stipulations regarding fan behavior. I will kick people out for even minor infractions. People who are “hammered” here, get thrown out immediately. There is supposedly one union covering major and minor league players, but in fact, it operates as two unions. There is random drug testing in minor league but not in the majors.

P: Do you think you make an impact on the success of the team?

D: Yes. We have an impact. We run a first class operation. How they play will depend on how they are treated. They stay in descent hotel and nice hotel. We help family and friends. A lot of people want to come back to the ball club because they are treated so well. They get paid 1200 dollars a month before salaries. They cut even. When they get paid I cash the checks. It goes along way in helping them perform. There are clicks that form. There is nothing to do about it. This year, we weren’t that talented but they played as a team. They played the full nine innings. It is in the last few weeks of the season when everyone wants to go home that you find out what kind of team this really is. Do they want to play the last two weeks to get to the championship? That’s when you really find out how dedicated they are.

P: What are two or three bad mistakes a GM could make that would affect the performance of the team?

D: Not taking care of the players at a level that let’s them know that they are a part of the Yankees and that means being treated with respect. This is especially true when the team is on the road.

P: Are you accessible to the players at any time?

D: Yes – either myself or Jane, my assistant. We have five different lawyers on our staff. If they have legal concerns, they can get handled quickly.

P: Who do you have contact with the most?

D: Coaches and managers. I talk with them about the details of how things are going. We are a first class organization and there are many little things that go into keeping it that way.

P: Is it true that the more a team spends the better the product? Minnesota doesn’t have money. Yankees do.

D: Money is a small issue with the minor leagues. If you have the right people and that includes scouts, managers, coaches, trainers, which can of course cost money, you will probably get a better team. It doesn’t matter as far as salaries of minor league players, but it does affect signing bonuses. The monies that come from ticket sales are the Staten Island Yankees’ money. We don’t get money from the Yankees. All expenses regarding the stadium, etc. comes out of our money. We pay a good amount of money to the City.

P: What kind of training you do need to become a GM?

D: Went for a degree in sports management which is mostly about business with a little sports thrown in. The training is paying your dues. I worked as an assistant GM, group sales, telemarketing, grounds keeping.

My basic role in life is to help people stay organized at swim meets. Swimmers and coaches read me to find out what heats and lanes they are assigned to for their races. This same information lets parents know when their child will be swimming. Officials also use me in order to stay organized as they oversee swim meets. At championship meets with on site announcers and media coverage, I am used to help those people follow the events and do their jobs well. So far it is rather simple.

At most swim meets the heat sheets are printed ahead of time. Coaches receive a copy of me with any other pertinent meet information upon arrival at the meet. Coaches can often be seen highlighting the names of their swimmers so they can observe every swim. Parents and other spectators typically receive a heat sheet when they pay their admission to the meet. The first thing most people use me for is to find out where they are seeded in their races. Seeding is based on the entry time submitted. Let’s take an example of what you may see when you read me.

Assume that in the 100 meter freestyle, there are 48 swimmers entered and you are swimming in an eight lane pool. This means there will be 6 heats (48 entries / 8 lanes = 6 heats). The entries will appear slowest to fastest. Generally, if the meet is a “timed final” format, the top 8 entries will be in the last heat (heat 6 in this case); the next fastest 8 in the next heat, etc. Timed final, in case you do not know, means that swimmers race one time to determine the order of finish and to record their time for the event. The final order of finish is determined solely on the time swum, so you should not assume that the order on the heat sheet has any bearing on the time you will swim or the order you will finish. Within each heat the swimmers are assigned lanes based on their entry time. The fastest entry is in lane 4, then lane 5, lane 3, lane 6, lane 2, lane 7, lane 1, and finally lane 8. Here is where one of the first misconceptions about me sometimes occurs. The heat and lane assignments are based solely on the entry times, and have no bearing on the possible order of finish after the race has been swum. Remember to use me only to know when and where you swim. I am not an indicator of how you will swim or where you will rank among the competitors. Each swimmer has one’s own lane in which to have a super race. When you have fun and race great, your time may improve and the order of finish may be very different from the order of the entries.

