Many things can sabotage effective inner and interpersonal communications. Most are unconscious habits. All can be improved. Two fundamental blocks are ignorance of communication basics and unawareness of how you’re communicating. By learning more about communications, teams (2 or more members) of all sizes are more likely to get along and be successful.

The Basics

Any perceived behavior that causes a “significant” emotional, physical, or spiritual effect on another person is “communication.”

Intentional communications (like “talking”) aims to fill the following personal needs: gain or keep respect (a constant); give or get information; vent; cause change or excitement; and/or reduce or avoid discomforts. The need for “enough” self and mutual respect is subjective and constant. People with low self-esteem rarely get enough until in true recovery from false-self wounds.

Effective communication occurs when each person gets their current needs met well-enough, in a way that promotes self and mutual respect and trust. Anything that hinders this is a communication “block.”

Communication blocks can occur between an athlete’s/coach’s “inner family” of sub-selves (inner-personal blocks), and between people (interpersonal blocks).

Seven Common Internal and Interpersonal Communication Blocks

1. Someone gets a verbal or nonverbal “respect message” they decode as “I don’t respect you as an equal here.” This occurs on an unconscious level from voice and body dynamics. Communication “works” (needs get well-filled) only when each person feels enough self respect and get believable respect messages from others.
2. The sender’s and receiver’s communication needs don’t match. An example: I want to vent and you’re distracted (can’t really listen) or you want to persuade me to do something. Many combinations of these needs are in conflict. First steps: get clear on your and your teammates’/coaches’ current communication needs and value them equally.
3. The sender gives a “double (mixed) message: their words say one thing, and their face, body and/or voice imply something else (i.e., “I’m not angry!” the player says loudly with fists clenched. Confusion, frustration and distrust are often the result of double messages. The speaker may be controlled by a false self who does not feel safe to give their real message.
4. One or both people are distracted (i.e. can’t focus or hear well) by physical discomfort (pain, thirst, sleeplessness, etc.), worry, anxiety, or other strong emotion, and/or noise, flashing lights, motions, temperature, etc.; yet they try important communications anyway.
5. A “1-up” Respect – message is implied by a speaker who constantly interrupts the other. This habit signals that speaker is probably composing their response without really hearing the speaker. Interruptions can imply “What I have to say now is more important than anything you need.” This is a discount and discounts hurt and breed anger and resentment in the listener.
6. Either sender or receiver makes wrong assumptions about the other’s intent, meaning, respect message, emotions and/or key words. This can be unconscious or an intentional way of discounting the other. “I know what you really feel or mean, no matter what you say or don’t say. This often evokes a response of resentment, defensiveness, counterattack, and/or withdrawal and denial.
7. A common special case of mind-reading happens when the receiver starts talking before the speaker finishes because the “know what the speaker is going to say. Conversely, the speaker may habitually repeat or be long winded, and the receiver legitimately gets bored. Sometimes a meta-comment like “When you string so many ideas and comments together without pausing, I get overwhelmed and tune out.”

Summary

Parts II and III of this article will add to the list of types of communication blocks. If you have examples of communication blocks that have occurred in your athletic career, please send them to us. We will share them with our readers. In addition, we would like to share successful resolution of these blocks.

When children are born, they are usually thrust into a group called a family. Over the past forty years, the stability of this unit has proven to be more and more unreliable. By the time children reach their eighteenth birthday, the family, as originally constituted, no longer exists. Children often belong to more than one family, each with its own membership, personalities, norms, objectives, rules, punishments, culture, etc. Roles change and diversify. It is much easier to take apart a family than it is to create a new one that functions well. New people labeled as step-fathers, step-mothers, step-siblings, etc. arrive, stay for a while, and then may leave. It is this population that comes to a sports organization and tries to create a successful team. Sports teams and its athletes face many of the same problems as families and its members do. This article will focus on developing an understanding of what defines a group and a sports team. The information should be helpful to teammates and coaches alike.

The Definition Of A Sports Team

Starting with the basics, an efficient and effective sports team is a collection of two or more athletes who have a common identity, set of goals, objectives and fate. Its members show structured patterns of interaction and styles of communicating. They view the structure of the team in the same ways. There is a mutual reliance upon one another to be connected personally and perform their skills. In other words, the team is a source of mutual benefit for the members. The athletes of a team need to be attracted to each other and think of themselves as a part of a “we” that differentiates them from “they.”

