Feature Presentation

You've got textbook ground strokes and a serve your school teammates envy. You are in great physical condition and you follow a sound nutrition program. But when you get out on a tournament court, the noise of the crowd distracts you - you can't concentrate on your next move - your head feels dazed. You just hit the ball back, but your opponent controls the game. You feel even more pressure when you know your parents are in the crowd. Uhh! And when your coach is in a bad mood then you really have "butterflies" in your stomach.

Funny thing -- the last time you played, the umpire made some bad calls (twice in a row as a matter of fact) and your opponent was really obnoxious. You got ticked off; you were really, really mad! All of a sudden you weren't afraid any more, you had a surge of energy and fought back from 40-0. You not only won the set, you won the match. Looking back, you played better - but you know your angry behavior on the court was wrong. "Do I really have to get angry to get fired up?", you thought. "I don't think I want to (or could) do that every match." We may have a good understanding of how physical fitness and conditioning affect our performance but what about the mental and emotional side of the sport. How do you deal with the pressure?

To help us understand we spoke with world renowned sport psychologist, Dr. James E. Loehr, CEO and President of LGE Sport Science, Inc. We asked Jim to explain to us what mental toughness is and what we can learn from the science of sport psychology.

We started by asking Jim how he became interested in sport psychology. "Sports have always been a big part of my life. My father was a professional baseball player, and I started playing baseball when I was 3 years old. Like many young athletes, I felt pressured and thought that I might not meet other people's expectations (my father's in particular). I trained as a pitcher, but when I was 15 I injured my arm. That was the end of my "pitching career"! My father also played tennis, and I had started playing tennis when I was 12. Fortunately, that baseball injury did not affect my tennis game. I played tennis in school, in college, in the satellites and professionally for a short time; I also coached. I have three sons and my son, Jeff, is on the ATP Tour. I still play "Father/Son" tournaments when I can.

I was inspired by one of my Jesuit instructors (a Roman Catholic religious order) at Regis University, to study psychology (the science of the mind and behavior) and philosophy (the study of ethics, knowledge, beliefs, and logic) as an undergraduate. Subsequently, I specialized in counseling and perceptual psychology (a branch of psychology which deals with recognizing and interpreting information based on your memory) for my masters and doctoral degrees.

I became interested in sport psychology while I was the chief psychologist for a mental health institution in Colorado. Unrelated to my work at the facility, I was asked to work with an athlete. Since I had a background in sports and was an athlete, I could relate to the problems an athlete faces and as a psychologist the athlete could be assured our discussions would be kept confidential. The word got out and more athletes came to me for help. I decided to leave the institution and set up a sports psychology practice.

I resigned in front of the 21 member board of directors at the institution and explained I intended on working in sport psychology. They didn't believe me! They thought I was joking and really leaving to get a higher salary. So they doubled my salary right there in the meeting. But I told them, no, I was serious and was starting a practice in sports psychology."

What is sports psychology? "Its the application of psychological science to the performing athlete. Everyone understands that there is a "physical" component to performance. It's clear that you need the right techniques and skills in your respective sport. You need to be in the best physical condition possible and follow sound nutrition practices. But there is a mental and emotional side of competition as well. So sports psychology is the science of behavior and understanding how that affects athletic performance. Sports psychology deals with the mental and emotional side of competing."

"When people think of "psychology" it conjures up visions of psychiatric or Freudian analysis. (Psychiatry is the branch of medicine that deals with the treatment of mental and emotional disorders.) That's not the model used in sports psychology. We aren't dealing with individuals who have mental or emotion problems because of illness or disease. In sports psychology we generally deal with a normal healthy individual who wants to enhance their athletic performance under pressure. They want to reach their full potential as an athlete and need to learn some skills to reach optimal performance. We rarely deal with the athlete's background or some past crisis in their life."

"The early work in sport psychology was motivated by "politics". The Russian and eastern block countries wanted recognition of their Olympic athletes. They studied everything from the effects of drug usage in athletics, to biomechanics and how the mind functions during competition. They were successful and subsequently the United States began similar studies. Much of the early research in the United States was done by Drs. Tom Tutko and Bruce Ogilvie at San Jose State University in California during the 1950's and 60's."

"There are basically two tracks of study in sports psychology: one is in education and the other in psychology. Sports psychology is normally taught in physical education departments. As the field grew in the 1970's and 80's, every major school offering a psychology degree offered a specialty in sports psychology. One of the big differences between the two tracks is that to practice "sports psychology", you need to be licensed as a psychologist in your state and typically need a clinical or counseling psychology degree."

"I was the founding director of the sport science department for the U.S. Tennis Association and the director of sports psychology at the Bollettieri Tennis Academy. We know that your body, mind and emotions all interact. So we have learned that human performance is an interdisciplinary field (requiring the understanding of two or more distinct subjects). We know we can not improve performance in a vacuum focused on just psychology. We have to consider other aspects of sport science like nutrition, biomechanics, sports medicine, tactics and strategy. At the USTA, I worked with Drs. Ron Woods and Paul Roetert to develop a program that would seamlessly integrate all these aspects into one program."

"I've worked with over 200 top tennis players including Andre Agassi, Jim Courier, Mary Pierce, David Wheaton, Monica Seles, Martina Navratilova, Sergi Bruguera, Jana Novotna, and members of the Davis Cup Team. And the same strategies work in other sports, business and high pressure fields. We have worked with groups in law enforcement such as police "SWAT teams", to chess champions and even sumo wrestlers."

What does a sports psychologist do? How do you help someone? "First we determine what the problem is and what's really taking place. The idea is to get an accurate "big picture" of what is going on. Is the person nervous? Are there parental problems and pressures? Is the problem overtraining or too much time on the court? Are there dietary issues with food or drink? Does the athlete need more carbohydrates in their diet? Does the athlete have lapses in concentration? Are there emotional problems? Does the person have arousal problems? Are there team dynamics to consider? Can the person be coached? Many times we ask the athlete to show us videos of their performance so we can watch them in action and make an assessment."

"The solutions are just as varied and unique. We may evaluate the players pre-performance routines (rituals to prepare for the next play) or how they walk and carry themselves. The solutions can deal with developing strategies with parents, coaches, or even traveling with the athlete. We place all of these dimensions into a table and build a individual training program. Although each sport has its own set of mental skills, the exercises or tools used in mental toughness training are similar. Some examples are concentration, muscle relaxation (performance is negatively affected when your muscles are rigid and tight), breath control (you breath differently when you are calm versus when you are fearful), visualization (a method of performance rehearsal) and positive self-talk (encouraging yourself).

What types of pressures, challenges, and fears are common among different sports? "There are common problems in dealing with fear when there has been an injury. In a sport like hockey, there can be damage to the face or eye and players may have fears about returning to competition. In contact sports, there can be problems with physical abuse during play. Some sports like golf have a long length of time between shots. You can actually think too much, start having negative thoughts and lose your focus. Of course one of the most common problems is an athlete who plays below their abilities under pressure."

"Team sports have the dynamics of a group of players. There can be problems with the coach or the players "coachability". There also are common problems dealing with losing and sports ethics. Regardless of the sport, some athletes are immature, spoiled, and have frequent tantrums."

Tennis is one of the few sports where it is common to see very young players - teenagers - become professionals, face an opponent one-on-one, and earn a very great deal of money. In thinking about the national junior tennis players and some of the young pros, we discussed with Jim that this is a very early age to deal with so many things: competition, audiences, wealth, schedules, travel. Yet by time a player reaches adulthood and might be better equipped emotionally for competition your professional career could already be over.

"Today we see athletes in sports like gymnastics and figure skating competing at ages 10-12 years old. We also see very young competitors in soccer, skateboarding and windsurfing. Parents spending $30,000 a year for tennis training often have great expectations for the heavy financial investment they have made. Sometimes parents become overly involved and can negatively influence player performance and injure confidence. There's the added stress of school and grades and the time demand of the sport, travel and practice."

In a sport like tennis a young professional player can earn a tremendous amount of money. There are great opportunities, but they carry a great deal of emotional pressure on young players. Jim told us, "Very young athletes competing in professional sports or at the Olympic level have literally spent their entire lives training. When this relatively short period of their life is over it can be devastating. Their entire self-esteem and feelings of adequacy are based on their involvement in the sport. We strive to get balance in their lives, so whether they win or lose they feel self-worth, self-dignity, and know that they have done their best and can walk away from competition when it's time."

We asked Jim to describe mental fitness. "There are four key elements to "toughness": strength, flexibility, responsiveness and resilience. Each component has a mental, physical and an emotional aspect to it - it's not just mental toughness.

Strength: Mentally you have strong concentration skills. You are physically strong. You can resist buckling under great emotional pressure.

Flexibility: The more rigid you are (inflexible), the easier it is to be thrown off by your opponent. The more physically flexible you are, the better you are physiologically to compete.

Responsiveness: Toughness does not mean being hard or mean. Basketball great Michael Jordan is an example of a responsive athlete. Michael is alive and spirited. Responsiveness is a sign of healthy competitiveness.

Resilience refers to speed of recovery - mentally, emotionally and physically. Great competitors have a great capacity to handle failure with grace. They are able to bounce back from disappointments or mistakes and keep competing."

We asked, "Which emotion is the most damaging to performance?" "Surrender", he said without hesitation. "It's called "tanking" -- you stop trying. You don't perform well, because you don't perform at all, you've given up!"

Another form of tanking is "excuse making". You tell yourself that your poor performance was due to the weather conditions, your coach or parents being around, etc. Since you convince yourself that your loss was not really your fault, emotionally you don't care as much and you don't feel as bad about your performance. Not caring actually reduces some of the pain and nervousness of playing. That doesn't sound so bad, does it!!! Unfortunately, although tanking helps you cope with your nerves, it also stifles the amount of effort and energy you throw into your performance.

"The second most damaging emotion to performance would be anger. Your temper flares and your muscles become focused on the perceived threat." Anger can actually "fire you up", arouse and stimulate you to compete. But anger is a negative emotion and sports psychologists have proven that peak performance is generated by positive emotions.

Both tanking and anger are used by athletes to control fear or "choking". "John McEnroe is an example of someone who used anger to control his fear.", said Loehr.

There is a link between mental and physical performance. "Emotions cause biochemical changes in your body. The chemistry of fear causes muscles to tighten, when what you need to achieve peak performance is relaxed muscles." But choking is a normal human response, everyone is afraid sometime. What's important is to learn how to deal with fear. Coping with fear head-on demonstrates mental strength, while tanking and anger are two inappropriate methods of dealing with fear.

"Mentally tough athletes have a different response to stress. They are challenged and can mobilize all their talents in a positive way that creates enjoyment and fun."

The Tennis Sport Science team would like to thank Dr. Jim Loehr for this interview and his support of the project. As President and CEO of LGE Sport Science, Inc., Jim was one of the original individuals who wrote a letter of support when the project was first proposed to NASA.