Winning Head Games

Winning Head Games; Athletes Train More Than Bodies

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel - November 28, 2005

Many of us marvel when a top baseball player uses superior hand- eye coordination to drive a ball out of the park, when a defensive lineman's great strength enables him to push his way through blockers to the quarterback, or when a slashing basketball guard twists and turns in mid-flight on a drive to the basket.

Athletes' physical skills are measured, analyzed and applauded, but less attention is paid to athletes' mental skills.

The great ones say afterward that they were "in the zone" or "mentally prepared."

Steven Ungerleider knows. He's a sports psychologist in Oregon who has "mentally trained" countless athletes at the amateur, professional and Olympic levels and has written extensively on the subject. He knows what separates the great athletes from the good ones.

"What breaks out a very unique performance from a terrific performance is the mental preparation, the mental training, the visualization. It could be seeing the game better, or visualizing the game ahead of time, seeing the field, seeing the opponents. That makes the difference," he said.

In the Olympics, many athletes reach a certain threshold at which they are in the top five of their sports, Ungerleider said.

"They all train hard, they all do their cardio, they put their hours in," he said. "But when it comes to game day or Olympic trials, you'll have breakout athletes who have breakout performances."

They do that, Ungerleider said, because the athletes were mentally prepared and could see themselves succeeding. "Those are the ones who say: Gee, I was just in my zone and so relaxed. Everything came together,' " he said.

For Ungerleider and other proponents, visualization means making a mental blueprint of an event.

Ungerleider's book, "Mental Training for Peak Performance," argues that mental conditioning, focus and toughness are skills that can be learned, no matter whether the sport is football, marathon running or tennis.

Greater acceptance

According to Ungerleider and Jack Curtis, a University of Wisconsin-La Crosse mental skills coach, the smarter sports teams and coaches are buying into the process.

Ungerleider remembered that during the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, many thought what he preached was more akin to voodoo.

"I had athletes coming to see me with a problem," he recalled. "I would ask them if their coach knew they were with me, and they would look horrified. I would laugh, but I was impressed that the kids were willing to go out on their own and understand they needed help."

Times have changed for the better, though Ungerleider said, "We're still not out of the closet."

He said: "A lot of professional teams, the National Football League, the National Basketball Association, use psychologists and have them on staff on a regular basis. The NCAA uses them way more than ever before."

Curtis, a professor emeritus of health education and health promotion at La Crosse, has worked with the Milwaukee Brewers, the Seattle Mariners and the Boston Red Sox. He stressed that he is not a sports psychologist.

"I'm just a dumb old former coach," he said. "My role is to get to know a person well, find out what makes them tick and determine what barriers they have put in front of themselves. I want to improve the consistency of their performances; the power of mind and attitude."

Vinny Rottino, a minor-league infielder in the Brewers' organization and a Racine native, is a believer. Rottino took a class from Curtis at La Crosse and began to meet with him.

"Basically we set up some goals that I set for myself, short term and long term," Rottino said. "In his program, a vital part is reading those goals and planting those seeds in your head.

"From there, the next step is relaxation. And from there, you go to working on visualization."

Overcoming obstacles

Curtis, whose most recent work is with the Mariners, said players generally wanted to be more positive in their approach to the game, and to understand how to deal with failure.

"I try to help them focus better, how to concentrate better, and how to relax," Curtis said. "And how to slow the game down.

"It's about overcoming obstacles."

Besides the Brewers, the Milwaukee Bucks have employed a sports psychologist or mental skills coach to work with their players.

In Green Bay, Betsy Mitchell, a licensed psychotherapist, has been the Packers' player/staff development consultant since 1993. According to a Packers spokesman, Mitchell works with the team on professional development and works with "players and coaches in promoting peak individual and team performance, as well as assisting in managing on- and off-field matters."

Defensive end Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila said Mitchell, who declined a request for an interview, was a big help to him personally and professionally.

"She's somebody you can talk to and relate to," said Gbaja- Biamila, who called Mitchell a friend. "She allows you to see yourself in a positive light. She gives you techniques to refocus."

For Gbaja-Biamila, distractions are the biggest impediment to success distractions from other players, coaches, friends and family that can get in the way of a successful performance.

"Sometimes I may get distracted with a technique, and I want to make sure I'm going to play a good game," he said. "She's an advocate for helping you."

Gbaja-Biamila said he assumed that other team members worked with Mitchell.

"It's very helpful," he said. "This game is 90 percent mental, and I really believe that. It's easy to lose focus, and once you lose it, it doesn't matter what your body can do, it's what your mind can do."

Mark Guthrie, the longtime coach of the men's track and field team at UW-La Crosse, knows firsthand what mental training can do.

"The mind cannot tell the difference between real practice and mental practice or subconscious practice," Guthrie wrote in an e- mail. "However, when doing mental practice, if you visualize it correctly, you can have hundreds of perfect repetitions."

Visualization allows athletes to rehearse situations, positive and negative.

"This allows for a comfort zone' when in stressful situations, thereby allowing the athlete to focus on the task at hand," he said.

Guthrie pointed to his prize pupil, Olympic gold medalist Andrew Rock. A UW-La Crosse graduate, Rock was second in the world 400- meter dash championship last summer in Helsinki, Finland.

Rock had set a goal of running 44.35 seconds.

"Jack (Curtis) worked with him in visualizing this goal on a daily basis along with his physical workouts," Guthrie said. "He finished second and ran exactly 44.35."

Back to News