Illustration Of A Sports Team:
A Basketball Team

The Los Angeles Lakers basketball team has a collective identity in that individual players, teammates and non-team members all view the group as distinguishable from other teams. The Lakers practice blocking out the opponents for offensive rebounds (short-term goal and instrumental interdependence) with the intention of winning a championship (long-term goal). The Lakers have a unique playbook that the new players have to learn before they can play. Each play has a distinct name and signal only other members of the team know (structure patterns of interactions and communications). If one Laker on the court brakes the rules of the game, the entire team suffers (common fate). In reaching the playoffs and ultimately winning the championship, the Lakers build a stronger sense of themselves as a group.

Factors In Developing
A Team Concept And Cohesiveness

SITUATIONAL FACTORS. Players in Close Proximity to each other will tend to bond together. Team locker rooms, residences, and shared means of transportation increase the frequency of interaction. A team becomes more Distinctive when it has an identifiable uniform, mottoes, initiation rites and privileges, and special sacrifices. Even though the actual season lasts a few months, a team that Practices All Year will become more united. Coaches should emphasize the History and Traditions of the organization or team (Boston Celtics, New York Yankees). The Size of a team has significant impact on unity. Task cohesiveness decreased with increase in size.

PERSONAL FACTORS. Similarity in commitments, ability, attitudes and goals are all positively associated with team unity. However, the most important factor in the development and maintenance of cohesiveness is individual Satisfaction. Recognition from others (parents, teammates, coaches and the public), improvement of Skills, Affiliation, and quality of the Competition are components of this factor.

LEADERSHIP FACTORS. Ironically, in the case of mutiny, cohesion among the teammates is at its highest, but the coach/players relationships are in the toilet. A common enemy is one of the most powerful forces that can bring people together. This is as true in family life, war, disease, racial and religious intolerance, as it is in sports. Another way in which high cohesiveness may backfire is when a new coach is brought in. One of the effects of high cohesion is that there is an over estimation of members’ contribution to success. Non-members are considered to be irrelevant to achieving team goals.

This is likely when a popular and successful coach has been replaced. It is one of the main reasons why successful football, basketball and baseball teams tend to hire assistants as head coaches. They are part of the organization’s history already. Sometimes outside hiring results in the need to replace talented players who have been with the team for a long time.

Compatibility between teammates and the coach is a vital factor in team cohesiveness. Lastly, the more the coach allows his players to participate in decision-making, the greater the team will become united.

TEAM FACTORS. When you put the same people in a close geographic location over a significant period of time, a group is formed that has five significant components (roles, norms, stability, goals and rewards and communication). These parts become contributors to the success or failure of a group in meeting goals. This is as true for a sports team as another other type of group.

The National Hockey League’s organization and rules explicitly set out the team’s Formal Roles (the coach, team captain, team manager, left wing, center, and goalie). Specific players with particular abilities are hired and trained to fulfill the requirements of those roles by the hockey teams.

As a result of on-going interactions that take place among team members, Informal Roles evolve (team leader, enforcer, team clown, etc). If, for a period of time, someone who has played even an informal role, leaves the team, the management may have to hire a new player to fill the informal role. A team’s effectiveness is high when the players’ understand their roles (Role Clarity), accept their roles (Role Acceptance) and try to perform the roles to the best of their ability (Role Performance).

A coach can improve role clarity, acceptance and performance by making the behavior requirements explicit, minimize the status difference between roles, and create an effective goal-setting program. The impact of an effective goal-setting program is to direct the player’s attention and behavior, provide motivation to develop strategies for goal achievement, increase interest and prolong activity.

The presence of Norms is also associated with increased cohesiveness. Norms signal a team’s feelings about behaviors that are acceptable. When a new member comes to a team, it is the manager/player interaction norms that are confronted first. As cohesion increases so does conformity to the group’s standards of behavior. If a player ignores norms, sanctions must be imposed. This is true even when a player performs above the standard expected.

The team’s productivity norm is a key factor in the relationship between cohesion and productivity. When cohesion is low and there is a high norm for productivity, that team will outperform teams with a low norm. If team cohesion is high and norm for productivity is low, the performance level will be low. And finally, if a team’s cohesion is high and the norm for productivity is high, performance will be high.

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.

The modern day sports world offers much recognition and rewards to individual players. It makes the coach’s job of creating team unity more difficult. By emphasizing the group’s goals and objectives over a single player’s, the manager will create greater group cohesion.

