Part II: The Rise and Fall of A Professional Sports Team

Schienberg: The rise and fall of the New York Islanders is of great interest. An expansion team may be in existence for four, five, six years. Then, all of a sudden it wins the Stanley Cup (highest trophy in hockey for a team).

Potvin: In the last two years that I played we won the Cup and then they won two more right after I retired.

Schienberg: And the team came out of no where, right?

Potvin: People could see us coming because starting ….I was traded to the Islanders at the end their first season in the NHL 1972-73. At that time the Islanders went on to have the worst record in the history of the NHL up to that point. That summer my brother was drafted, Bill Torrey, a genius, general manager, recruited Al Arbor was recruited to become the coach. Al was the best coach I ever had. He and Scotty Bowman were the best coaches that ever coached hockey.

Schienberg: So, when Arbor came in, whatever talent had begun to be there, he added to the significant pieces to that team?

Potvin: What happened was that my brother was drafted with Bobby Bourne; and, the year before he had drafted Bobby Nystrum. Then, Trottier was drafted the following year. Clark Guilles was drafted also. Then John Tunnelli was added. So Bill Torrey was doing a wonderful job of scouting, recruiting and drafting these wonderful, young kids and they would come to training camp and there would be another piece to the puzzle. And Al was unbelievable at putting, implementing systems, disciplines on how to for-check, back check, different systems on the power play, penalty killing, how to play in a tight game against an offensive minded team like the Montreal Canadiens of the 70′s, how to play against a rough and tumble hockey team like the Philadelphia Flyers and we repeated these systems at nauseas in practice. He would say, I want you to be able to do these things and recognize these things automatically on the ice without having to think. I want you to react instinctively and this is the way I want my teams to grow together. It was a combination of talented players that would be put together and coached extremely well by Al Arbor and every year from then on in we started to noticeably improve. In 1975, we made the players by beating the New York Rangers. Some of the Ranger players like Derik Sanderson said we would not win another game in the playoffs. It almost turned out to be true because we lost the next three playoff games against Pittsburgh. We were only the second team in the history of the NHL even to this day to come back from a three game deficit and beat Pittsburgh in seven. The seventh game we won one to nothing. Then we played the Flyers. We lost the first three games of that series and came back and won three. We lost the seventh game four to two. Every year after that if you look at our point in the standing we accumulated more points and then finally everything came together in 1979-1980 season. It didn’t start off like that. It didn’t look like that. In the middle part of the season my brother broke his thumb and he missed several months during that season. When he came back, I think it was sometime in March, he had not played since November, and at the trading deadline another fantastic trade occurred. We acquired Butch Goring.

And that was like the last piece of the puzzle. And with Dennis Goring and a healthy lineup, we hit our stride going into the playoffs. Al was great with preparing us and resting us, so we would enter the playoffs on a roll. A lot of teams crawled to the playoffs and make it, but they were not well prepared. They were tired. He was some kind of psychologist himself.

Schienberg: What was his personality like that gave him such a head for being a coach?

Potvin: Al was very unpredictable and that was the way he wanted it. Very simply put, I remember the first year Al Arbor came and I was playing regularly and then he started to take away some of my ice time. I went from playing twenty five minutes a game to dwindling from 15 to 10 and I was steaming. And Al would purposely not talk to me in practice and I would be dressing, I would play the power play and that was about it and I would be sitting on the bench and feeling really angry at him. And he wanted to see what I was made of – so instead of saying anything to me, he wanted to see what I would, how I would react. So, one day after practice, I said, “Al I want to talk with you.” He said, “Fine, when do you want to talk?” My reply was “Right after practice, today.” He said, “I can’t today, but I’ll do it after practice tomorrow.”

I did not know it but we had a video guy who taped all the games. It wasn’t like today. There was a guy in the press box who was taping all the games. Al had this video guy splice all the screw ups I made over the last seven, eight, nine games. The next day I go into his office after practice. All had a knack, you see he was a pretty big guy like 6 feet two inches. His chair was always a lot higher than the chair sitting across from him. So, you’d be sitting up looking up at him. He said, “What’s on your mind?” “Let’s cut to the chase here, I’m really upset. I’d like to know why my ice time has gone from 25 minutes to ten.” He said, “Why do you think that’s happening?” “I didn’t know. I think I’ve been playing pretty well, getting a few points here and there,” I noted emphatically. He said, “Why don’t we watch a couple of video highlights of you over the past several games?” The video shows me going into the corner of the ice with the opposing player and the opposing player has the puck and the opposing player beat me out of the corner and goes in front of net and scores or the goal tender has to make a big save. And he replies it two or three times and doesn’t say a word. Then he says, “Let’s go onto the next clip in the same game.” And he’s got all these clips one right after the other and it’s a piece where someone goes right around me at the blue line and heads towards the net alone and it’s my fault. So, he does this for three or four different instances. He says, “So you still think you’re playing pretty well?” He says, “Let me explain something to you and you might as well know it now. All I want, nothing more and nothing less, is one hundred percent. And if you think that is too difficult to give me I got a big problem with it. Let’s break it down. How many games a week do we play on average? Three four? Let’s say you are playing twenty minutes a game. That makes eighty minutes a week. If I can’t get 80 minutes of your best, whether you have the puck or don’t, you should be thinking, who’s my man, what position should I be in, where should I be if they have the puck, where should I be if we are on the offense. You have a job for twenty minutes a game. And if you can’t give me that, let me know and I’ll have you on the first bus out of town. Do we understand each other?” I said, “Yeah, I got it. Thanks Al.” On the way home I said to myself I can’t argue with the guy. He’s 100% right. It was part of growing up so to speak. He did it not just with me with me. He did it with my brother and many other players. He would pick his spots and all of sudden we were on the same page. We all at one point or another got the same speech. And he did it individually – not with everyone in the room where you are not paying attention.