Let’s use the same example of 48 swimmers in an 8 lane pool and look at a swim meet with a preliminary and final format. All swimmers are placed into a heat and lane for the preliminary swim, during which each swimmer races for the opportunity to compete in the championship finals. Times from the preliminary heats are official and can count for records and rankings. During the preliminary heats, the last 3 heats are the “seeded heats” and are entered in a “circle seeded” fashion. These “seeded heats” include the fastest entry times: the fastest 24 in an 8 lane pool; the fastest 18 in a 6 lane pool, etc. Follow the pattern ahead and you should be able to see why they are referred to as “circle seeded” heats. The top entered time will be in lane 4 of heat 6 (the final heat of this race). Lane 4 of an 8 lane pool is right in the middle and is considered the fastest lane. The next fastest time goes in lane 4 of heat 5; the next in lane 4 of heat 4 and the next (the 4th fastest entry) in lane 5 of heat 6; then lane 5 of heat 5; lane 5 of heat 4; and lane 3 of heat 6. This pattern keeps going, moving from the center lanes to the outside lanes, until the fastest 24 entries fill out the lanes of the last three heats in the event. Are you ready for a little quiz? What lane and heat will the 8th fastest time be in? the 15th fastest? the 22nd fastest? (seed 8 is in heat 5, lane 3; seed 15 is in heat 4, lane 2; and seed 22 is in heat 6, lane 8). How did you do? Once again, we need to address one of the misconceptions about me. Entries are only for the purpose of having a fair and organized race setting. Remember that racing in a seeded heat can produce a finish with people way ahead and behind others because the times in a circle seeded heat may differ quite a bit. Always race your very best. You always have a chance to achieve a good time, and the actual finish within a heat can be very misleading relative to one’s overall finish in the event.

Remember that we have only taken care of 24 of the 48 entered swimmers so far. The remaining swimmers are entered fastest to slowest, the same as in a “timed final” event. So, heat 3 will have the 25th through 32nd times; heat 2 has the 33rd through 40th, and heat 1 has the 41st through 48th entry times. Remember that the fastest entry in the heat is assigned to lane 4, then lane 5, lane 3, lane 6 and so on.

Whereas in the timed final format swimmers race just one time for their team points and for the awards being presented, in a preliminary and final format, swimmers race first in the preliminary with the fastest persons from those heats earning the right to race in the finals. Finals may include one, two or three sections, often called “A”, “B” and “C”, or Championship, Consolation and Bonus Sections respectively. A whole new set of me (heat sheet) gets printed up for the finals sessions. Actually I am typically referred to as “finals sheets”, but for all intent and purpose I still function as a heat sheet for that session.

In preliminary heats, swimmers may finish in any order, based solely on the time from the preliminary swims. During finals, a swimmer may only rank as high or low as the places within his final heat. For example, if after the preliminaries you qualify for the championship final (top 8 in an 8 lane pool), as long as you finish your race legally in finals, you can not finish any lower than 8th place. Similarly, if you qualify 9th through 18th from the preliminaries and swim in the “B” section of finals, you could possibly set a world record in your “B” section final, and it would count, but the highest you could finish in the meet would be 9th. Notice also that you must complete your race legally in the finals in order to score points for your team and to earn any awards. Getting disqualified in a final session would be like racing fast in the preliminary heats and then choosing not to participate in the finals session. Within the heats of the finals sessions, swimmers are assigned lanes similar to what we’ve seen already. That is, the top qualifier from the preliminaries is in the championship, or “A”, heat in lane 4 (of the 8 lane pool), and the next fastest is in lane 5, then lane 3, lane 6, etc. See, there is a pattern to this. Oh, your preliminary heat swim has no bearing on your finish within the finals. Everyone in finals starts even, with the only difference being the lane you are assigned to. It is not like ice skating where your score from the preliminaries may carry over to the finals.

So are we a little more familiar with who I am and with what you can expect to learn from me? The heat sheet is helpful but should NEVER be thought of as determining how you will swim or where you will finish in the rankings. There are a few more things you may notice when you read me. Some meet hosts use me, along with the chance to run a meet, as an opportunity to raise money. One way to do this is to sell advertising space in the pages in the heat sheet. You can sell ad space to businesses as well as to people wishing to offer support and kind words to their favorite team or swimmer. It takes a lot of work to sell this ad space but it is an important job as this is one way to keep your beautiful swim teams going strong.