As a team reaches higher levels of cohesion, communication also increases. On the other side of the same coin, the more task and social communications occur, the greater the sense of team cohesion is produced. The manager can improve coach/athlete communications and team harmony in the following ways: 1) provide opportunities for athlete input; 2) build mutual respect; 3) create realistic team, individual and sub-unit goals; 4) specify objectives, strategy, operating procedures or means to achieve goals; 5) emphasize the importance of all roles in achieving team goals; 6) acknowledge outstanding performance of a role by a player; 7) handle personnel conflicts in regular team meetings; maintain on-going communications with team leaders; 9) before negative criticism is given, focus on positives; 10) create an easier schedule, if possible, at the beginning of the season; 11) provide stability of personnel.

In summary, the more players and coaches alike understand the factors that contribute to cohesiveness, the greater the likelihood of success. No team is perfect and the way organizations stay successful is through its appreciation of the development of a team concept, and the willingness to do what is necessary to maintain it. Personnel who show a lack of interest in these components will create a team history of failure and disappointment. Future articles will address this issue in more specificity. Research is teaching us more about what makes groups successful and we will pass it on to you.

We would like to mention the following as important resources for this article:

Carron, A. (2001) The Sport Team as an Effective Group. In Applied Sports Psychology (J.M. Williams, ed.). Mountain View, California: Mayfield Publishing Company.

Miller, B. (1997) Developing Team Cohesion and Empowering Individuals. In Sports Psychology in Performance (R.J. Butler, ed.) Oxford: Reed Educational and Professional Publishing, LTD.

If a group of any kind is to function, its members must be able to communicate easily and efficiently. In successful teams, coaches and athletes talk openly about interpersonal and task-related issues that affect them directly. Interpersonal conflict is often the result of misunderstanding and miscommunication of feelings. Learning how to express oneself in a constructive manner and communicate effectively is an important initial step in preventing and solving problems. Part II will review one framework to examine communication processes in athletic teams.

Coach-Team Cmmunications

Athletes unite behind common goals, so it is important to get athletes to think in terms of the philosophy, operating procedures, and values that govern the team. Similar attitudes and beliefs, shared ideals and covenants to live by are also required. It is very important to obtain consensus and commitment from the team. It can be helpful to get input from the team members regarding the achievement of team cohesiveness.

To achieve these goals, a coach may find the following principles useful:

1. Impart relevant information regarding the team rules, expectations, operating procedures and goals the group is striving to achieve. In addition, clarification of the team’s mission, strategies and action plans to reach goals, and involve staff and athletes in decisions that effect them directly are critical issues.
2. Inspire athletes to reach for their best by communicating with a sense of enthusiasm, honesty, sincerity, pride and team spirit.
3. Set up a goal-setting program, monitor progress, give athletes feedback, and challenge everyone to become better.
4. Reinforce behaviors that you want the athletes to repeat and correct mistakes in a positive manner.

Coach-Athlete Communications

Coaches should take the time to get to know their athletes as unique goal-oriented individuals and find out what their strengths, interests, and needs are. It is important to inform athletes about what is expected.

Another area coaches should address with team members is communication at the competition site. Recognize differences in how individuals prepare and respond to competition. For example, some athletes might like to be left alone; others appreciate a word of encouragement. The same idea holds true for post-competition feedback.

Athletes need feedback as to where they stand and how they are progressing in relation to individual and team goals. Not providing effective feedback can lead to a decrease in motivation and performance instability.

Many athletes seek out their coach to talk about things outside of sport that may be affecting their lives and self-esteem. Some of these issues might be transition and adjustment concerns, homesickness, relationship struggles, and academic matriculation. It is important for the lines of communication be open, trusting and safe.

Some athletes may not feel confident approaching a coach if they do not respect or trust him/her. If the athlete thinks there is a hidden agenda, or not really interested, he may not be able to walk through the coach’s door. Instead of honesty, the athlete will tend, in these cases, to give the coach what he thinks the coach wants to hear.

Sometimes situations arise during the course of a season that can cause communication problems (losing, poor performance, lack of playing time, personality clash and injury). The coach can be perceived as being insensitive, unappreciative, unapproachable or uninterested. The athlete may need some help coming to the coach in an assertive manner.

Here are some helpful hints to improving coach-athlete communications: each person has had different life experiences; use a communication style that is comfortable to you; notice that different people interpret the same message differently; never underestimate the power of positive feedback; be a good role model; emotional control is critical; strive for empathic communications.

