Psychology Of Sports

I was asked by a Yale sports psychology student what two things would I say to an elite athlete. I responded that I would say the same thing that I would say to anyone –that you cannot go back a minute, and that if you have prepared yourself properly in advance then things should go well. Simple as that.

A left handed high school pitcher on Long Island throws 95mph, and he is going to be drafted as a horde of major league scouts follow him around this season. However, in his first start he lost which is not unusual for many drafted players or phenoms. However, everyone thought the other team had no shot. In addition, his team is picked to win the county championship–so how in the world did the other team win? Well–they needed to approach the game believing that they could win and of course look forward to the challenge of facing a future major leaguer. If you are fearful of facing such a pitcher or for that matter what appears to be an unbeatable foe–then you might as well not show up.

As the spring sports season begins there is one major rule of thumb that you should use when choosing a team or a sport you are going to play and that is–go where you are going to play. It makes no sense to be on a team where you get no playing time, unless you enjoy sitting on the bench or hanging out with your teamates. Also while you might decide to “play up”, that is play with older players to improve your skill level, you should only do so if you are going play. Otherwise, go to a team or a sport for that matter where you are going to receive a significant amount of playing time.

Unfortunately this is not sport. You have to wonder how we got this way, and what is wrong? Whatever we are doing to prevent crime is not working–ya think?

People ask me all the time why sports fans are so fanatical. There are many reasons why people start reading the newspaper from the backpage, get so wrapped up in their teams or scores, or do not know who their senator is. This is certainly one of them.

For the first time in U.S. history, more than one of every 100 adults is in jail or prison, according to a new report documenting America’s rank as the world’s No. 1 incarcerator. It urges states to curtail corrections spending by placing fewer low-risk offenders behind bars.

When you read the quotes below you have to wonder what planet Roger Clemens is living on. You take a job and with that job goes intense media scrutiny and then you want to carve out the pieces that only you want to do. I see this all the time in all professions. People take jobs and are told the job description, in Clemens’ case they literally see the job description, and then they choose the parts they like to do. In theory sounds good. In reality–another planet. No one is saying that a professional athlete has to like the media scrutiny and all that goes with it—but it is part of their jobs. Simple as that.

Funny, Clemens decided to press the issue with the public and Congress. It was his choice–now he wants all the eyes that are on him to go away?  I certainly can understand that, who wants it? He brought a good deal of it on himself. 

No wonder people think some athletes are pampered and spoiled. Nah they are just human.

From Newsday–Ken Davidoff

Roger Clemens ignored reporters when asked Wednesday afternoon about the news that Congress had asked the Justice Department to investigate him on perjury changes.

“Guys, the big team is up that way,” he said, pointing to where the major league team was working out.

Clemens arrived at Astros camp at 10:45 Wednesday morning, smiling, ready to resume his “personal-services” work for the Astros.

There’s a big-league team to the right, I think,” he said. “I’m not sure.”

“Wow,” Clemens contined, “you guys need to get a life.”

Asked if he would take questions after throwing batting practice to minor leaguers, Clemens said, “Nope. I did all I’m gonna do (Monday).”

Utilityman Scott Spiezio was cut by the St. Louis Cardinals on Wednesday, released after being charged in a six-count complaint involving drunken driving and assault in a December car crash.

Sad to read about this as a person is in trouble. But you have to wonder if he would have been cut if he was a big star.

From The New York Times–William C. Rhoden

In the bizarre, Alice-in-Wonderland world of the N.C.A.A., where up is often down, athletes are told that they are “regular students” but are treated as anything but. They are commodities who facilitate a semiprofessional on-campus entertainment industry. Through lucrative television contracts and sponsor partnerships, football and basketball finance the N.C.A.A. headquarters and an enforcement staff that polices overzealous coaches and keeps players in their place.

Nothing that we do not know—just something that we do not want to acknowledge.  Both football and basketball do not have minor leagues systems like baseball.  Their (football and basketball) minor league system is college. And right behind it high school. 

