The Super Mental Training Book (38 page)

The other Soviet athlete I interviewed was Janis Donins. In 1971 Donins was the number two javelin thrower in the world, with an official mark of 293 feet. A member of the Soviet Olympic team, Donins ran into trouble with the authorities when he married an American girl. In 1975 he was allowed to emigrate, and settled in California, working as a sports consultant. This changed circumstance in Donins' life eliminated any reluctance he might have had in discussing certain subjects. Being a free man, he could say whatever he wanted.

Donins expressed keen interest in my mental training book project, especially because during his competitive days he had learned yoga on his own. He almost regretted not being able to confirm any of the stories about all the Soviet Olympic athletes supposedly using hypnosis. As far as he knew, up to 1975 such reports were myths; of course, he added, the situation may have changed since then. Despite not being able to lend weight to the reports, Donins realizes that hypnosis can greatly help most athletes; for this reason he would like to see widespread practice of this mental discipline by sports participants..

In the interview Donins cleared up many misconceptions about Soviet athletes, and I found his remarks quite enlightening. What Donins said is not necessarily the final word on what mental training, if any, Soviet Olympic athletes underwent during the 1970s, but it is a definitive commentary.

The Janis Donins Interview — February 26, 1979

Bob Stevenson: William Kroger, in his book Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, says there's an institute in Kharkov which conducts classes for coaches on psychological techniques. Supposedly, these psychological techniques are to be taught to Soviet athletes for use in the 1980 Olympics. Do you know anything about this institute?

Janis Donins: As far I know, I never heard about such an institute. Maybe this institute has recently established this course; but, up to 1975 I didn't hear about such an institute.

Stevenson: So, you probably did not hear about what Kroger states about these psychological techniques: they were first employed on the Soviet bicycling team with great success during the 1972 Olympic Games—the bicycling team winning a gold medal.

Donins: It could have been applied for the bicycling team. But, I was on the track and field team then. They didn't have such an experiment made on us.

Stevenson: You weren't aware of any psychological techniques the bicycling team used?

Donins: No.

Stevenson: Well, Russ Knipp, in my interview with him, said that David Rigert practices self-hypnosis all the time. What do you know about Rigert using self-hypnosis?

Donins: Well, I would say weightlifting certainly requires a particular degree of concentration for one whole movement. I wouldn't be surprised if guys did certain research in this area, and that David Rigert used some type of self-hypnosis.

Stevenson: Knipp claims that every Russian Olympic athlete takes classes in hypnosis.

Donins: (Chuckles) I would say, without offending Russ, with me, former Olympic team member, I never ever heard about such classes.

Stevenson: As I understand it, you were once #2 in the world in the javelin—in 1971. And, you were active in the Soviet track and field program up to 1975.

Donins: Yes, and I constantly participated in almost all nations' track clinics and training camps. I must say I really didn't hear particular emphasis on hypnosis or self-hypnosis. As far as I know, those approaches, if they were used, were employed and developed by individual athletes.

Stevenson: You mentioned that during your competitive days you practiced yoga.

Donins: Right. I tried yoga without a very definite purpose. I was appealed by certain aspects of yoga, like breathing. I considered breathing one of the most important functions. I felt I needed to develop some degree of self-awareness. I read in books I found myself—nobody gave me those books—that right breathing helps to develop certain self-control and relaxation degree. I thought it would be helpful in my athletic activities.

Stevenson: Was it helpful?

Donins: It was helpful because at certain times I had to relax, taking into consideration the fact that the workouts were very strenuous. I discovered that no massage or other things helped me very much to relax.

Stevenson: Did your distances improve during this period?

Donins: I wouldn't say my distances improved just because of yoga; but, perhaps. Somehow— accidentally maybe—it gave some kind of input, because it helped me to develop a certain amount of self-awareness.

Stevenson: Authors Henry Gris and William Dick, in The New Soviet Psychic Discoveries, talk about a Dr. Pavel Bui, a Leningrad hypnotist at the Pavlov Medical Institute. He's worked with a boxer, giving him hypnotic suggestions. Are you familiar with Dr. Bui and his work?