Athlete-Athlete Communications

It is important that athletes show each other concern and respect both on and off the field. Some of the best teams seem to take special time to be together – creating bonding together feeling. Athletic teams are very much like families. Tension, frustration and conflict are inevitable. Roommate problems (incompatibility, intolerance, general needs not being met), interpersonal jealousies within the team, dating problems and freshman adjustment issues will surface. Underneath these issues are misunderstandings, insensitivities, a sense of betrayal, distrust and athletes feeling not heard by teammates.

When the team is made up of people from different racial, ethnic, religious and socioeconomic backgrounds, intercultural communication styles may cause misunderstandings. Often mistakes are made when athletes from varied histories think they understand what is going on in another’s mind with speaking (mind reading). Sub-grouping on a team can create dissention, reduction in cohesion and performance.

Summary

Communication is a multifaceted process that includes transmission or exchange of thoughts, ideas, feelings or information through both verbal and non-verbal means. Mutual sharing and understanding is necessary. The foundation of good communication is trust and mutual respect. Open communication channels can go a long way to solving most organization problems.

Dear Psyched:
In the past I was a professional athlete. Today, I am a lawyer who is in trouble. I’ve been let go by a firm without compensation. They did it without any compensation, even though I had a contract that noted it couldn’t be done. So, I filed suit and they have countered with a suit against me. The stress is unbelievable. Participating in sports used to be great release and joy. After a number of weeks of not exercising, I tried to take a run. Usually, I could do 5 miles without blinking. One mile into my run, I began to think of the different aspects of my legal and financial situation and came to a dead halt. I couldn’t run any further. Every time I try to exercise, the same thing happens. I’m about to give up exercising. Can you be of any help?

TO: XXXXXX@msn.com
FROM: questions@psychedonline.org
SUBJECT: RE: Depression and Exercise
DATE: Wed, 12 Nov 2003

Dear Troubled Athlete:
Repetitive exercise can leave a lot of space to think about almost anything. Unwanted thoughts can flood the area. Negative feelings (anxiety, fear, depression, guilt, shame, etc.) have a way of shutting down the motor system. These feelings can act like paralytic agents. Sometimes the body stops moving before the troubled athlete even knows it has occurred. You can’t just not think. Even when we are sleeping we are thinking. Unless, you have energizing thoughts, images, emotions to fuel the mental system, breakdowns surface. Develop these fuels before you go for a run again. Another suggestion is to make sounds when you are running – energizing sounds – like rahhhhhh. Make these sounds over and over again. Maybe trying a sport that requires more mental attention (i.e., tennis) could keep your mind occupied.

Paul Schienberg, Ph.D.
Editor/Publisher

It is so gratifying for a coach and an athlete to be a member of a team that gets along well and works together efficiently. When individuals work together in groups, communication, coordination and interaction is essential. Communication is the center of the wheel as it moves along towards the desired goals. It directly affects group solidarity and team performance. Success is highly dependent on teamwork and collective efficacy. In successful groups, all leaders and members talk openly about interpersonal and task-related issues that affect them directly.

Unfortunately, not every group functions so well. Many interpersonal problems on teams stem from poor communications. Conflict with group members is often the result of misunderstanding or miscommunication of feelings. Five types of misunderstandings that often surface within groups (teams) are:

1. a difference of opinion resolvable by common sense
2. a clash of personalities in the group
3. a conflict of task or social roles among group members
4. a struggle for power between one or more individuals
5. a breakdown of communication between the leader and the group or among member of the group itself

Misunderstandings are also the result of inaccessibility (not being privy to sources of information); inattentiveness (being distracted, not paying attention, not listening); failure to speak up (mind reading); or misperceiving someone’s motives intentions, or behavior. People are often afraid to express how they truly feel for fear of being ridiculed or rejected for saying what is on their minds.

I have worked with many groups which displayed interpersonal communication problems and conflicts. The problems have ranged from jealousies within the groups to power struggles, control issues, perceived injustices and inequities between leaders and members. Learning how to express oneself in a constructive manner and communicate effectively is an important initial step in preventing and solving problems.

In general, the more open people can be with one another, the better are your chances of getting along and achieving both individual and group goals. Hence, it is important for leaders (coaches) and members (players) to learn how to express their thoughts and feelings about various issues that affect them directly. Airing problems is not just appropriate in groups. It needs to be encouraged as well. Harmony in a group blossoms when members listen to each other, and when there is consideration of fellow members’ feelings, and there is an atmosphere of acceptance of differences and when there is mutual help.