Another thing you might see in me are times which pertain to the swimmers at the meet. At a high school meet for example, at the top of each event you might find times like the meet record; the state high school record; the national high school record; and the standard to submit for All-American consideration. Other swim meets have similar times listed which make people aware of standards to shoot for. In an age group championship meet, you might see the time standards like the meet record; the LSC record; the time to qualify for your zone team; and the national meet qualifying times. Oh no, there I go with terms to define. LSC refers to your local swimming committee as determined by United States Swimming. It is a designation based on geographic proximity, but also has implications for administrative and legislative purposes. We’ll deal with that in a later article. Some LSC’s are states, as in Connecticut Swimming, or Georgia Swimming. There are other LSC names like New England, Pacific Northwest or Florida Gold Coast.

One final item you may find in me is a time line. A time line is an approximation of when each event will begin. This is just an estimate. If a time line is posted, the events should not begin earlier than the posted start time. It is important that you confer with your coach to learn if the meet is observing a set time line because you do not want to miss your event.

I hope you have enjoyed and learned something from this. I enjoy being your heat sheet, but I do not want you to ever think that I am anything more than a guide for knowing your heat and lane assignment. Your coach may have some keen observations to share with you, but you should always try your very best and never assume that the order of times in the heat sheet indicates what the order will be after you and the others race.

Remember to ask your coach questions about the heat sheet or anything else you may wish to know. Coaches are eager and able to help you. Also remember that heat sheets are put together by people. Even though these people work hard and want to do things well, they sometimes make mistakes. If, for example, your name is left out of an event or your name is misspelled, point this out to your coach. Your coach can usually make the necessary corrections. If there is a mistake in the heat sheet, please do not let it get you upset. Let your coach take care of the problem, while you go through your warm up and get ready to have a great day of racing. Have fun and race like a champion. I look forward to seeing your name printed on me at your next swim meet.

Allan Kopel has coached at the college and club level having held positiions at University of North Carolina, Florida Atlantic University, Fort Lauderdale Swim Team and Jack Nelson Swim Camp, Albany (OR) Aquatics, Sunkist Swim Team, and the New England Barracudas. He holds two graduate degrees (education & business). Although he loves swimming , Allan promotes all forms of exercise saying – “Just move baby!”

Psychological Benefits

          Parents feel best when they know that their daughter has a good relationship with herself. A girl’s participation in sports not only builds physical strength; it is also one of the best ways to insure that she develops the kind of inner strength that she’ll need throughout life. A research program at Melpomene Institute in St. Paul, Minnesota, has shown that physically active girls have a better outlook on life than those girls who were sedentary as kids, that they take pride in their physical and social selves.

          People won’t invest in themselves if they don’t think they are worth the effort. Developing a sense of worthiness begins with feeling capable. The first relationship we have with ourselves (ego) is physical. As girls build physical strength through sports participation, and acquire sport skills, they feel capable. The more competent girls feel, no matter what body type they have, the more likely they are to cultivate realistic expectations about themselves and accept themselves for who they are.

          Girls who want to make their way in the real world have to earn self-confidence, which comes through striving and years of investment in themselves. Confidence is not something that can be acquired at the last minute, just before you need it during one of life’s many tests. It has to be developed over the course of a life-time – and playing sports is one of the best ways to make it grow.

          Learning to adapt to the ups and downs of life is an indispensable skill. Several components of resiliency should be nurtured while raising children and are also important in raising athletes. Parents can help promote this characteristic in their daughters by providing a caring and supportive environment (where coaches bond with the athletes), teach persistence and confidence, communicate and set high expectations and create the opportunity to have a meaningful experience. Coaches and parents who believe in these concepts will go a long way toward helping girls learn how to get back on track after inevitable defeats and disappointments.

          Motivation is generally established by the time a child is twelve or thirteen. She is either motivated intrinsically by the desire to do well, or extrinsically, by the desire to please or by concern for what others will think. Living in a state of good mental health becomes more difficult for girls as they approach the teenage years. That’s why it is so critical to have sports be solidly in place in a girl’s life early on. Just taking the time for recreation can help balance a person’s life and alleviate depression. Half of all girls who participate in some kind of sports have higher than average levels of self-esteem and less depression.