Donins: I'm not familiar with Bui's works; but, I could assume that in some physical educational institute or university there have been done some experiments. But, I don't believe they were done with the top athletes, with the Olympic team athletes. Maybe there are some researchers working with average athletes who have done certain experiments. But, as far as I know, it's not yet been applied for the world class athletes. Maybe for the bicycle team some kind of hypnosis was used; but, was it the main reason why they won those Olympic gold medals? I would allow myself doubt. But certainly, it could be very helpful.

Stevenson: I talked to Alex Metreveli. He claimed he knew nothing about hypnosis as far as his own use, and also other Soviet athletes using it. Is hypnosis a subject Soviet athletes are permitted to discuss with foreigners?

Donins: Certainly they can discuss with foreigners this kind of experience if they had it; and, they can discuss it if it's not (chuckles) "top secret" for this particular athlete, or if he feels it's not something forbidden. Basically, Soviet athletes don't have anything to hide. There are exchange programs, and these athletes are well known around the world. I would say Eastern European athletes—except East Germans—are usually very open. I know that Finnish and Soviet athletes, we had many meetings together. We talked about different types of workouts—not only talked, we argued, tried to prove our points. This was very helpful in the long run.

Stevenson: You've been to the U.S. Olympic Training Camp in Colorado Springs and witnessed an autogenic training session, which is similar to self-hypnosis. Could you tell us about that?

Donins: I saw certain attempts to explain to athletes how they could handle themselves in psychological aspects, how a psychological approach could be helpful in improving their results. It's a good idea that, at last, people here are paying attention to certain hidden powers, and utilizing their training period better than just having actual workout. Actual workout is not the only thing. There should be some insight of self.

Stevenson: Do you think that the autogenic training session was helpful?

Donins: For the athletes who never heard about such things like that, certainly it was helpful. The athletes should have such types of lectures and discussions, and they should be applied practically. They should be applied practically, not just only one day, but they should be applied continually, every day.

Stevenson: In other words, athletes should use autogenic training or self-hypnosis for workouts.

Donins: They should use it regularly. And then it would bring some kind of results. It doesn't happen overnight.

Janis Donins' testimony shows that through the mid-1970s no "mental training gap" could be said to exist which favored Soviet track and field athletes over their U.S. counterparts. Nonetheless, the 1980s, perhaps for better reasons, saw no let-up in charges that an overall "mental training gap" existed. For example, Dr. Gregory Raiport, a sports psychologist who worked with the 1976 Soviet Olympic team before defecting to the U.S. in 1977, stated this in 1984 to the press: "The United States is way behind the Soviet Union; people know very little about sports psychology in the U.S.A. Athletes are not well educated and coaches resist it."[34] Explaining why, in his opinion, the U.S. was "way behind" the USSR in the area of sports psychology, Dr. Raiport continued, "I think ignorance is the main reason. They (the U.S. coaches) think, erroneously, that I am a challenge to them, that I'd go over their heads. I'm here to help the coach."[35]

Dr. Yessis echoes Dr. Raiport's sentiments, and estimates that in the area of applied sports psychology the U.S. remains seven years behind the Soviet Union. In a 1983 interview with Beth Ann Krier of the LA. Times Dr. Yessis observed, "What they (the Soviets) are doing at this moment with their top athletes you'll never find out, but it will be published in a couple of years. But we're still five years behind what we read about."[36] The question that arises from the comments of Dr. Raiport and Dr. Yessis is: what is it exactly that the U.S. sports program is behind in?

According to Dr. Yessis, the big difference is that the Soviets "are integrating all the (sports) sciences into one," whereas the U.S. is not. He informs us:

They [the Soviets] found out that your best biomechanical (technique analysis) studies are no good unless you have the physiological data and the psychological data to go along with it. Their scientists are all working together.