Schienberg: Was he glad that you came to him finally?

Potvin: Oh yeah, I forgot to mention. He gave me a tap during practice. I was playing better. I was getting my ice time back. He said, “Potzy”. I’m very proud of you. I’m glad you came to me because I would have allowed you to sit there. I wanted to see what you were made of. If would have sat there and accepted that would have told me volumes about you and your heart and your gut. The fact that it upset you makes me happy. And that’s the way I want you to be because you are hungry – stay hungry. Al was a master of getting the best out of his players. And he would do it in different ways with different players.

Schienberg: Do you think he knew he had to provoke you?

Potvin: Every now and then he knew I had to be kicked in the ass. He use to really upset my brother.

Schienberg: How did he do it to Dennis?

Potvin: Well, Dennis was the real cornerstone of our team. He was the defenseman, quarterback, the captain. And Al would pick on him. Let’s say, after the first period, if we were not playing well, Al would come in the room right before the buzzer would come on signaling we had to go on the ice in two or three minutes. He’d say, “Listen, I’m not going to name any names here, but this has got to stop. I don’t care how well they’re playing. If we were playing our best hockey this would not be happening.” His voice would go up and down. He was a very intimidating person – not physically. He then say, “I’m not going to mention any names.” He would then talk about what we did wrong and then he’d turn to my brother and he’d say, “You, you’re the captain, I didn’t see you, where were you the whole period?” Denny wouldn’t say anything. But, Denny would play with an edge and play great hockey. Denny would be so upset with Al. But Al didn’t care because he knew he had pushed the right button. After I retired, I asked Al why he didn’t treat Trottier or Bossy the same as Denny. Al indicated that he knew if he could get Denny playing, the others would follow suit. And Denny to this day does not totally believe that Al was doing it for Denny’s good. He was very angry at Al for many years. Denny said that if Al had walked in front of his car after practice, he would have run him over. There was no love lost between the two of them. Denny has a bigger ego than I do. And they would butt heads. That’s why Al wanted me around. Denny and I would go out after a game and hang out together. Denny would vent his anger at Al and Bill with me. I’d say calm down. “You played like a hall of famer the last two periods. In the first period, I didn’t know if you’d have enough strength to finish it. Al may have pissed him off, but look at the results.”

Schienberg: Did that get through to him?

Potvin: It still would piss him off. Why doesn’t he pick on the others. I’m getting tired of being the whipping horse. So, Al was a master. He didn’t give a crap if we were angry at him. But, Al would go to bat for us with the press or with Bill Torry. Bill was unbelievable also.

Schienberg: In what way?

Potvin: Bill was always around, but he’d let Al run the locker room. Sometimes Al would turn to Bill and say I’m out of words. So, Bill would come into the locker room dressed in his bow tie after practice and we would be sitting there and he’d start “Trainers get out of the room. Al get out of the room.” When Bill spoke we were going to get creamed. He’d slam the door and lock the door and pace the locker room back and forth for ten minutes. “You can continue to play like that but it won’t be here.” He once said to me, “If your father ever saw you play, he be kicking your ass all over this room. Do you think your father would be proud if he saw what you were doing out there on the ice?” Our father was a very good hockey player and he’d played against Montreal in jury hockey and then went to the Detroit training camp and broke his back and his career ended. He was a little tiger. He was not a good loser no matter what he was doing. He didn’t know what less than 100% meant. Before Bill would draft a player, obviously talent is very important, Bill told me in the top three rounds you never know who you are going to draft. He said, “I never drafted any player that I didn’t meet the parents. I wanted to know what his parents were like. Where the kid came from was important. What was the mother like? What was the father like? What did he do for a living? Was he a sincere man? Did he look at me in the eyes? That would tell me a lot about the kind of kid I was going to get.” Then he called the midget or bandom hockey. He would get a full picture of what the kid was like.

My father was a great player. There are the right genes. We had a TV. It had three channels. The only time the TV would go on was to watch hockey. My father made a hockey rink in the back yard. Whenever we had a chance we would on the rink

Schienberg: Clark Gilles was the captain before your brother? Right?

Potvin: Correct.

Schienberg: Does the captain make a difference?

Potvin: Clark> was voted in as the captain. But, he gave it up. He wore the C for one year and didn’t have a very good year. Some people put to much pressure on themselves. So, the next year, he gave it up. He said he wanted to concentrate on the team and my game. The C is giving me too much pressure. Bill and Al decided that Dennis would be the captain and that was the first year we won the StanleyCup. Dennis was no a rah rah kind of guy. He was much more by example.

Schienberg: So, what responsibility did the captain have over a regular player on the team?

Potvin: Be able to talk with your teammates about anything. Like a coach. You become very close knit – even more than the coach – certainly different. Must care about teammates. If we were disenchanted with Al, the captain would be the spokesperson. Al would sometimes ask Denny to call and team meeting and find out what’s going on here. Sometimes Al was intimidating and people would not speak up. But, in private, you’d get more openness.

Schienberg: When Dennis would go to Al after a meeting, what would he say?

Potvin: He say, Al I think we had a great meeting and we accomplished a lot. Everything is better. Al would ask if he should get involved? Dennis would say no.

Schienberg: When you left the Islanders, was it because you were done?

Potvin: I was traded to the Cleveland. Al cried. They felt they needed me for Wayne Merrick.