Decision Making

          The ability to make quick decisions and follow through is often what differentiates the person who is great from the person who just does well, whether on the playing field or in a professional field. One of the greatest gifts we can give girls is the ability to know the difference between goal-oriented and tension-relieving decisions. A tension-relieving decision provides only immediate relief from a problem without considering the long-range implications. A goal-oriented decision is one that calls for planning and a step-by-step approach.

          Developing decision making in sports should begin in non-pressure situations. First teach the progressions of learning various skills, then let the athlete help decide the course of the training by giving input about what skills need the most improvement. Girl athletes will feel like they are part of the decision making process if they are asked to give their input. It is very important to show them how to take specific factors into account, how to weigh them and how to evaluate the potential result.

          Thinking on your feet in a real situation is another decision-making skill playing sports helps girls develop. Many actions in sports are reflex reactions, but decision such as where to kick, hit, or throw a ball require some strategic thinking on the move. One of the benefits of being involved in physical activity is that it constantly forces girls to make decisions involving strategy, with barely a moments notice. During any given practice, girls are called upon to make dozens of snap decisions. Having to deal with the unknown regularly helps girls learn to make the best of what comes their way.

          In order to train girls to think for themselves and solve problems, ask questions instead of giving commands. Supply the girl with choices and ask her to choose the response that she thinks is correct. This makes athletic training a mental as well as a physical exercise. An example of such a tactic is asking a short answer question. “When you missed hitting the ball, were you looking at it or looking someplace else?” When a coach poses more complicated questions, give the players enough time to think of an answer. Word the question so that she can give a short answer. If it is answered incorrectly, keep refining the question. When the right answer comes, give her some positive feedback. The older girls can handle more open-ended questions, assuming you have instructed them in an effective way. Try not to ask what the problem is – instead use situation. The “problem” word sounds like a personal confrontation, and girl athletes will lose sight of the situation at hand. The word “situation” takes the sting out of a coaching statement and helps the girls stay focused. Also, the coach should ask more than one player before giving the correct answer. Certain questions can provoke self-observation skills. For example, “What would be the best thing to do the next time you have an opportunity to kick the ball in front of the goal?”

          Thinking about athletic progress is an important long-term process for girls. In order to assess progress accurately, it requires practice in self-evaluation. Start with asking the girls what they are doing correctly. Then guide her into identifying areas that need improvement. Questions that provoke short answers work best (i.e. “Did that work when you tried it that way?”). Girls seem to respond positively to keeping a journal. After each practice or game, ask them to write two or three items down that need improvement. This is very effective because it gets the athlete to make note of stumbling blocks. Even if her ideas are not right, at least she is thinking.

Summary

          The most valuable benefit of sports participation for girls is the development of the personal skills that have been explored in this article. Even if they never pick up a tennis racquet or hockey stick after graduating, she can learn to have faith in herself. By teaching how to make decisions, evaluate progress and learn skills, coaches and parents will be helping her to have a healthy advantage in the game of life.

Dear Psyched:

I am a die hard football fan. Once again I started this season with the highest of hopes for my favorite team, the Cincinnati Bengals. Well here we are half-way through the season and once again my hopes have been crushed. Year after year I have put up with this in the hopes that we will once again return to the glory days that took us to the Superbowl. However, I am starting to think that that one year was a complete fluke. It seems like there are certain teams that are always going to do well (i.e., San Francisco, Oakland, and Miami) while others seem to always lose (i.e., my beloved Bengals, the Seahawks, Detroit). My question is this, is it possible that teams have a winning/losing personality that is handed down over the course of the years?

A Miserable Bengals Fan

TO: XXXXXX@hotmail.com
FROM: questions@psychedonline.org
SUBJECT: Re: Team Personality
DATE: 10/29/02, 17:29

Response: Let’s see if you change yourself from “A Miserable Bengals Fan” to “A Hopeful Bengals Fan”! It’s not going to be easy. The opening game of every year brings a drop of “maybe this is that next year that the organization has promised. It’s been that way ever since you were a kid. But you never know, right? Then the opening drive ends in a field goal attempt that sails to the right of the goal posts and wammo all hope is lost. Everything goes downhill. You can see it on the faces of the coach, the walk of the players and the sound from the stands. The identification of being a loser is so strong it acts like a super powerful magnet in a bowl of metallic paper clips. The ego of the losing franchise is fragile. It can’t be resilient to the slightest disappointment. The season is lost and the halftime show of the first game has not started.