In Parts II, III and IV of this series, we will review group communication dynamics, assertiveness training, and active listening techniques.

I had the good fortune of running into Jimi Petulla. He has created a film called “Reversal” with the help of Alan Vint (director). They have combined their talents to produce a story, based on real life, about a father (acted by Jimi Petulla) and son (acted by Danny Mousetis) caught up in the trials and tribulations of competitive wrestling. The father makes sacrifices to help his son get out of a small industrial town by trying to get him a college scholarship. The son is drawn into the endless cycle of training and weight control. When he reaches seventeen, he must make a choice to live his own life or let his father live through him. The acting is superb and the dynamics important for all parents, sons, teachers, and coaches who are involved in competitive athletics. The movie is available on VCR and DVD through Jimi Petulla. Drop Psyched a note and we will connect you with Jimi so that you can have a copy of your own.

Introduction: Background And History

Except for a few isolated cases, such as the preference of the lobster, crab and rat to use the right claw or paw, and the preference of cats to use their left paw, most animals are said to be ambidextrous and do not display lateral preference.

Preference for the right hand occurs in 90-95% of the population. Left hand preference is close to 10%. Ambidexterity occurs in approximately 5%. Left handedness is more common in males and in mentally retarded individuals (so if you are a male and retarded…..which to many women is redundant…..you figure it out.

Ocular or eye dominance is an entirely different situation. The first written description of ocular dominance is credited to Giovanni Battista della Porta in 1593. It was not until the late 20th century that serious attention was focused on this matter.

It might be expected that the eye that sees best is the dominant eye. This is not, in fact, the case. The dominant eye is usually considered to be the preferred eye for sighting. Eye dominance, preference or superiority is different from handedness or motor dominance.

Handedness is concerned primarily with motor aspects of motor organs. The eye is a sensory organ and has no conscious pro-prioception. And vision is for each eye represented bilaterally and equally in the brain in the occipital lobes, for most binocular animals. We have no consciousness of having a right and left eye as one is conscious of having a left and right hand. One does not see the world from a right or left eye, but from a single so called “cyclopean eye” which combines information from both.

When an athlete is asked to perform sighting tests, the cyclopean eye often seems to be located behind or close to one eye or the other. Eye dominance seems to be genetically predetermined. It is said that lateral dominance of a field of vision corresponding to the dominant eye, and it is easier for directional scanning to occur toward the field on the dominant eye and field. If persons are divided into only right or left eye dominance, then about 65% of the population is right eyed dominant and 35% are left eye dominant.

An individual who is right handed and right “eyed” or left handed and left “eyed” is said to have an uncrossed pattern of eye-hand dominance. Right handed and left “eyed” or vice versa is called crossed eye-hand dominance. There is no correlation between handedness and eye dominance.

A Study Of Baseball Performance

The study was conducted by a person (JMP) whose greatest frustration in childhood was that he didn’t become a good enough baseball player to make the major leagues. He could pitch but he could not hit a lick. He tired switch hitting and found much better success. He is right handed and has right eye dominant, uncrossed eye-hand dominant. He consulted his father’s history who was more successful in baseball. He found that his father was crossed eye-hand dominant, right handed with a dominant left eye, and had been a very successful batter, while uncrossed JMP had been a relatively successful pitcher. His father also had difficulty, in contrast, in pitching. The study looked a college varsity baseball team.

All twenty five, male, varsity athletes from the University of Florida baseball team were examined. Visual acuity, stereoscopic vision, ocular motility and eye sight dominance and handedness were established. All athletes batted the same “hand” as they threw except for one “switch hitter” who was right handed but who batter left handed.

Athletic performance was measured by data obtained from the prior year’s statistics. The pitchers were evaluated by their earned run average (ERA) and the hitters were rated by their by their batting average (BA).

Let me review some of the results of this study. College varsity level baseball players are twice as likely as the general population to have crossed dominance. The incidence of central eye dominance is considerably higher than the general population. The best hitters were centrally eye dominant or crossed eye-hand dominant. The poorest hitters were uncrossed eye-hand dominant. The top four pitchers were either uncrossed or centrally ocular dominant. Three of the top six pitchers were centrally ocular dominant.