“How’d you like to come to the Islanders, Al asked a year later. I miss your effect in the locker room.” This is 1979. You might get a lot of ice time. I want you in the locker room. Get them mentally ready. I was 32 years old. He asked me to the voice of the Islanders. I said yes. So, I was on the radio for the next seven years. He works on the institutional side of Wall Street today.

Schienberg: What do you think of the new rules?

Potvin: I like most. Two, I don’t like. You can stand in front of the ice without being hit and I don’t like getting one point if you lose by way of a shoot out.

Thousands of middle school football games get played across the country every weekend. Coaches and players spend hours trying to figure out ways to beat their opponents. Teams sometimes run up winning scores so that contracts are renewed, scholarships are offered, and players will be rewarded with gifts of all kinds.

Something happened in a football game a couple of weeks ago that reminds us of more important life-gains to be acquired by participating in sports. One such incident occurred in a small town outside of New York City. Somers Middle School was playing John Jay Middle School.

The Somers coach, Bud Von Heyn, asked Jeff Tepper, the coach of John Jay for a favor. After Jeff agreed, Bud gathered his players and told them to run the E.J. Shuffle play. Jeff passed the instructions onto his team.

The E.J. Shuffle would begin on the John Jay 35- yard line. E.J. Greczylo, a 15 year-old eighth grader, would be part of this one play and no other – no other for his entire football career. He was instructed by Coach Bud where to position himself in the backfield and to follow the fullback where ever he goes.

The players on both sides of the line of scrimmage took their positions; the ball was snapped to the quarterback, who then gave it to E.J. – a strong looking young boy with an awkward style of running. He held the ball beside his stomach, ran toward the sideline and then toward the goal line.

Everyone in the crowd, and players from both the John Jay and Somers bench cheered for E.J. The opposition players made like they were trying to tackle him, but either tripped or lunged ineffectively. Everyone was into the act. The attempt was to make one kid feel good – E.J. who suffered from Down syndrome. You see football was E.J.’s dream and he was taught by his parents to follow his dreams. At Somers, children who are disadvantaged are treated like the other children. So, when E.J.’s teacher let the coach know of his dream – to play football, started to practice with the team.

Obviously, there are some ethical questions raised. One is that E.J. wasn’t really treated like the other players on the team. Ok, that one is obvious. Sometimes we are faced with two ethical dilemmas simultaneously. I believe they made the right choice. E.J. was not deluded about his abilities. He didn’t expect a football scholarship to arrive from the University of Miami. He got what was going on. But, it was a thrill non-the-less. Everyone got taught a great lesson and did something that will make them feel like winners the rest of their lives. There was never a better touchdown scored. It was the first time in football history that both teams won.

The Commerce Bank Championship was played from June 27 – July 2, 2006 on the now prestigious Eisenhower Park. The public facility was the home of the 1926 PGA Championship with legendary Walter Hagan. I was able to engage Charles Coody on the way to the practice range. He proved to be an easy going, veteran who shared his wisdom and experience about the mental side of his golf game. Here is that conversation.

Schienberg: I’d like to ask you a couple of questions about the mental side of your golf game.

Coody: Okay.

Schienberg: How about three or four questions?

Coody: I thought you wanted to ask two questions.

Schienberg: I thought I would push it.

Coody: Now we are up to 4.

Schienberg: If you don’t stop me, I might ask to spend the whole evening talking about golf with you. What do you do to mentally prepare yourself for the game today?

Coody: I always felt that to concentrate the best, your mind needs to be free.

Schienberg: And if you find it clogged with stuff?

Coody: If you’ve got things on your mind, they have a tendency to work their way into way into your round at the wrong time.

Schienberg: Is there a way you get into the present after you’ve hit a bad shot?

Coody: That’s the most difficult part of the game for just about everyone – the acceptance of adversity and being able to overcome it. With every player there’s some days you can do it better than other days. There’s very few people that can have a bad day and be able to recover from that.

Schienberg: Gary Player told me that golf was 90% mental.

Coody: Chi Chi says the other 10% is in you head.

Schienberg: But, most of the focus is on the technical part of the game.

Coody: I think golfers get too technical. The main thing is to have a creative imagination and a positive sense on a golf shot. If you can’t create a good shot in your mind, you’re not going to create one with your swing.

Schienberg: So, do you accomplish that when set up for each shot.

Coody: I’m always trying to think of how I want the ball to fly – what I want the ball to do.

Schienberg: And you see it before you hit it?

Coody: I can always see what I want, but I don’t always get it. Most of the time, I can visualize it.

Schienberg: There are days you visualize it better than others?

Coody: Obviously, it’s like a picture that some days are clear and other times the reception is blurry.

Schienberg: Do you ever get so frustrated with a particular club not doing what you want it to do.

Coody: Almost every time I play.

Schienberg: Do you make believe it is not in your bag?

Coody: No. It just seems like it’s that particular club that’s always coming out of my bag for some reason. Some days you might be hitting the driver, like Mickelson in the 2006 U.S. Open. He hit the driver bad all day. It wasn’t just on the 18^th hole. It was like a snake in his hands.

Schienberg: Michelson had said he had spent hours working on his recovery shots necessary after bad drives. What do you think of that approach?

Coody: That’s a negative. I don’t think it’s a good way to go. He certainly can do what he is talking about. But, if you are focusing on recovery, then you are focusing on you’re going to be there in a bad spot to begin with. It’s not that it’s bad to practice some of those shots, but, I wouldn’t want my mind to anticipate being there.