In order to change this repetitive negative process everyone must change. The owners, the general manager, the coaches must understand the many facets of what makes a team. We refer you to an article titled, “Building a Sports Team” published in Psyched’s, Volume 2, Issue 2. Signing high profile athletes and coaches is not enough. The identity as a loser will outlive the personnel. It is critical that everyone attached to the organization become educated and appreciate the following factors in team performance: cohesion, norms, roles, communication skills, stability, and stages of development. If the team takes this challenge on, the fans will be there too. Hopefully, the Cincinnati Bengals will take this mission to heart and you and your children will love the team and cheer its many successes. Being a winner is more fun.

A norm that has been established on a team will last for at least four generations after the original players have left. This is an indication of the stability of a team’s norms. A problem exists when a manager takes over a team that has developed negative norms. Examples of such norms include abusive behavior toward officials or other team members, a lack of commitment to team practices, and a focus on individual verse team goals. In such cases, the manager would have to enlist the formal and informal leaders to create a positive norm. Should these leaders not cooperate, the organization might need to replace personnel.

Paul Schienberg, Ph.D.

The use of drugs and alcohol by professional athletes has become an all too common occurrence. A lthough attempts are made to help the individual receive treatment, often they fall short of their mark and the athlete is allowed to continue down the path of addiction. Intervention needs to be taken seriously by family members, friends and the professional organization in order for it to be effective. However, the “win at all costs” mentality often results in people turning the other way when faced with obvious signs of substance (click here for an article on identification). This is often referred to as enabling and can be quite damaging to the individual since the earlier treatment is received, the grater the chance of maintaining a substance free life-style. While the motivations for drug use vary from athlete to athlete, the pattern of enabling needs to be stopped before treatment can begin.

Case Illustrations

Daryl Strawberry played right field for the New York Mets. He was part of the World Championship team in 1986. His talents were impossible to ignore. The only questions seemed to be how many records he would break over the course of his playing career. He and his teammate, Dwight Gooden (pitcher), were going to be the foundation of a dynasty. Not long after the Championship season both players got seriously involved with substance abuse. Daryl, Dwight, and the Mets began to spiral into the darkness of addiction. To date, Daryl’s life has almost completely fallen apart. He is presently behind bars for violating parole. He has been in and out of various rehabilitation programs. Finally, he decided that the only way he could stop using was to be in jail. His story is filled with anecdotal information that shows how difficult it is to break clear of the vicious cycle of abuse. Especially obvious, in his case, is the role of family in supporting addictive behavior. Not one of his family stepped in and confronted Daryl because he was taking care of everyone. Addiction is often spoken of as a family disease … not only the biological family but also the family of a sports team that enable an athlete to continue using.

John Daly is a professional golfer. He could hit a tee shot further than anyone. He broke upon the PGA tour with great fanfare. Early victories made him an instant celebrity. It looked for a moment as if no one and nothing could possibly beat him. John had won a major tournament which qualified him to play in the three other majors for that year. He seemed invincible. But, everyone was wrong. Alcohol was beating him. Before you could even join his fan club, he had entered a rehab. During his treatment stay, he missed out on one major and was banned from another. In addition to alcohol, he was a totally devoted cigarette smoker. You would almost never see him hitting a golf ball without one in his mouth. He was very over weight and clearly had a problem with over eating also. As long as John could hit a golf ball so far, everyone over-looked his various addictions. He was like a cult figure. Crowds would cheer. But, he was killing himself. He is back on tour today and it is unclear whether he has broken with the substance abuse history. It is a problem that just doesn’t completely go away. It is a life time commitment to change one’s life. Regardless of whether your statue in life, substance abuse problems is like gravity … no one is so powerful that they can just will away the effects, specially when management and fans are enabling them.

A couple of weeks ago, Bob Hayes died as a result of prolonged alcohol and drug abuse. Readers may not remember him but back in the 1960′s, he was designated as “the world’s fastest human.” This honor was given to the man who could win the 60 and 100 yard dash in the Olympics. Bob did just that. He was then drafted by the Dallas Cowboys as a wide receiver. No one thought he could make the transition from tack and field to football. But, he did and did it big time. Football teams were forced to create different defenses in order to stop him. Once he caught the ball, there was no stopping him from getting to the end zone. There was only one thing that did stop Bob from his goals in life … substance abuse. His feelings of invincibleness got the better of him. Also, everyone around him thought he was invincible. They needed to believe in someone who could be so powerful and enabled him to continue his use.

