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
PSYCHOLOGY GO!