Get your Head in the Game
· This article is to be published in a sports magazine, such as Sports Illustrated. It is directed to Athletes aged 15 and up.
Your palms are sweaty, your heart is thumping, your head is spinning, and you’re standing on the free throw line about to shoot the winning free throw. The team is relying on you; it’s come all the way down to the end. You gaze around, the whole stadium is silent and all eyes are on you. The referee gives you the ball and all you can think about is not throwing up. You take the shot. The same shot you have had to take a thousand times. The buzzer goes off, the game is over, you lose, your shot was a failure and everybody is mad. You can’t help but feel responsible for the loss and you can’t seem to understand why your mind could only think about throwing up. Scenario’s like these or similar occur all over the world to 50 percent of athletes and athletic teams. So what’s the answer? Dr Ashwin Patel, Ph.D. (Assistant Professor of Exercise and Sport Science at Western State) believes Sport Psychology is it.
Sport Psychology is the study of the mental aspects that affect an athlete’s performance and implementing actions that may help the athlete to overcome these mental problems. The field of Sport Psychology is a field Patel is passionate about. Patel is a previous athlete who like many of us has had mental problems when it comes to participating in the sport we love. Dr Patel grew up playing hockey and noticed throughout his career that his performance didn’t quite reach peak potential because of the mind games he played with himself. It is from this perspective that Dr Patel realized he wanted to be involved in Sport Psychology. “I realized in high school that I wanted to study Psychology and by about my third year at university I knew I wanted to study Sport Psychology”. Dr Patel studied at the Guelph University in Canada, a university he describes as “quite prestigious”. Patel graduated in 1999 and from there went to work at the University of Tennessee.
Patel describes working at Tennessee, “It was a great experience, a little intimidating walking down the hallway though and passing by Pat Summit (the woman’s head basketball coach). Unfortunately I was not aloud to work with the athletes at the university because of their rules”. Dr Patel came to Western State College at the beginning of the 2008 school year. “I liked the job description, it was more about teaching than research and teaching is my passion”.
Dr Patel has obviously had many experiences with athletes and he describes his best experience as, “I was giving a presentation to a group of athletes that I wasn’t properly prepared for. After my presentation an individual called me on it”. Patel realized that if he wanted the athletes to bring their best game to the table he had to bring his as well. “It was a great learning experience for me”. Unfortunately as with all jobs there are some not so rosy moments. Patel said the worst moments in his profession are when, “ athletes come to me with eating disorders, or they have had sexual abuse, or they tell me they hate their sport because of the coach and want to get as far a way from it as possible, those stories are sad and its hard not to get emotionally involved”.
According to Nick Galli (a sport psychologist from AASP), “the mainstream public is more aware of sport psychology now than ever before. This is probably due to a combination of reasons, including more media coverage centered on competitive sports, and an increase in the dissemination of sport psychology research and practice”. Along with more awareness there comes some negativity. In a recent case in Wichita Kansas the St John High School boy’s basketball team underwent hypnotism. Beccy Tanner reported that, “Most team members underwent two 45-minute sessions last week to increase their concentration and focus. It’s not clear what happened during the sessions; the therapist who led them wouldn’t say, and the coach did not return phone calls”. The school board stopped the sessions and concluded that “hypnotizing students perhaps sends the wrong message to students and surrounding schools”, said Kenworthy (school principal), who has requested a transcript of the sessions. Scott Ward, a sports psychologist with the University of Kansas, said hypnosis is not believed to be that effective in sports.”When I think of hypnotism I think of someone going into a comedy club and being hypnotized to cluck like a chicken,” Ward said. “It’s not used in sports with the leading athletes. On the other hand, visualization and imagery techniques frequently are used. The premise of sports psychology is to give power to the athlete and have them getting more confident and motivated using the tools they have within themselves,” Ward said. “But really, when was the last time you saw Kobe Bryant or Peyton Manning stick their finger to the palm of their hand to get ready for the next play? I do not believe or encourage anybody to use hypnotism”. Sport Psychologist Nick A. Galli believes that, “high-level and elite-level athletes are looking for any edge that they can get against their competition. At the upper levels of sport, there are very few physical differences between athletes, so those athletes that are mentally tougher than the rest are usually the ones who earn the “gold,” the “title,” or the “#1 ranking.” As the stakes have become higher in high-level college and professional sports over the past twenty years, athletes have really come to see the importance of training their mental game as well as their physical and technical game. This has had a trickle down effect to lower levels of sport. If youth athletes learn that the top athletes in their sport are using a sport psychologist, they’re more likely to want to use one as well. Perhaps more importantly, if the parents of youth athletes see that top athletes are using a sport psychologist, they are more likely to seek one out for their son or daughter. It’s all about gaining that edge”.
Dr Patel believes that you can not go too far in Sport Psychology; however he did say that, “individuals sometimes take on jobs they are not qualified for and are not ready to take on”. There are many excellent Sport Psychologists out there however there are also some that get a little to egotistic and take on tasks that they are not properly trained in.
So what do athletes think about all the commotion of Sport Psychology? Basketball athlete Sarah Martinez when asked if Sport Psychology was beneficial stated, “Well yes considering it is said to believe that basketball is 80% mental and 20% physical. It’s a great topic”. Camille Arnold, a swimming instructor at Western Pool, remembers listening to Sport Psychologists talk at swim camps but not utilizing the information till later on in her life. “I remember being at swim camps and them (sport psychologists) saying stuff, but I was like whatever let’s swim, now that I’m older I realize the benefits it can provide for me and my sport. I think it is good for high school athletes and college, but not younger athletes because they are just learning the fundamentals of the game they don’t understand the mental game”. Dr Patel has worked with the many athletes on the Western Campus including those in the men’s basketball team. One athlete on that team commented, “Patel is a legend the information he brings us is really insightful and beneficial to my game”. From a coaches perspective sport psychology is also beneficial, assistant woman’s basketball coach Chris Trammell said, “There are so many mental parts of sport and if sport psychology can help athletes overcome their mental battles then it is a great thing”. So the verdict is in Sport Psychology is a beneficial activity that athletes should partake in to overcome their mental problems with sport and to gain an edge on their competitors. Because really who wants to be on the 50 % athletes and teams that lose? -30-
Western State Writers Spring 2009 