Author David Kauss looks at how athletic performance fits into your own life experience. His "total athlete" system takes into account your internal strengths and weaknesses instead of applying a predefined set of mental training exercises.
Fortunately, with the love of his family and the support of a few close friends, Rod knew even as a youth that there was nothing abnormal about any of this. He simply wanted to be able to see what his role in life was going to be. Unlike many of his peers, he didn't lie awake nights dreaming of a career in pro sports. Even after his burst of physical development that turned him into a professional-caliber athlete sometime during college, Rod didn't really see himself that way. As is often the case, Rod's overall sense of himself developed early and resisted change. It was hard for him to accept any new, more objective appraisal of his abilities based on later growth.
He read books on psych-up techniques and tried to think his way toward an assassin's mentality. He tried to get in touch with whatever rage might be hidden within him, so he could let it loose on the playing field. He tried putting on his game face' for days before a game, not talking to anyone, scowling when he could muster it, generally trying to feel like "bad ass," as one of his college teammates had put it. He tried banging his helmet on his leg until it hurt, to give him something to fight about. He tried playing on a particularly cold day without sweats under his uniform, to see if near frostbite would make him meaner.
On the other hand, he was providing handsomely for his young family. His contract was up this year, so a strong performance--a year full of teeth-rattling hits and devastated opponents--would pay off with a long-term contract well beyond the one he had signed out of college.
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A member of the American Psychological Association, Kauss is also an associate professor of psychology at UCLA. He received his BA from Harvard University and his doctorate in clinical psychology from UCLA.
Even the most physically gifted athletes struggle in competition when they lose control over their thoughts and emotions. Mastering Your Inner Game arms you with the tools to understand, manage, and maximize your mental and emotional forces, factors that often determine whether you're an all-star and or an "also-ran."
Like a lottery winner whose new financial status has yet to sink in, Rod had become an NFL starting linebacker, but his head was still full of memories of awkwardness, his heart still basically wanting to be liked. Recognizing that knocking running backs senseless was required by his sport but didn't come naturally to him, Rod tried whatever his coaches suggested to get fired up. He really concentrated at the pre-game pep talks. He watched videotapes of great players, especially their hits. In school, he hung out with the guys on the team who were always getting into trouble, because they were the ones who really seemed to enjoy decking someone on the other team. None of their attitude rubbed off.
So Rod came to see me and asked for something that many football players have asked for over the years: "Make me a killer." In Rod's case, he meant within the rules, and just on the field. Neither of us wanted to toughen him to a point where he might caress his family any less lovingly than before. We agreed that this was a tall order, and a far cry from the typical anxiety-management and confidence-building exercises that address the psychological needs of most competitors.
Mastering Your Inner Game: Part 2
None of this worked. Rod had little rage in him, certainly nothing to be unleashed on another player who happened to be wearing different colors that day. Eventually, he told himself that hating the other guy was not going to be his way. By his third pro year, he also realized that much of his energy for the fight was actually coming from fear: fear of embarrassing himself, fear of letting his team down, and especially fear of injury. As he matured, as he held his child and thought about the baby to come, playing out of fear seemed less and less a viable way of life. He had already proven he could make the grade in the exalted NFL. He did not have to choose to be afraid. He could quit.
By elementary school, a boy usually knows if his body will give him an advantage over others. But Rod was a late developer, both physically and cognitively. As a young child, he had no apparent advantages in sports. Though he was blessed with exceptional size as he grew, he was gawky and uncoordinated. For many years he played sports with little confidence. By comparison, during the same developmental years most of his future NFL colleagues were superior to their playmates in size, speed, and coordination. While they were learning to deliver the hits, to take the ball away, to run past defenders for a touchdown, Rod was struggling to make his body work for him on the playing field.
David R. Kauss, PhD, has been practicing psychology since 1978, but he began his psychological consulting work with athletes and coaches--including the UCLA football and baseball teams--four years earlier. In his role as a consultant, Kauss has provided performance-enhancement training to athletes and coaches at the elite and professional levels. He wrote about his early work with athletes in his first book, Peak Performance.
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