The Super Mental Training Book (44 page)

This test, however, proved fallible. Dan Lauck, writing in the June, 1978 issue of Sky magazine, reported that "Tutko's tests told the Cowboys that Lee Roy Jordan, their all-pro linebacker, was nonaggressive."[34] Other profiles did not square with the facts, either, which clearly throws into doubt the value of such personality tests.[35] Further on in Lauck's report, it was pointed out that "Tutko says that his tests have been in agreement with coaches' impressions 87 percent of the time."[36] This interesting fact would tell us more if we only knew how accurate coaches' impressions are. Assume that coaches' impressions are wrong most of the time; so, therefore, would be the test. Assume now that coaches' impressions are usually right; in such a case administering a personality test would appear superfluous. However valid and potentially useful personality tests are, professional football players for very legitimate reasons reacted negatively to having to take such tests, and they took action to stop the practice. The outcome, as Lauck noted, was this:

The National Football League Players Association included a clause in its latest contract with the NFL forbidding teams to give players psychological tests. "We thought it was an invasion of the players' privacy," says Ed Garvey, the executive director of the NFLPA. "And we feared that the knowledge would or could be used against the player in contract negotiations."[37]

The University of Hawaii Football Team's Firewalk

Just about every folly under the sun has been committed in the name of motivating athletes, but the August, 1985 initiative of the coaching staff of the University of Hawaii football team falls in a class by itself. The Rainbows' head coach Dick Tomey hired the Robbins Research Institute to conduct a firewalk for his 120-man squad. Ferd Lewis, staff writer for the Honolulu Advertiser, in reporting the firewalk story, discovered that about $2,000 "came out of the football team's total budget allocation for consultation fees" to pay for the firewalk, with the team receiving a special rate, as the normal fee was $125/person.[38] A five-hour seminar, given by Tom Robbins, head of the Robbins Research Institute, preceded the firewalk. According to Coach Tomey, "you get a lot more out of the seminars" than the firewalk. He continued:

The firewalk is just a symbol of what the seminar is all about. People hear about it and think the firewalking is the main event. It's the reverse.

... In fact, people can get the symbol imbedded in their minds by not even doing it (the firewalk) and that is the real message. You don't even have to walk the fire to share the experience. It is the seminar, the four or five hours in there with him (Robbins), that is the key thing.[39]

Echoing Coach Tomey, Robbins explained to Lewis that "to walk on fire isn't the purpose or the extent of what we do. It is only a metaphor for what a person can do."

The firewalk, reported Lewis, took place "on a damp lawn fronting the women's physical education locker room," while the seminar, held in a nearby meeting room, began "at 8:30 p.m. and built steadily upward to a wild crescendo at 1:30 a.m. when the firewalk took place in semi-secrecy." Over 90% of the players and coaches, relates the Advertiser writer, "made at least one pass down the flickering runway," and none of the participants incurred any injuries.

The football players came out of the session on a super high. Hawaii's quarterback Greg Tipton could hardly contain himself, telling Lewis:

It was incredible, the most incredible thing you can imagine. I mean, a lot of us were skeptical and had our doubts at first, but wow.

... As a Christian, I pictured it as a satanic ritual. Fire and satan went together in my mind. (But) Satan was nowhere to be found. What I found was the potential within myself to do things I've never dreamed of. [40]

Fullback Nuu Faaola also lauded the seminar and firewalk, stating:

It was an experience I'm going to keep with me for a long time. It's something that I know will help me in football and my life.

Defensive tackle Colin Scotts provided important details about Robbins' talk. It appears that the players were led through a visualization session.[41] Recalled Scotts:

First they played some soft music that relaxed us and cleared our minds. Later, he (Robbins) asked us to test our minds and picture ourselves doing different things to the best of our ability. Then, he asked us to place that thought in the upper corner of our minds. He asked us to bring it back and then picture it in black and white.

(Soon) we began to believe in ourselves and our abilities. We were telling ourselves, "I can do it, I can do it... I'm the best." We hugged each other and reinforced each other. It was really something to see and feel. [42]

Eventually, it came time for the players to do the firewalk. The defensive tackle asserted:

There was nothing that was going to stop us. It was the most amazing thing that's ever happened to me.

Now, I know there's nothing we can't do as a team if we put our minds to it. I can't wait until the game with Kansas (Aug. 31 at Aloha Stadium) to put it to use.[43]

Richard Diehl, the manager of Robbins' business in Hawaii, found himself in complete agreement with the Hawaii football players. He told Lewis:

That was my 40th time (at a seminar) and I've never seen anything like it before. They (the football players) were much more intense than the other groups we get.

I think we'll see an enormous shift in the football team this season from last year (when UH was 7-4).[44]

University of Hawaii Athletic Director Stan Sherif, meanwhile, was asked by Lewis if he would have taken his players to such a happening in the days he was head football coach at the University of Northern Iowa. He responded, "I might have if they had it then, especially the season we went 4-6."[45]

Coach Tomey proclaimed the seminar and firewalk "a very educational thing that will help our players and staff." Of course, after spending $2,000 on the event, one could hardly say anything else. He went on to remark that "it will help our players in the classroom, personal life and may even help us as a team, although we have no delusions it will make us a great football team."

Wth everyone essentially singing the praises of the seminar and firewalk session, it only remains for us to see how the University of Hawaii football team fared during the 1985 season. No doubt they defeated Kansas in the season opener at home, right? WRONG! Despite the seminar and firewalk being held only a few weeks previous, and players such as Colin Scotts saying "I can't wait until the game with Kansas to put it (the firewalk experience) to use," Kansas won, 33-27.