Schienberg: You hear so much about great recovery shots. Some players talk about driving it as far as they can wherever it goes and the second shot is about an incredible recovery shot onto the green.

Coody: When your goal is to drive it as far as possible, the ball will move around a lot. It’s a better game to hit it shorter and in the fairway. Imagine how much it would have curved if they had hit like that 30 years ago. They would curve it off the golf course. Now, they make clubs and balls that are designed to correct for accuracy.

Schienberg: There is a “utility club” that has been nicknamed “The Forgiver.”

Coody: “The Forgiver?” I got to get myself one of those.

Schienberg: Thanks for your time.

Coody: No problem. I enjoyed it.

The Commerce Bank Championship was played from June 27 – July 2, 2006 on the now prestigious Eisenhower Park. The public facility was the home of the 1926 PGA Championship with legendary Walter Hagan. I was able to engage Tom McKnight on the way to the clubhouse. He proved to be an open, knowledge filled, and amiable person, even after a so-so round of golf.

Here is a transcript of that conversation.

Schienberg: Do golfers really believe that the mental part of the game is really that important? If you think it is that important, do you go through specific mental steps to prepare yourself for playing?

McKnight: When you play at this level, you know it is 90% of it.

Schienberg: Why is it that so much focus is on technology of golf clubs and balls?

McKnight: A golfer tries to get the best equipment available. When you are working on your game, you are trying to work on the mental part of the game, swing thoughts and what is occupying your mind. Also, I ponder, what can I do that will work today? What can I do to keep my mind clear and focused? What I need to focus on is what is going on now – not on a bad shot or some other negative thoughts.

Schienberg: Do you do things to improve your mental game?

McKnight: Yeah, I practice on trying to focus on things whether it’s through my routine or certain swing thoughts. Under pressure your mind can start to race a bit and you tend to forget what you should be thinking about. At this point, as you are walking the fairways, think about your breathing or look at the tops of trees and watch the formations of the leaves. Get your mind back to what you are doing. The negative thoughts can get in your head and just stick like glue. You have to put intentional effort on getting your mind back to the positive attitude toward your game.

Schienberg: And, when the bad thoughts are there when you get to the course? You need to clean them out?

McKnight: Absolutely, it’s not just on a day to day basis. It may be a shot to shot. I can be playing along great and I hit a bad shot and next thing I know I lost it mentally. It feels like I’m playing in the dark all of a sudden. You lose your tunnel vision on your target. Sometimes it’s hard to regroup and get it back. The better players are the ones that do it the best.

Schienberg: Does visualization play a part in getting it back or correcting the problem? And how?

McKnight: I doubt there is anyone out here (The Tour) that doesn’t do that to get back on track. The ones that can focus the clearest are the ones that hit the best shots.

Schienberg: When you visualize do you not only see the flight of the ball, but also hand, club, or body position?

McKnight: Actually, I just visualize ball to target – not really my swing. You may feel like you are looking at yourself as you swing – but not before you swing – like visualizing my hands here or club there – you can get yourself in so much trouble by doing that – it just doesn’t work.

Schienberg: What do you do if a particular club isn’t working for you that day? Do you just forget it’s in your golf bag?

McKnight: Never did anything like that. I never guarded against using a particular club. Some clubs might have a tendency to hook more that others or cut more that others. Never avoid using a club. If you hit a bad shot, you hit a bad shot.

Schienberg: How did it go for you today?

McKnight: Not very good. I was even par.

Schienberg: Then you are still in the hunt.

McKnight: I got off to a bad start at 3 over and finished strong.

Schienberg: Is there someway you are thinking about your round tomorrow that might get you off to a better round?

McKnight: No. It’s just a matter of trying to be better focused. No matter where you hit it, just keep going and playing it and trying to do the best you can with it. It’s funny. I was just talking with Graham Marsh. We were going through the same conversation, he and I, and he shot two under today. We were talking about the mental aspects of it and how I can overcome some of the problems. I asked him for his opinions about a couple of things.

Schienberg: Did he have any good ideas?

McKnight: Oh yeah. He’s a seasoned veteran. He’s been around for a long time as a player. It is a good to pick up a tidbit of information about what’s troubling you.

Schienberg: Thank you for your time. Good luck tomorrow.

McKnight: You are welcome.

Flying is an equally if not more competitive sport, than golf. There are, I believe organizations that have used a sport psychologist between a Flying instructor and his student. Kindly comment, advise?

–
RESPONSE:
I came across a very relevant source of information regarding competitive flying and sport psychology. It is called “Flying Faster and Further.” It can be found by going to the following website address: http://www.gfa.org.au/Docs/sport/flyingfaster.pdf. Part I focuses on Extending the Basics of Cross Country Flying. It is an examination of the knowledge, skills and needs of the new pilot to enhance enjoyment of soaring and improving cross country performance. Part II looks at the physical requirements of competition flying as not being as great as the cerebral aspects of it.

Another source that might prove to be helpful is “The Psychology of Flight Training.” It is written by Ross Telfer and John Biggs, published by Iowa State University Press in 1988. A synopsis of the book is “The Psychology of Flight Training.” It clearly and concisely applies the psychologies of learning and instruction to the process of teaching people to fly, showing that both teaching and learning can be made more effective and efficient. The book promotes application of its principles to development of teaching methods best suited to each instructor’s own personality, students and flight situations.”