What conclusion were the researchers able to draw from the results? There is strong support for the idea that the pattern of eye-hand dominance is significant and related to athletic success in baseball. There seems to be high probability that central ocular dominance helps athletes succeed in this form of athletic endeavor. The central ocular dominance players (batters and pitchers), whether right or left handed, were consistently and distinctly in the forefront. The central ocular dominant subgroup had both the best BA and the best ERA. The crossed eye-hand dominance pattern seems to be of benefit only to the batters – may even be a handicap to the pitchers. An uncrossed eye-hand dominance pattern is an advantage to the pitcher and a disadvantage to the hitter, and a crossed eye-hand dominance pattern is an advantage to the hitter and a disadvantage to the pitcher.

The situation for baseball hitting is very different from pitching in that the sighting action is to the side of the athlete. The explanation might be that there is increased ability of the eyes to sweep in the direction of the field of the side of the dominant eye. Certainly that is what the batter does. The pitcher is to his left and as he watches the pitcher he must make rapid sweeps of his eye from the plate in front of him to the pitcher on the mound, waiting for the pitch and watching the ball as it proceeds toward him. Even as the ball approaches him it is still primarily in his left gaze field, not the right gaze field, which it enters only when it crosses the plate and caught by the catcher. The batter must initiate his swing based on his vision of the ball’s course when it is perhaps only halfway or so from the pitcher to the plate, so it is irrelevant that the ball finally crosses into his right visual field as it crosses the plate. It is for these reasons why the crossed eye-hand dominant player is at some advantage in the batting situation over the uncrossed dominant player. The best combination for a baseball player would be a left handed centrally ocular dominant, or if not centrally ocular dominant, a left handed crossed eye dominant person. Many successful players do not follow this formula however.

Conclusions

Among those athletes that possess the other necessary qualities (speed, fast reactions times, coordination, competitiveness, etc.) for success, it may be that ocular dominance and the pattern of eye-hand dominance is another variable that is measurable and predictable.

Eye hand dominance could serve as a factor in scouting athletes, or guiding a young player on whether to hit left or right handed or to switch hit. It may be possible to determine what sport to concentrate on, as knowledge grows concerning the relations between ocular dominance and patterns of eye-hand dominance in other sports. Tennis is a natural next sport for examination.

I have a pattern in my golf game that is getting on my nerves. My friends and I play on a 9 hole course. For the first 7 holes, I usually shoot about two to four shot over par…which is pretty good for me and the amount of times I play. The eighth and ninth holes drive me nuts. It’s not that they are particularly difficult. This pattern is so consistent that it’s become a problem in my mind. I anticipate the collapse. Do you have any suggestions?

TO: XXXXXX@hotmail.com
FROM: questions@psychedonline.org
SUBJECT: RE: The Last Holes
DATE: Mon, 26 May 2003

Response: One thought is that you are subconsciously tightening down as you approach the last holes. If that is happening your muscles become stiff and the flow of your stroke is shifting. It is good to make sure that your pre-shot routine does not change. Check your hands when you take the club in your hand. Does it feel soft? Over gripping is a common pattern with stress. You may be gripping too tightly even before the last two holds. If so, your hands may get tired. Keep it loose. Remind yourself to let the club do the work. If you swing evenly, the club will take the ball where it should go. Another thought is not to think about the total score of the round. This could be creating pressure. You might want to try playing a round without scoring at all. Just see the hole that you are playing and the shot that sits in front of you. Muscle relaxation exercises can help starting with your finger tips and proceeding through your arms. Again, check to see if you are doing anything different in the last two holes. Get back to us if you need more ideas.

Paul Schienberg, Ph.D.

Athletes experience both success and failure, but what differentiates the two? While many books have been written on the subject, no definitive answer can be given. So what can you do to improve as an athlete? I feel that one area which holds a great deal of promise is setting clear and attainable goals for yourself.

Athletes, by their nature, are generally competitive individuals. My friend John has told me that when he is out for his evening run, he can’t stand to have someone pass him. No matter how tired he is, he always digs down for that something extra which makes him go faster than anyone else around him. His goal is not to let anyone beat him that night.

Businesses have used goal setting effectively to motivate sales forces for years. It should come as no surprise that the same technique has been used successfully in sports as well. More specifically, goal setting has been found to have a significant effect in a variety of sports including weight lifting, archery, and basketball. This effects holds true regardless of whether it is an individual sport like tennis or a team sport like football. The benefits of goal setting are clear – they work.