Certainly, though, the team improved upon its 7-4 record of 1984, right? Dead wrong again. Richard Diehl's prediction that "we'll see an enormous shift in the football team this season from last year" proved correct, but in the opposite direction from what he intended! Hawaii finished with a mediocre 4-6-2 record. Recollecting Athletic Director Stan Sherif s "especially the season we went 4-6" comment, one wonders if he urged Coach Tomey to arrange another firewalk as the season progressed. Or did it perhaps hit Sherif that the nighttime spectacular might have proven counterproductive, instead of being, as nearly everyone exalted, "the most amazing thing."

The problem with such things as firewalks, which produce in the participants a super emotional high, is: how do you maintain that high feeling over a few days period, let alone over the course of a season? Frankly, it is impossible. Nor is it advisable. Each athlete's optimal level of arousal (emotional excitement) differs from another's. And, optimal arousal level is something which only objective tests conducted on an individual basis can accurately determine. Because many athletes perform better at a low level of arousal, it is best not to get them too charged up. In fact, Dr. Robert S. Weinberg, in his paper "Mental Preparation Studies" (contained in Psychological Foundations of Sport), warns about "preparatory arousal" hurting the performance of quarterbacks, receivers, and other players occupying "skill" positions where strength moves are rarely required (see Recent Developments in Sports Psychology and Mental Training chapter; also refer to this same chapter and the Swimming chapter for further discussions of arousal). So, football

THE SUPER MENTAL TRAINING BOOK

(Honolulu Advertiser photo)

The coaching staff of the 1985 University of Hawaii football team, thinking they had hit upon a great motivational tool, had their players attend a pre-season firewalk session (preparations are seen here). Unfortunately, the players found walking over the hot coals easier than defeating their opponents, as they lost to Kansas in the season opener, and finished 1985 with a 4-6-2 record.

coaches should think twice before plunging ahead with schemes to "super psych" their players.

The firewalk definitely turned out to be the "very educational thing" Coach Tomey described it as. It shows us to avoid situations which might raise everyone's expectation levels too high.[46] The comments of the Hawaii players indicate that the firewalk had greatly raised their expectations about what they could do as a team. When the Rainbows were unable to win their first game against Kansas, the "metaphor" of the firewalk probably exploded in many of the players' minds. It's extremely difficult to pick up the pieces and regroup when one's high expectations are shattered. The Hawaii football team, as their 1985 4-6-2 record illustrates, found this out.

Having offered constructive criticism of the firewalk affair, I propose an alternative way for coaches to spend $2,000 on their players' mental preparation:

1. Each player should be provided a book on mental training for athletes (there are several books available).

2. Each player should be given one or more mental training tapes. Ideally, the tapes should be tailored to the position of the player. To accomplish this, the athlete, coach, and/or sports psychologist may choose to collaborate on an appropriate script. In lieu of this, mental training tapes of a general nature can be obtained.

3. The coach should learn and become adept at various mental training strategies so he can teach and work with his athletes on visualization, self-hypnosis, and other useful mental disciplines. He should allocate sufficient funds for his own education in mental training.

If any money is left over, a sports psychologist may be hired to provide additional assistance. It is best, though, for athletes and coaches to be their own sports psychologists.

Professional Football and Sports Psychologists

At the professional football level it appears that sports psychologists have not played as great a role as they have in some college football programs. One reason for this is because sports psychologists are generally members of a college faculty, and as "insiders" possess easy access to the coaching staff of their school's varsity sports; with this accessibility comes the greater likelihood that the "insider's" services will become known to the coach and ultimately be made an integral part of the athletic program. By contrast, the sports psychologist is usually an outsider to the professional team; he is more likely, if his services are accepted, to be treated somewhat like a consultant, and not really be made part of the coaching staff. For example, we are informed by LA. Times writer Beth Ann Krier that Dr. Bruce Ogilvie, the sports psychologist whose work is discussed in the Track & Field and Professional Athletes chapters, "has consulted with such teams as the Dallas Cowboys. . . (and) San Francisco 49ers."[47] We are not told in what year(s) Dr. Ogilvie's consulting work occurred with these teams, but with the 49ers it does not seem to have happened under Bill Walsh's tenure as Head Coach, assuming what appears in Bud Winter's Relax & Win still holds true. Walsh, who coached the 49ers to three Super Bowl championships during the '80s, was asked by Winter: "Do you know anywhere, in amateur or professional football, where a course in relaxation [self-hypnosis] is taught to individuals or teams?" Walsh's answer was this: "No, but I have heard of a number of people interested in organizing such a course."[48] Winter, whose book appeared in 1981, asked the same question to Dick Vermeil, then the Head Coach of the Philadelphia Eagles, and he replied, "I do not know of a professional football team that formally teaches relaxation to individuals or groups of players."[49] Based on available evidence, these answers are fairly representative of what other coaches involved in the sport at the time would say. The word "sporadic," then, best characterizes the use to which professional football teams made of sports psychologists during the 1970s and early 1980s. [50]

Although Walsh knew in 1981 of no formal mental training courses or programs being taught to professional football players, he and his coaching staff to some degree encouraged his players to practice visualization. Stated Walsh: "We (coaches) also have the athletes visualize carrying out a particular skill. Just as in a hurdle race, you might visualize going over each hurdle mentally just before a race, we like to have the quarterback visualize taking the ball, going back for a certain number of steps, reading the defense, then throwing the ball to a receiver."[51] Exactly how the 49ers went about practicing visualization Walsh did not reveal to Winter, but it appears that those players who visualized did so rather loosely, and certainly were not participants in any formal mental training program.