In the last few years, there have been numerous stories of professional athletes struggling with mental health issues. And kudos to the NBA, NFL, MLB, EPL, and many NCAA conferences/institutions for being bold enought to recognize the reality, and awakening to the value of investing in the well-being of their athletes by putting greater resources into mental health and mental skills development. However, there is much work to be done and most of it could be done at lower levels. Prep level clubs and institutions (i.e. school districts & high schools) are at the pivotal moment when athletes begin to experience significant pressures on performance, and would benefit most from learning coping skills to deal with it all.
Unfortunately the inclusion of mental skills training is nearly void in the prep arenas. Instead, most of the services mental perofrmance consultants provide are done through individual contracts and opperate in isolation of sport and conditioning training. This is short sighted at best. In part this is due to the misconception many people seem to harbor about athletes; that they are already “tough” or need to be so in order to be successful, and that any psychological support is a sign of weakness. Because they tend to be bigger, stronger, faster, and more agile than their peers, people often treat them as though they are “super human”. However, the reality is that adolescent athletes are human with unique skills and talents. And it is these skill sets that can add to the anxiety level already present for so many teens and young adults as they become spotlighted in competitions on the stages of gyms, courts, and fields. Meanwhile, they must also navigate the rigors of academics, and the dynamics/distractions of social pressures, already present at that stage of life.
I don’t mean to imply that athletes need to be pittied. Hardly. I am fully aware of the benefits and opportunities that can be afforded athletes who do well. But these don’t minimize the reality of the pressure to perform, and the increase in anxiety that so many experience. Too many situations gone bad serve as meaningful examples of the stress and burden being felt. Talented sport dropouts, excessive use of drugs/alcohol, escapist actions such as suicide, violence within relationships, and acts of hazing within teams are all signs that these young athletes lack the coping skills to self-manage the stresses they face. And too frequently these situations result in life-changing events and law suits that could have been headed off. This is where the addition of sport psychology within programs and institutions can add tremendous benefits.
Many people still view sport psychology as a mystical and over-simplified set of “mind tricks” that athletes can use to get better results. The reality is that sport psychology is about managing one’s reactions to the strains of competition so that the talents posessed can be released and impeding barriers can be minimized . We don’t train athletes to be stronger, or to master technical skills. But we do help athletes learn how to be more present by balancing their schedule, learning to narrow attention and focus, to manage the highs’ and low’s of competing, and how to exercise self-care to reach their own goals. Sport psychology experts work within a realm where failure is part of the process, not something you can prevent. So we also work hard to teach athletes how to be resilient and tolerant, how to be self-aware of distractions and to refocus, as well as how to understand and implement feedback in order to improve. And each of these abilities are valuable life-skills that will transcend well beyond their athletic careers.
Though sports were initially included in the prep and collegiate environments as a means of teaching these life skills, our modern world of athletics has become a hyper sensitive environment where success is expected and failure is ridiculed. Friday Night Lights is now a gladiators’ pit where coaches and athletes are pressured to “represent!”, and the cost of failure is public shame. Imagine if we had kids in the AP Calculus classes perform their test on the gym floor with camera feeds of problem solving being shown to an audience that was aloud to scream and yell at every step, and being told that the results of their score would determine the rest of their career. Yet, this is the type of environment we expect our athletes to “be tough”, and to excel or be seen as weak.
So what prevents our districts, schools, and clubs from implementing sport psychology programs? The first and most obvious argument is money. Yes, schools are continuously under tight budgets where dollars are stretched to address a myriad of real issues. But athletes comprise between 15% and 25% of a high school population, and the realities of negative consequences, both long term and short term, are clear if we continue to leave athletes (and their families) to fend for themselves. A second argument is grounded in the misunderstanding of what sport psychology professionals are and do. As I noted above, we are not shamans who turn away the deamons of poor performance. We are practitioners who care about the well-being of our athletes, and work hard to help them learn skills that promote healthy mindsets so as to be ready to compete at their best as often as possible. Thus, the onus comes down to values.
Professional sports organizations and the major NCAA conferences have recognized that investing in athlete well-being includes a focus on the mental health of athletes. This has meant the hiring of clinical professionals to aid athletes who experience bouts of poor mental health. This also has meant hiring sport psychology consultants who work at prescriptive levels by teaching athletes and coaches how to develop powerful coping skills while working within highly stressful environments. Its about values, and prioritizing efforts to maximize the opportunities and gains student-athletes will have. This means employing sport psychology professionals who are passionate about helping humans with unique skills and pressures to excel and become their best self. My sincere hope is that the benefits of creating sport psychology positions within schools, clubs, districts, and lower level colleges grows. Taking care of the people who wear jerseys with the names of their communities on the front should be a high priority. Should you find yourself needing more help in this area, why wait? Make the call, bring in an expert.