Using Goal Setting: The Basics

In order to effectively set goals for yourself or your players, it is important to follow these steps:

• Make goals attainable and measurable (BE REALISTIC)
• Set a long-term goal for the next 6 months (BE SPECIFIC)
• Set short-term goals for the next month (BE VERY SPECIFIC)
• Check your progress and make changes if needed (BE HONEST)

First and foremost is to make goals attainable. One of the biggest reasons why people don’t accomplish their goals is that they set the bar too high. This often results in feelings of failure and loss of drive to achieve goals. For example, a person who runs a ten-minute mile is setting an unattainable goal if they think that they can cut their time in half over the course of the next six months. He would have to take off about a minute a month! That’s another thing: goals need to be measurable. Whether you use 100 meter times or percentage of free-throws made depends on your sport, but it is invaluable in realistically measuring your progress. You need to BE REALISTIC.

Next, set a long-term goal. You should think of it as something that you want to accomplish throughout the course of a season – about four to six months. A good long-term goal will guide you in establishing the short-term goals that you need to achieve. Typically these short-term goals are things that you want to do over the course of the next month. Maybe our runner would set a long-term goal of running an eight-minute mile by season’s end. This means that his short term-goal would be to take 30 seconds off his original ten-minute time every month. You can even make really short-term goals – our runner would take ten seconds off his time every ten days. It’s important to BE SPECIFIC when setting long-term goals and BE VERY SPECIFIC about your short-term goals.

If you have been realistic in setting long-term and short-term goals that are specific and measurable, your job will be a whole lot easier when you check your progress. One easy way of doing this is to keep track on a calendar that shows you the whole month. I write my long-term goal in ink (because it is permanent) and the short term-goal in pencil (so that I can change it if I need to). I also keep track of my daily times on the same page (in ink so that I’m not tempted to lie to myself later on). When it comes time to turn the month, I sit down and evaluate my progress. It is important to remember to BE HONEST. If our runner has gone two months in a row without improving his time by more then 15 seconds each month (when he meant to improve by 30) his short-term goals need to be revised.

Confused? Maybe an example will help out. Below is a case that may clear things up.

Case Example: Goal Setting in Exercise

While the benefits of working out are clear to all of us, a lot of people often drop out of a routine that they have established for themselves. This is the case for 28 year-old over-weight Mike H. Mike has good nutritional habits but his doctor has told him that he needs to burn more calories. He knows that he needs to work out regularly but he does not. Perhaps goal setting can be of assistance. Mike is aware of the recommendations of the Surgeon General about physical activity: adults should complete 30 or more minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity, preferably on most days of the week. He decides to start a regimen on May 1, 2003. Below are the steps that would be taken in order to achieve this goal with the target dates written in parenthesis.

Long-term goal for November 1, 2003:
Engage in moderate-intensity physical activity 6 days a week (11/1/03)

Short-term goals for May, 2003:
Walk/run for 20 minutes 2 days per week (06/01/03) Ride stationary bicycle 20 minutes 2 days per week (06/01/03)

Mike tracks his workouts on a wall calendar in his kitchen. At the end of the month he checks his progress and finds that he has met his short-term goals. While his long-term goal stays the same, he needs to revise the short-term goals. He comes up with the following:

Short-Term Goals for June, 2003:
Walk/run for 25 minutes 2 days per week (07/01/03)
Ride stationary bicycle 25 minutes 2 days per week (07/01/03)

This time when Mike checks his progress he finds that he came up short on the walk/run goal and only did it one time a week. However, he achieved the stationary bike goal. He revises his goals as follows:

Short-Term Goals for July, 2003:
Walk/run for 25 minutes 2 days per week (08/01/03)
Ride stationary bicycle 25 minutes 3 days per week (08/01/03)

Mike again checks his progress and finds that he has met his goals. He decides that he needs to challenge himself a little bit more and extends the times of what he is currently doing.

Short-Term Goals for August, 2003:
Walk/run for 30 minutes 2 days per week (09/01/03)
Ride stationary bicycle 30 minutes 3 days per week (09/01/03)

When September rolls around and Mike looks at the calendar, he finds that he did not achieve his goals. Upon closer inspection he notices that he did not work out at all during the third week of the month. “That was the week I had that ear infection.” He decides to keep his goals the same.