Good Luck,

Paul Schienberg, PhD

Editor/Publisher

With Paul Schienberg, PhD
The Commerce Bank Championship was played from June 27 – July 2 on the now prestigious Eisenhower Park. The public facility was the home of the 1926 PGA Championship with legendary Walter Hagan. After watching James Mason practice for an hour or so after his round of golf on Friday of the tournament, he chatted with me about his mental approach to golf.
James Mason became just the 8^th open qualifier in Championship Tour history to win a tournament when he triumphed at the NFL Golf Classic. He had competed in eight PGA Club Professional Championships, with a career best finish T-13 in 1997…was a teaching professional at the Orchard Country Club in Clarksville, GA…tied for fourth in the 2001 PGA Senior Club Professional Championship. In 11 tries in @002 he got into the Farmers Charity Classic and the NFL Golf Classic, which he won. He competed in the 1997 PGA Championship, 1973 Amateur U.S. Amateur, five BellSouth Classics, five Buick Southern Opens…winner, 1997, ’98, and 2000 Georgia PGA Section Player of the Year.S: In order to be able to perform well you have to have control of your mind and be able to control all the outside emotions you have in life. One of the things we are fighting most on our team and in classes.

Schienberg: Are these things you do mentally to prepare yourself for the round of golf?
Mason: What you want to do is get a decisive game plan…you know…how you are going to play…what are your goals for the 18 holes…what does the course offer you…where its weak spots are…where are the holes you’ve got to try to make par…where are the holes you’ve got to try to make birdie. This golf course here is a course you’ve just got to try to drive it…drive it straight. So, you need to work on your driver and you know that before you head into the round. The first hole is one of the key holes on the golf course. You need to get off to a good start and that’s probably the hardest par 4 on the course. So, mentally you’ve got to be ready to play. On any course, you’ve got easy holes and then some hard ones. But, the first and 18^th holes here are the 2 hardest par 4’s on the course; then, number 3 and 12 are relatively easy par 5’s intermixed with 8 and 9 with easy par 4’s. So, you’ve got a run in there from 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12 where you can make some birdies and, that’s, where you’ve got to try to make some on this course.

Schienberg: If a golf course, like you are describing here, is not perfectly suited for the strength of your game, then what do you do with the mental approach?
Mason: Well, out here on the Tour, all of us can hit the golf ball. So, I don’t know if you can call one suited or not suited. They are all suited for you if you can hit the golf ball. Sometimes you play better on some courses over other courses, and can’t explain it. This golf course is hard to make a lot of putts because of the subtle nature of the breaks. Everyone would say that. Mentally, at our level, you can walk up and down and see everyone hits them about the same way, but, I’m trying to get more mentally prepared. We all got snakes in our head and there are those players who can conquer them the best.

Schienberg: So, when you are talking about prepared, you are talking about knowing the course and knowing where you want to hit the next shot and where you want to go after that?
Mason: Most of the amateurs you play are trying not to hit it somewhere – not hit it right – not hit it left. We are trying to hit it someplace. Amateurs are trying not to hit it here or there. We (us pros) sometimes get caught in that rut as well. When that happens, I say to myself, “James, don’t hit it someplace” instead of saying – “try to hit it at a target.”

Schienberg: The game is being played so long now. The technology is so intense. So, you believe the technology has run ahead of us humans? Do you believe the technology has been over played?
Mason: The technology is overplayed. Does it help you? Does it help the lower handicap golfers?

Schienberg: Occasionally, I take out one of these large head golf drivers and hit it just right and the ball does go farther than hitting an older small head driver of mine just right.
Mason: Ok, I’ll agree. One of the biggest reason why some of those younger golfers hit it so far is the technology and matching the technology to you. The other reason is that the younger golfers are better physical specimens. Most of the senior players out here came from the era of being “feel” players. The amateur players, having grown up with the technology, develop more efficient swings, and are stronger, hit balls further with less accuracy.

Schienberg: Let me touch on one last area – yoga and golf. The benefits of yoga are balance, breathing, relaxing and stretching. Do you do anything yourself that helps in these areas?
Mason: I try to walk all the time – I do 5 or 10 minutes of trying to loosen up. In the off season, I need to do some yoga – need to stretch more because I find myself getting pretty stiff – like right now. I walked a round of golf and hit a lot of practice balls for about eight hours or so. It’s a hard way to make an easy living.

Schienberg: I thank you for time this afternoon.
Mason: Glad to do it.

You probably quite often feel pain while you train – what do you do then?

Psychologists use the notion of “pain coping”. It describes behaviors that people engage in when they are in pain (not necessarily sport-related) – it includes all efforts to minimize pain sensation or to change one’s attitude towards it, in other words it includes all means to endure pain. Specific actions (both internal, e.g. thoughts, and external, e.g. behavior) are called pain coping strategies. We all use these strategies, however some are used more often than the others. In addition, our choice of strategies is based on the type of pain, i.e. whether it was evoked by excessive training load (muscle pain) or injury (e.g. broken leg), whether it is weak or strong pain, etc.

In summary, the most often used pain coping strategies in athletic setting are:

• pain reduction ( – here and below stars signify the “popularity” of pain coping strategy) – this strategy encompasses behaviors like consulting a physician, use of medication, massage, special physical exercises, movements, relaxation of muscles, choice of a particular body posture, immobility of the painful body part, missing practice. All of these behaviors usually help to reduce pain and that is the first choice for athletes.
• positive self-instructions (), or positive thinking. That is athletes engage in thoughts that carry the idea “I can endure this pain”, “it will pass”, “it’s not that bad”, “it won’t prevent me from achieving my goals”. They also encourage themselves by saying “go!”, “keep on!”, “don’t stop!”. When they use this strategy, athletes feel they can do something about the pain and this is one of the most often used strategies.