These three examples clearly show that enabling behavior form individuals in an athlete’s life can have a significant negative impact on the individual’s problem. Once an athlete has been identified as having a substance-abuse problem, treatment steps should be taken immediately. This is necessary to increase the likelihood of success. Although friends, family, and professional organizations believe that they are doing the right thing letting the individual try to help himself, they are just prolonging his or her pain. Established treatments can make a significant change in an individual’s life and can in the long run be more “cost-effective” then simply letting the problem continue.

Treatment

&nbspThe goals of this initial phase are for the athlete to acknowledge the possibility of having this problem. Different types of treatment approaches are discussed and the impacts upon family, athletic career and team should be discussed. If severe enough, it is often necessary for an athlete who has substance abuse problems to be removed from the environment so that the recovery process can begin. If detoxification is necessary, inpatient programs provide the environment to monitor withdrawal symptoms and medical assistance. These programs last between 4 – 6 weeks while the person is participating in group and individual psychotherapy. Alcoholics Anonymous is often introduced during the in-patient stay. Family members are usually involved in the treatment process by attending family treatment and education on the important issues of alcohol and drug abuse. Sometimes, recommendations are made to attend Al-Anon meetings – a 12 step program for the addict’s significant others.

When an athlete is released from in-patient treatment, the aftercare phase of treatment begins. Most people think that since the athlete has been clean for a month that the addiction problem has been resolved. The fact of the matter is that the hardest part is now coming. All too often, the athlete is returned to the same environment that contributed to the cycle of substance abuse. Specifically, the athlete returns to the competition that created pressures and stress that motivated the abuse. The aftercare phase of treatment usually lasts between 3 months and 2 years. Serious consideration should be given to keeping the athlete out of participation in sport competition for a good deal of this time. Everyone is going to be under pressure to get the athlete back performing earlier rather than later. The focus of aftercare is get a person re-adjusted to contact with the family, social network, occupation and the team. Attention should be given to teammates who may not know how to respond to the returning athlete. Facilitation of normal communications and honest disclosure can be taught by the coach.

It is suggested that outpatient treatment be continued indefinitely. This can occur while participation in the athlete participates in sports, family and personal pursuits. This type of treatment is only successful if the person stays clear of all alcohol and drug abuse. It needs to be understood at the deepest level possible that substance abuse involves distorted thinking and an intolerance of emotions. Just because the athlete is not using does not mean the thinking is corrected and emotions are being handled effectively. In fact, it is often quite the contrary. The same painful thinking and emotions are operating, but, now, there is no substance to numb them out. It takes great courage and persistence to deal with this aspect of treatment. If this does not occur, there is a great likelihood of going back to alcohol and drug abuse. Just ask Daryl Strawberry and John Daly! It’s too late to ask Bob Hayes.

&nbspThere are a number of specific factors that should be considered by the therapist and client in the treatment of a substance-abusing athlete. The effect of the clash of self-images between that of the healthy athlete and the sick patient should be explored. The impact of public exposure on the treatment process should be kept in the forefront of everyone’s mind. Also, the effect of organization policy on treatment needs to be assessed. Exercise can either hamper or enhance treatment outcome for an athlete.

Conclusion

&nbspA couple of days ago it was revealed by a sports reporter that one of the Mets minor league players was video taped smoking marijuana. The Mets organization might light of it and tried to smooth over the story. The reporter was concerned that the entire team could be infected with this problem. He was on a track that makes perfect sense. It would have sent a more productive message to the athletes if the organization did respond with concern for the teammates instead of enabling him. Even after Daryl’s demise, it could be asked what has the Mets organization learned? They maybe more concerned about the team’s image than the health of their athletes. It doesn’t make much sense – even from a monetary point of view. They invest tremendous amounts of money developing athletes. It wouldn’t take much more money to protect their investment. This problem doesn’t just go away by wishing, denying, or acting dumb. Knowledge and sensitivity can bring us all to a healthy way of interceding.