Short-Term Goals for September, 2003:
Walk/run for 30 minutes 2 days per week (10/01/03)
Ride stationary bicycle 30 minutes 3 days per week (10/01/03)

Only one month to go and Mike is feeling pretty good about himself. This is the longest period of time that he has consistently worked out in his life! The pounds are melting off and compliments are flowing like crazy. Mike looks at his long-term goal once again and finds that he is very close to achieving it. He revises the short-term ones as follows:

Short-Term Goals for October, 2003:
Walk/run for 30 minutes 3 days per week (11/01/03)
Ride stationary bicycle 30 minutes 3 days per week (11/01/03)

Congratulations Mike! You did it! He has achieved the long-term goal he set for himself six months ago.

There are many reasons why Mike was so successful (other then the fact that it was fictional). First of all, he was REALISTIC. He set up a long-term and short-term goals that he could achieve. He increased the number of days and times by small increments. When he was unable to achieve the goal for the month, he tried again. Second, he was SPECIFIC about his long-term goal and VERY SPECIFIC when writing the short-term ones. Finally, he was HONEST. Mike faithfully tracked the number of days that he worked out, for how long, and in what activity. When he was sick, he was honest with himself about it and decided to keep the same goals. All that Mike has left to do to keep working out is set a new long-term goal. Maybe this time, he will decide to work out six days a week for 45 minutes!

Conclusion

It is all too easy to lose track of what you are trying to achieve. Corporations realized this a long time ago and started making use of goal setting with their employees. Previous research has found that it can have a significant influence on performance within sports as well. If you follow the steps above and apply it to your sport, you might experience as much success as Mike did too.

Andy Fox plays shortstop and third base for the Florida Marlins. He was born and raised in Sacramento, California. He began his major league career with the New York Yankees. After two years with them, he was traded to the Arizona Diamondbacks where he had his most successful year in 1998. Andy played in 139 games, batted .277, scored 67 runs, and batted in 44 RBI’s. He moved on to the Florida Marlins in 2000 and again had a very successful year in 2002 where he started in 133 games, batted .251, scored 55 runs and drove in 41 runs.

Schienberg: We are interested in the mental aspects of playing baseball.

Fox: Fine. I think playing baseball is a day in and day out thing. You try to get into a routine … as far as physically and mentally. It is not so much how many ground balls or swings you take … it’s the quality of what you do … the more you play this game the more you understand that getting into a routine the more it is a reaction thing, not a thought … like here comes a groundball I got to do this … the more you concentrate on the physical things the more the mental things just come along.

Schienberg: The season is long…keeping that focus over a long time…does it take a pacing?

Fox: Not pacing. The more you do it the more you get used to the grind of it. You get used to the ups and downs of it. Through the work and preparation you try to eliminate the length of the rough spells…instead of going zero for twenty you go zero for ten…you try… staying on an even keel mentally…is probably the biggest thing in this game…it is probably what separates those guys that are in the big league vs. those who stay in the minors…they just can’t deal with the failure aspect of it. Once you understand that be able to deal with it, you get more successful.

Schienberg: I’m sure when you get into a slump a lot of people give you advice about what to do. Do you ignore that as much as possible?

Fox: I think when there is a slump there is a problem and you have to find something that works for you. It is good to work closely with the hitting coach. Sometimes there is a key phrase that you can use….like “stay back” or “are you seeing the ball?” The first thing is to understand the problem and the second is to do something that would eliminate and create a new muscle memory.

Schienberg: I know you are the starting short stop. So you are constantly out there.

Fox: No. I was the starting short stop last year. The kid I was playing for last year recovered from his injury.

Schienberg: When you play short stop…can you tell me about the chemistry between you and the second baseman?

Fox: It’s critical. You get used to a certain player. He knows what balls you can get to and you get to know his range as well. Last year I never played with Billy Castillo. It took a while for us to get used to each other. There is a chemistry you need to develop and there is an unspoken language that you develop with each other.

Schienberg: What is it like for you to be on the team? Last year you were a starter…

Fox: I’ve been a back up my whole career. So I’m sort of used to it.

Schienberg: You had a good year last year.

Fox: Thank you. Yes. I was happy with how I performed. You get used to your role on the team. You prepare to play every day, just in case you get an opportunity. You say to yourself, ok I’m backing up now and do some things to keep myself fresh…and prepare to play whether it is once a week or twice a week.

Schienberg: Jeff Torborg, the manager, nice guy.

Fox: Yes. Very nice guy. He is a great communicator. He checks with every player every day to see how you are doing. Cares about family. You don’t hesitate to go to him and say this is going on or that’s going on. It’s so important. He’s honest. I wish I had more time. But it’s time for me to do hitting.

Schienberg: Thanks for your time. Good luck this year.

Fox: Take care.