Highlands Ranch, a 9-year-old boy has special tutors in baseball, basketball and football and a certified athletic trainer who videotapes his workouts. In Bradenton, Fla., a Broomfield teenager practices basketball five hours a day at a sports factory that produces pro and Olympic stars.In Littleton, two dozen youngsters start the school day with a 90-minute soccer class, part of the experimental curriculum at Jefferson County’s first charter school.In Thornton, a mother downloads the computerized results of a novel test that has measured her daughter’s potential in 43 sports. And in Monument, a father writes a $2,500 check to a company that will scour the nation for a college scholarship for his daughter.Welcome to the high-tech, hypercompetitive world of children’s sports, a bustling subculture where time-starved parents chauffeur their booked-up children from one activity to another, spend thousands of dollars a year chasing often elusive dreams and sacrifice their own social lives for child’s play.

The Above is From The Rocky Mountain News– From The Year 2000.

Not much has changed from seven years ago in fact things have probably ramped up a bit.  I have been to so many places that give private baseball lessons, watched thousands of kids getting lessons, been told by hundreds of parents that their kids are taking lessons, that if I had a dollar for all of these my fortune with rival Bloomberg’s.  Actually I am a proponent of kids taking lessons for a number of reasons which I will address in another posting.

Along with the lessons high school sports has also been a growing industry. I like to call it an introduction to professional sports at the high school level.  You have kids coming home from practices and games at midnight.  I have found this is not a good time for a kid to do his homework, or study. But it is what it is-and once again it is what we have created.  It is bigger than what I can control and effect so I try and navigate it. 

It is no mistake that kids drop out of sports at age 13 and from what I see and read obesity is on the rise.  Now there are many more reasons for this drop-out rate and the scale going up other than the ones listed above.  But make no mistake about it, when you need to take lessons, try out for highly competitive school teams and pay huge sums to play on travel teams that go to Australia it can be daunting for parents and kids alike. And the  funny part about it, it is that after you pay you are not guaranteed that your child will play.

We need to have a strong two tiered system. There is nothing the matter with having serious competitive teams in youth sport, it is just at what age and when. However, we need places where kids can play well into their teens without having to be on a team. Schools need to stay open in the evenings and offer this for the kids. Towns need to have strong intra-mural programs that cater to the recreational athlete and we need to make our playgrounds places for kids to meet and play games.  This is just the beginning of an overhaul that is needed in the system.

Winning changes so many things for both players and fans alike. Even coaches lives are drastically changed. The whole psychological landscape around the Giants and their entire organization has changed. See below.

From The New York Times Written By Tom Branch

The victory has redefined the 61-year-old Coughlin, the way it does any coach who wins a championship after so many years of trying. Coughlin, saying that it is “a very select group,” is one of only six current head coaches who can brag of leading a team to a Super Bowl victory.

“The perception of you does change,” Tony Dungy, the Colts coach who won his first Super Bowl in 2007, said Friday. “People are going to think that because you win, that now you have the answer. Now some of the things that you say do work.”

It has already happened to Coughlin. Against the backdrop of the scouting combine and the coming draft, reporters peppered him about the best way to nurture a young quarterback, given Coughlin’s success with Eli Manning.

The queries served as a jarring indication of how quickly things change. Before the Giants began one of the greatest playoff runs in league history — three road victories and a Super Bowl win over an undefeated team — the questions about Manning were far tougher, and usually centered on Coughlin’s inability to mold him into a consistent quarterback, never mind a championship one.

But now Coughlin is atop his profession, and even his peers said that the perception had changed.

“Championships define players, they define coaches,” Vikings Coach Brad Childress said. “I don’t think there is any question it changes the way you’re looked at.”

Coughlin enjoyed the warm reception, especially since championship teams

Jeter said he was flattered by A-Rod’s comment on Thursday but said: “I don’t even think about it. I have to be honest with you guys. Man, I’d much rather win. That’s the bottom line. I’ve said time and time again, you play to win. You always want to do well, because the better you do, the better the team will be. But the bottom line from Day 1 is whatever we can do to win.”

I can post a million of these quotes from players in every sport.  I just read this one, all they care about is winning.