• search for information () – it can be a talk with a coach or another competent person, an attempt to analyze what hurts and why. This strategy is important in a sense that it provides a necessary information and allows to understand pain better. Besides, following emotional reaction to the pain will also depend on the gathered information. For example, if an athlete during the rehabilitation after an injury feels pain, but was warned by the physician of the possibility of this kind of pain, it will be taken differently than in the case if athlete believes he should feel no pain at that stage of the rehabilitation. In the latter case it will probably evoke a great deal of anxiety (“something is wrong!”).
• goal-setting (). The use of this strategy means that athletes set themselves specific goals (e.g., I must finish the race) or they design a plan, what to do to endure the pain. This kind of goal-setting accelerates the process of rehabilitation.
• diversion of attention (). This strategy covers two aspects. Firstly, attention is diverted from the pain when an athlete engages in another activity, unrelated to sport. He can watch tv, listen to music, communicate with friends. Secondly, diversion of attention might mean focus on other things and sensations while exercising, e.g. thinking about something nice and pleasant, thinking of the fight or a race, disregarding the pain. Usually this kind of “tricks” takes place when the pain occurs during the competition and athlete needs to finish the course or the meet. When attention is diverted elsewhere, the sensation of pain seems decreased. The use of this strategy is reinforced by the observation that sometimes athletes notice an injury or painful body part only after they have finished competing. During the competition all attention is focused on performance-relevant cues and pain sensation is disregarded.
• reinterpretation of pain sensation () – this strategy means that an athlete pretends he doesn’t feel pain, he tells himself that what he feels is fatigue or something else, but not pain. Although this is an efficient strategy it is not very common among athletes (so, the recommendation would be to use this strategy more often)
• comparison () – when athletes use this strategy they remind themselves of the others who are in a worse position or of the times when they had been in worse situations themselves.
• resignation (). Sometimes this strategy is also called “catastrophizing”. The point is that an athlete doesn’t take any constructive actions, because he doesn’t believe he can change anything. Instead he might cry, might feel sorry for himself, or might think only about the pain. Usually these actions are accompanied by the negative thoughts (“this is the end of my athletic career”, “I will never recover”, “rehabilitation is not working”, etc.) and a will to withdraw (“what do I need this for?”, “I wish it all ended soon”). This strategy is considered “nonadaptive”, i.e. it doesn’t help to manage pain, instead it makes things worse (pain seems to increase). However, the good thing is that this strategy is seldom used by the athletes. If an athlete notices he uses this strategy rather often, he should consider its benefits and whether it shouldn’t be changed for the sake of more adaptive pain coping strategies.

Having read the descriptions of these pain coping strategies, you must have found something that fits you. However some of the strategies might seem alien. I would suggest you pay attention at the ways you manage your pain and maybe you will try some new strategies!

This article covers those strategies that athletes use intuitively, however pain can be managed by some specific strategies such as relaxation and visualization (imagery). It is true, however, that these strategies need to be learned and practiced in order to render results. Therefore they might be more useful when the pain is chronic and commonsense strategies are not working.
“Popularity“ of strategies in this article shows the frequency of their use by athletes. This popularity is rather conditional, it reflects the results from a few research. The popularity itself doesn’t show the usefulness or uselessness of a particular strategy. Some strategies (e.g. reinterpretation of pain sensation) are efficient in the management of pain, but they are rarely used by people because of their unfamiliarity.

Only “disturbed”, “weak”, “abnormal”, etc. athletes need psychological counseling. Sometimes I hear coaches’ or athletes’ comments that “mentally tough athletes manage problems themselves and that there’s no place in sports for the mentally weak athletes.” In some cases, an athlete would like to approach a psychologist, however he is afraid of what his coach and team/club mates would think of him, i.e. that they would think he is “psychologically weak” or “incapable of dealing with his problems himself.”

The truth is that psychology is a very broad notion. Although it is a rather new breed of science, during the last 100 years it has sustained a significant raise in branches – clinical psychology, organizational psychology, sport psychology, educational psychology, aviation psychology, war psychology and more. Each of these branches focuses on human behavior and experience in relevant situations.

For a time way too long we’d been hearing almost exceptionally about medicine psychology or clinical psychology and even more often than psychiatry. Therefore the first associations that come to mind for the word “psychology” are “remedy”, “psychotics”, “mentally disturbed” and similar. However, sport psychology has little to do with this! Sport psychologists’ primary focus is on “healthy” individuals… those athletes that do not have mental disorders. Sport aims at increasing human potential, not eliminating disorders. In other words, it looks at how athletes could be helped to fulfill their talents, make another step and improve their athletic performance.

In my personal opinion, no one is born “mentally tough”, but many become. Of course, some part of this process is played by the central nervous system and its qualities, by individual’s sensitivity. However most of the psychological features and skills are also trained and developed.

Psychological counseling/psychological preparation won’t make a difference. This attitude very often comes out indirectly, for example, when an athlete says: “we can try, it won’t get worse”. This saying reflects an expectation that changes probably won’t occur in the work with a psychologist. Unfortunately, there’s a high probability that without believing in the use of collaboration with a sport psychology counselor, a coach or an athlete will work less, will put in less effort which in turn will result in unessential changes which will “prove” once again how correct it was to believe that psychological counseling/preparation can’t bring in positive changes! And on the contrary – those who believe in the benefits of psychological counseling, try harder and really achieve desirable goals (e.g. learn how to deal with emotions under tense circumstances in competition, learn how to calm down when it’s critical to do so, etc.). This is known as self-fulfilling prophesy.