They've also found that the elite athlete is so different from an athlete, say, two steps below him that the research they were doing on good athletes didn't hold water with the elite athletes. They've found out that the psychological state of the elite athlete is so different from that of other athletes that it affects the physiological and biomechanical functions, which are also different. [37]

Not only have Soviet coaches and sports psychologists apparently taken into account the fact that the psychological make-up of elite athletes differs enormously from that of good athletes, but also they are said to use personality tests to channel athletes into sports they are most suited for. Soviet athletes are first administered a personality test, says Dr. Raiport, "then you compare his personality with the ideal personality for a particular sport." Raiport reveals why this comparison is important:

You need a different personality to be a boxer, in weight lifter or a marathon runner. A weight lifter needs an explosive personality; he discharges a tremendous amount of energy in a short period of time. So do sprinters. But marathon runners need stamina and archers and shooters need stability. They must turn to stone. [3 8]

Having found an athlete who possesses or shows promise to developing an ideal sport-specific personality—"explosive," for instance—Soviet coaches and sports psychologists supposedly direct him to a sport requiring an abundance of that particular trait.

U.S. coaches and sports psychologists, by contrast, tend to adopt a go-it-alone approach in their work with athletes. Paraphrasing an assertion made by Dr. Yessis, Beth Ann Krier reported that "American researchers rarely work together or coordinate their research and coaches are unlikely to share information with each other because they're also competing against each other in national competitions."[39] Assuming this analysis is correct, it can be inferred that most American coaches and sports psychologists are more interested in building their own little pyramids— boosting their own salaries, business, and prestige—rather than, through mutual cooperation with other coaches and mental training experts, truly serving the athlete. This is another reason why you, the athlete, should take full responsibility for your own mental training. The person who cares most about your development and success as an athlete is you yourself—not coaches or sports psychologists, whose actions often are self-serving and insensitive. Unless you do not mind others taking credit for your good performance, do not become dependent upon outsiders for your mental preparation.

Top athletes in the Soviet sports system usually allow coaches and sports psychologists to guide their mental training, but they have good cause for bestowing such trust, and not breaking away on their own. This is because, as Dr. Yessis indicates, a national goal orientation shapes the Soviet sports system, necessarily gearing it toward the athlete and his optimal development; as a result, there is little reward for Soviet coaches and sports psychologists who, harboring ambitions, do not share information and/or cooperate with one another. So, the Soviet athlete, when helped by the coach or sports psychologist, knows no ulterior motives are behind the assistance. Dr. Yessis compares the organized Soviet sports program to the backward and politicized American sports scene:

In Russia they (the coaches) don't have to worry about rivalries, recruiting or somebody stealing their ideas. Their priority is developing the high-level athlete, so every-

body has to contribute to this cause. We (in the U.S.) never even choose the best Olympic coaches in this country. Most coaches here are chosen on the basis of who do we owe a favor to. It's very sad. And most coaches in the U.S. are afraid of science.

Typically, we think that to be a coach in a particular sport you have to have played in that sport and that's the only credential you need. Soviet coaches are also well educated in the science and the psychology of sports. [40]

Dr. Yessis calls upon the U.S. to systematize its national Olympic sports program along the lines of what the Soviets have done with theirs. Short of this, he advocates that athletes at least take up mental training, saying, "You must have (mental) training and the building of confidence. 'Win one for the Gipper' is out the window now."[41] Dr. Raiport seconds this, and notes that one way an athlete can perform well consistently is to: 1) recall exactly how he felt whenever he made a great effort, and 2) use mental training to summon up that same feeling for subsequent performances. "Vasily Alexeyev," Dr. Raiport points out, "got a tingling in his jaw when he was inspired. Others may feel a coolness at the temples or an emptiness in their stomach. It varies with the individual."^]

Valery Borzov, the outstanding Soviet sprint champion who won two gold medals in the 1972 Olympics (100m and 200m dash), used a routine similar to the one recommended by Dr. Raiport in mentally preparing himself for his races. Borzov describes at length his pre-race preparation procedure in an enlightening December, 1981 Soviet Sports Review article titled, "An Hour Before the Start." This article is important because it contains an Olympic champion's first-hand account, and it reveals his obvious application of mental disciplines (imagery and "mobilization"). Borzov first discusses his warm-up method (stretching, massage, jogging, etc.), a discussion comprising most of the testimonial. He concludes his story, significantly, be relating how he activated a desired mental state. Borzov tells us: