june-2012

Mind
games
Sports psychology has become a
vast industry. But what does it actually do,
wonders Jane Szita
“The difference between a gold medal and fi nishing
fourth comes down to the six inches between your ears,” says
sports psychology professor Ian Maynard, of Sheffi eld Hallam
University in the UK.
“Th ese days, there’s little to choose between the top athletes
of any sport in terms of preparation, skill or talent,” he says.
“Meanwhile the pressures are enormous, and how they cope
with them is key. It’s mentality that decides who wins.”
This perception has driven the rapid development of sports
psychology, a profession born in 1938 when psychologist
Coleman Griffi th arrived at baseball team the Chicago Cubs.
Hired by its forward-thinking owner, he was bitterly resented by
the coaches, who constantly tried to obstruct the ‘headshrinker’.
Times have changed since Griffi th’s day, helped by success
stories like that of Tiger Woods, who early in his career worked
with psychologist Jay Brunza, using hypnosis and subliminal
messages. “My mind is my biggest asset,” Woods said at the
height of his career. “I expect to win every tournament I play.”
Today, Maynard estimates that 2,000 universities off er
degrees in sports psychology, and there are 6,000 professionals
worldwide. Th e methods they use vary, but typically include
positive thinking, visualisation and relaxation techniques.
British sports psychologist Martin Perry describes his role as
“getting people to perform the best they can.” He talks of helping
golfers conquer the dreaded ‘yips’ – involuntary jitters caused by
“trying to control the club too much” – and supporting
trampolinists, gymnasts and divers suff ering from ‘lost move
syndrome’, in which sudden blackouts play havoc with a wellrehearsed
routine.
38 Holland Herald
ILLUSTRATIONS: DRAGON 76/DUTCH UNCLE
“Oft en, athletes can be on the point of giving up their sport
when they come to me,” says Perry. “You have to work hard to
develop their confi dence so they can start again.”
But sports psychologists say they can boost performance even
where nothing is ostensibly wrong. “Athletes perform best when
they are in ‘the zone’,” explains Slovenian tennis psychologist
Tomaz Mencinger. “In the zone, the mind is clear and free of
emotion, and the player has a relaxed intensity. If the level of
arousal is too high, the body will tense up; if it’s too low,
concentration will be lost.”
According to Mencinger, “Th e ultimate goal of sport
psychology is almost unattainable – the acceptance of
everything that happens to achieve the calm, Zen-like state in
which you play your best.” Success is not so much all in the
mind, then, as in not letting the mind get in the way.
Sports psychology, says the tennis psychologist, can be either
“a short-term fi x, dealing with symptoms like anger or
frustration,” or “a long-term treatment of the negative beliefs
that are usually the underlying causes.”
He cites the case of a leading young player who kept losing
matches in the fi nal stages. It emerged that he felt sorry for his
opponent. “We had to work on getting him to realise that he was
not responsible for his opponent’s feelings,” Mencinger recalls.
Behind the work of ‘applied’ sports psychologists like
Mencinger, there is a raft of supporting research by academics
like Gert-Jan Pepping of Groningen University, Th e Netherlands.
“Negative emotions impair performance,” he says, explaining
his research in football. “And emotions are contagious. So how
do you induce positive ones?” One way is by celebrating