Psychologists are well aware of this phenomenon. It has been best reflected in the school research. In the beginning of the school year, school psychologists claimed they were making evaluations of pupils’ abilities. They would say who of the pupils were talented and who were not. The bottom line was that this judgment of whether a student was “talented” or not was totally accidental. It was not founded on the real evaluation of pupils’ abilities.

And guess what! After some time those, who were named “talented” really had better academic achievements than those who were assigned to the group of “not talented.” Why is that? It seems that teachers would pay more attention to those whom they thought to be more talented, they would let them answer more often, if those pupils were unsuccessful in some tasks, teachers would explain more patiently while they would “write off” those considered “not talented” although there were some even brighter pupils than those in the talented” group.

Another important thing to consider is that if psychological counseling or preparation is to be efficient, it needs to be of a high quality, that is, it needs to satisfy some requirements. One of the most important requirements is that psychological training be constant. Meeting with a counselor should take place regularly, however even that is not enough. An athlete himself should devote some time in every practice session and between them to advance his psychological skills, not just physical, technical or tactical aspects of athletic preparation. It is very common that during practice athletes are relaxed and behave, think or pay attention to other things than in the competition. No doubt, every practice can’t be tense – a human needs rest, jokes and so forth. However during practice it is very important to put one self into situations (at least by the means of visualization) that would resemble “competitive situations” in order to learn how to deal with them.

It is important to devote enough time for psychological preparation. Five minutes a week is not enough. If an athlete is working on some psychological skill (e.g. visualization), then specific psychological exercises can be done every day before, during and after practice where appropriate and it would take just 10—15 minutes overall. In addition, when a skill is acquired, a considerable attention should be paid at its maintained. To put it shortly, psychological preparation/skills training should be maintained throughout the athletic career.

One more thing that should be mentioned with regards to time guidelines is that one should not expect quick results. Coaches and athletes often mistakenly believe that they will contact sport psychology counselor right before the important meet and that he will teach how to deal with the tension. Unfortunately, learning how to adjust one’s pre-competitive state, how to relax in difficult situations and other psychological skills are trained which means they take time to be mastered.

Psychological counseling is efficient when it is oriented towards a particular athlete, his features, strengths and weaknesses. During psychological counseling answers to the questions like “what difficulties does this athlete face?”, “what are his strengths?”, how could he deal with his tensions?” are sought out.

Psychological counseling is required only by professional (elite) athletes. High performance athletes, who take part in high level competitions, definitely would make use of psychological counseling preparation. However, this kind of support is equally, and sometimes even more important for younger (lower performance) athletes. It is these athletes who often lack expertise, have less knowledge and skills to manage different sport-related emotional problems. Psychological skills training to development of most relevant characteristics for the particular sport is essential in the early stages of athlete’s career. This is when a good foundation is formed that later helps to aim at higher academic achievement.

Psychologist is not necessary, coach is enough. A coach is really a very important person in every athlete’s life and very often he takes the responsibility for athlete’s psychological preparation. I do believe that the most important thing is that athletes received qualitative psychological support and who provides it – it is a secondary question. However, I also believe that a sport psychology counselor might be of great help to a coach. A coach needs to have knowledge in a broad variety of area – specifics of the sport, principles of physical preparation, basics of sport medicine, management, psychology and so on. It is too hard to have an exceptionally good knowledge of every single area. Of course, a coach should know how to provide first medical aid to the athlete, but it’s hardly believable that he would heal the injury, instead an athlete would go to a physician. An analogy with psychology can be drawn here – a coach knows fundamentals of psychology, but a psychologist knows more. I do not mean to say that a psychologist should replace a coach. Instead, I would suggest imaging a coach as a team captain who has different professionals – physician, psychologist, physiotherapist, etc., on his team. And that is what makes a team unbeatable!

By Peter Guare

An athlete’s mental set is often the difference between success and failure. Mental imaging, affirmations, hypnosis and other techniques have been employed, often successfully, to reduce anxiety and encourage optimal sports performance. Recently a new technique has been added to the arsenal. Emotional Freedom Technique™, a system devised by Gary Craig, a Stanford engineer, uses tapping on acupressure meridians while focusing on key issues that might disrupt performance, to balance the body’s energy system and defuse these issues. The system, although somewhat strange by mainstream science standards, has a number of advantages. It is very fast. It has no side effects. It is painless. It is free. And it works. I have used it to eliminate an athlete’s cramps before a race, to break a basketball player out of a shooting slump in a pressure packed game, to improve the focus, flexibility and endurance of a prep school state championship pentathlon medalist (http://www.emofree.com/articles/performance-gold-medals.htm), and more. Rens Blom, the 2005 Men’s Pole Vault World Champion credits the technique with allowing him to overcome not only his doubts about himself but also the unfavorable weather conditions at the world championships that did in his opponents:

http://www.emofree.com/performance/performance-pole-vault.htm.

The system is very simple. First, you identify the problem that you want to deal with. It can be physical or mental. One of the ways I convince my clients of EFT’s effectiveness is to improve their flexibility without any stretching. The demonstration would go something like this. First I would have the clients close their eyes and twist their upper body to the left or right as far as they comfortably could without moving their feet. Then they would open their eyes to see how far they went. They would untwist, keeping their feet fixed. Next I would make the following statements and have the client repeat them while tapping with the pads of the index and middle fingers (either hand) on the appropriate locations. While tapping on the “Karate chop” point—the fleshy part of the hand below the little finger where one would strike a board to break it—I and the client would say “even though I have this tension in my back and legs, I love and accept myself completely.” We would do this three times. Then, while tapping about seven times on the following locations, we would say “tension in the back and legs.” The locations are:

1. on the beginning of the eyebrow near the bridge of the nose
2. on the cheekbone outside the eye
3. on the bone below the eye
4. between the nose and upper lip
5. between the lower lip and chin
6. inside the junction of the collarbone and the breastbone
7. on the side about four fingers down from the armpit
8. on the crown of the head

Where you have a choice you can use either right or left side.

Then the clients would repeat the twisting test. Almost invariably they can go farther, sometimes markedly so. Then we would move on to the problem at hand. First the client rates his subjective level of discomfort or concern on a 1-10 scale. We would then go through the same tapping procedure, substituting “my foul shooting is off” for “tension in the back and legs” for example. Then the client would take a breath and rate the issue again. If it is still present, but at a reduced level, we would repeat the procedure, substituting “remaining concern about my foul shooting” to reflect the change in perceived intensity. This is what is called “the Basic Recipe.” A skilled practitioner will frequently get more involved, perhaps alternating positive statements in the 8 point procedure, or refining the statements to concentrate on particular aspects of the problem, and there are extensions of the technique that are used when the Basic Recipe is not producing satisfactory results, but very frequently one or two rounds will have a decided effect. It is very important to BE SPECIFIC about the problem. With our pole vault world champion, we would treat the inclement weather separately from the self doubts. Frequently, a lack of success with the technique is due to being too general. With my foul shooting athlete, we went through both mechanical (my rotation is off) and mental (I get nervous when I have to shoot) aspects. Since the process is so quick, it’s better to be overly thorough than too general.

EFT is effective on a remarkable range of issues. I’ve used it for psychological trauma, food cravings, math anxiety, smoking cessation..the list is as long as my client roster. Give it a try and I’m sure you’ll be pleasantly surprised. After all, there’s no charge and you can do it in a minute or two. What could be better than having an edge like this in your pocket at your next competition?

About Peter Guare

B.S. Psychology, Union College, 1974
Winner, John Lewis March Prize
Nominated to Membership in Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Society
Awarded Fellowship to study Cognitive Psychology at the University of Connecticut, 1975-6

16 years as Head Coach in Track and Field at Scotia Glenville High School, 1987-2002
17 Team Sectional Champions, 10 Teams Runners Up
3 Teams finished #1 in scoring at the State Championships
Scotia Athletes won 10 individual and relay State Championships
4 Athletes finished Top Ten at the Indoor Track National Championships
4 other Athletes ranked #3 Nationally for 2003 in the Boys DMR
Scotia Athletes set Section II Records in Girls 2000m Steeplechase and Girls Pole Vault

Attended, by invitation, the first International Developmental USA Track and Field Sprint and Hurdle Camp (1998), Chaired by Brent McFarlane, Olympic Head Coach, Team Canada, Sydney 2000

Founded Human HyperFormance, 2003

Became certified in Optimal Breathing Development, 2004. One of six instructors worldwide to have trained at the third level.

Became level 2 certified in Meridian Flexibility, 2005

Earned status as EFT Advanced Practitioner, 2006

LAURYN WILLIAMS Career Highlights: 2005 World Outdoor 100m champion; 2005 World Outdoor 4×100 relay gold medalist; 2004 Olympic 100m silver medalist; 2004 NCAA 100m champion; 2003 Pan Am 100m and 4×100 relay gold medalist; 2002 World Junior gold medalist 100m, silver in 4×100 relay; 2002 U.S. Junior 100m champion.

Schienberg: You’re coming off a personal best in Bost at 7:13. How do you feel coming off that meet and coming into Millrose?
Williams: Very nervous last week. Being the first one out is always the hardest. You don’t know where you are even though your training has been going well. You think you are going to run fast but you don’t know what is going to happen when you step up to the line. My start was not as a great as I would like it to be and that’s what we worked on all week. If I get a better start, I’ll get another deal this week.

Schienberg: What is the 7/11 tee-shirt? What’s that about?
Williams: Anything under 11 seconds. Anytime I run under 11 seconds, I will donate $1000 to a female who has applied for a scholarship to my website. The tattoos on my left side are something else. I am donating the sales of the tattoos to my favorite charities.

P: Explain the charity work you did over the holidays in the Miami area.
LW: After the hurricanes, I saw people who needed help. Give $20,000 to families in the Miami area.

P: Tell us about the great field that you will be running against.
LW: It’s like the Olympics indoors. Very excited. It will take a 7.0 to win. I’ve never run Millrose.

It is the best meet in the country. I like indoor.
P: How is the training going?
LW: Very good. There are training days where you feel you can’t do it anymore and it’s not going well. Suck it up and keep going.

P: Do you use visual imaging in the training?
LW: Very little. I did do it in my junior year of college. I tried while I was running, in the blocks and so on. Then I did terribly and said I’m not doing visualization any more. Sometimes I close my eyes a little, but I don’t rely on it.

P: Is it all athletic?
LW: Yes. You can’t get it all out of your mind. It comes whether I want to or not.

P: Do you do anything besides practicing your running?
LW: I do dance. Nothing else.

P: Are there days you are more or less confident?
LW: Whatever your vibe is it is. If you have a negative attitude, it’s just the way it will be. But, mostly I’m concerned about my focus. Like if I notice someone in the stands with a red shirt on, I’m not focusing the way I should. It’s a done deal. Might as well not even get in the blocks because if my mind is over there, bad things are going to happen. Keep the focus on the blocks. One time I remember I was heading towards the blocks and I was thinking about the night before. Some guy had done something funny and I was laughing.