Reggie Bush, Jack Nicklaus and the possibility of failing

Los Angeles, Calif., a city where things are constantly abuzz in entertainment and sports. A city where a true freshman started at quarterback for USC, Manny Ramirez led the Dodgers to a victory and Reggie Bush responded to criticism of being a bust in the NFL – all within an hour. At the same time, Kate Beckinsale was on the red carpet touting her newest film while Britney Spears was performing at Staples Center. With the constant attention on entertainers and athletes throughout the city, observers tend to get a sense of how they have become so successful.

So how do athletes and celebrities handle the pressure of work in a calm and confident manner? It is because they have reached a point where they no longer have a fear of failure like average people do. Take a second and think about how often celebrities and athletes are faced with the possibilities of failing. Great hitters fail seven out of ten times. Actors and actresses face the constant possibility of not getting the next part or wowing producers in the next audition. Even the biggest movie stars fail in certain situations. We all have been trying to forget Adam Sandler’s Punch Drunk Love and You Don’t Mess with the Zohan.

Athletes and celebrities aren’t afraid of failing and their confidence reflects their attitudes. In an interview with ESPN the Magazine, famed tennis instructor Brian De Villiers stated, “So many Americans are afraid of failing and so concerned with keeping up with the Joneses that they don’t want to put themselves out there and go for it.” However, performers have trained their minds to believe highly in their abilities that failing will never happen, even if they have failed several times in a row. Contrary to De Villiers comments, Americans are not inherently hard wired to have a fear of failure but most Americans have simply not trained their mind in the correct way when hit with stressful events.

A reporter once asked Jack Nicklaus how many times he had missed meaningful six-foot putts. Jack looked at the reporter with a confused look and said, “Never.” After the reporter chuckled, he posed the question again and got the same exact response from Nicklaus. Even though Nicklaus has obviously missed innumerable short putts, he is able to just think about the successes and that allows him to continue to perform at the highest level.

Every person has a natural confidence within them and many people have difficulty finding that inner confidence, especially during stressful situations. If people are able to think like an athlete or celebrity, in a way in which you aren’t worried about failing, confidence will grow and performance will improve. Plus, stress levels will go down when confidence is higher and performance is improved, all of which adding up to a higher quality of life.

Favre following in the footsteps of Jordan?

Every summer, sports fans are inevitably faced with two things: the boredom that comes with the dog days of baseball and the alarmingly constant updates on whether Brett Favre isreturning to the NFL. Drama has seemingly followed the future Hall of Famer each summer since he “retired” from the Green Bay Packers and the overwhelming feeling among fans is why? Why would a player with a legacy such as Favre’s risk the ire of loyal fans and risk his reputation by wanting to play another season? The reason is simple yet unclear to many casual sports fans who have never been in the same position as a professional athlete.

Professional athletes are simply wired in a different way than average people and when they no longer have the stress and pressure of performing, they need an outlet to release their energy. For many athletes such as Michael Jordan and Floyd Mayweather, that outlet is only found by returning to their sport. After devoting most of their lives to overcoming the fear and pressure of being a professional athlete, it is often difficult to adapt to their new lifestyle outside the lines.

In order to deal with the constant pressure of performing, athletes must learn to thrive under constant scrutiny from fans, media and the owners who are willing to give them millions of dollars. Working professionals may feel pressure but underperforming on one pitch in the workplace doesn’t often come with the threat of losing one’s job. No matter how much pressure people face from their bosses and their families, it pales in comparison to having to perform under pressure in order to survive in their profession, as athletes constantly have to do.

Athletes who remain retired have often found a way to channel their energy in order to fulfill the missing element of their lives that was filled by competition. Many athletes often go into broadcasting or become entrepreneurs to feel the pressure of performing under the gun, albeit at a much smaller level. Magic Johnson has used his post-athletic career to become an extremely successful businessman, broadcaster and executive, handling his responsibilities like he handled the showtime Lakers.

As the NFL season begins anew with Brett Favre taking the field wearing purple and gold, it is important to understand that while it may be annoying to fans, some athletes find it extremely difficult to cope with the transition out of competition. For Brett Favre, he can’t seem to turn the switch off quite yet. As for his legacy, it remains to be seen how these years are viewed by future generations. Does anyone remember that Michael Jordan was a Wizard?

Overcoming Youth to Excel in Beijing

With the Olympics under way in Beijing, several storylines have already jumped to the forefront of the sports landscape. Team USA basketball is looking to redeem themselves after the debacle in Athens and return to the world dominance they once enjoyed. Michael Phelps is swimming for a record 8 gold medals in a single Olympics. The People’s Republic of China will be showing off their country in spite of protests from around the world on the country’s human rights violations and their relationship with Tibet and Sudan. Every four years, the sports world’s attention turns to sports that most people don’t usually care about which often turns up world-class athletes that are quite young.
This year alone, the US women’s gymnastics team features five teenagers which is often the norm for gymnastics. The favorite for the women’s all-around title is 4’10” 16 year-old American Shawn Johnson. In swimming, 19-year old American Katie Hoff has set several world records this year and has already won a silver and a bronze in the first two days of competition. However, when the pressure of being on the world stage is put on teenagers, it is much more difficult for them to cope with the stresses of competing at the highest level.
At the Athens Olympics in 2004, Hoff who was just 15 at the time became so overcome with emotion before a race that she threw up minutes before the start. The human brain isn’t fully developed as a teenager which may help to explain why teenagers are careless drivers and often make emotional decisions without thinking about the consequences. When teenagers are put under the pressure of the world stage in sporting events, they often have difficulties handling the stress, which is obviously what happened to Hoff in Athens.
Studies have indicated that the human brain does not reach its final structure until a person is in their mid-20s. Also, the area of the brain that tends to be the last to develop is the completion of the frontal cortex which houses an area known as the executive processing area. This area of the brain is responsible for regulating emotional conflicts such as regulating stress levels and dealing with possible failures. These regulations of the stressors inside the brain make it much more difficult for young people to keep their emotions and nerves in check.
Even though some people naturally develop more quickly than others, it is still incredible that some teenagers have accomplished incredible feats in the sports world. As a 19-year old in Athens, Michael Phelps won a record-tying eight medals at one Olympic Games. In 1976, Nadia Comaneci of Romania put together perhaps the best gymnastics performance of all time at the age of 14. In 1998 in Nagano, Tara Lipinski won the gold medal in women’s figure skating at the age of 15. While competing at the top level is not impossible as a teenager, it remains extremely impressive that these young people can handle the pressure of the spotlight and perform at the highest level.

Padraig Harrington's New Confidence

Even though Tiger Woods was not in the field at the British Open last week, Padraig Harrington proved that he deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as the elite golfers of the world. Despite having a nagging wrist injury that nearly forced him to withdraw from the field, Harrington put together four stellar rounds to win by four shots over Ian Poulter. His win at Royal Birkdale not only netted him $1.49 million but it also vaulted him to number three in the latest World Golf Rankings, behind only Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson.
During the entire week, Harrington appeared cool and confident as though he expected to win the Open Championship all along. He also showed no signs of pain from his wrist and obviously didn’t play like it was hurting him. Perhaps being in pain helped Padraig Harrington more than it hurt him. After winning last year’s Open Championship, there was tremendous pressure placed on Harrington to repeat especially with Tiger Woods no longer being in the field. Also, because he is from Ireland, Harrington faced a tremendous amount of media coverage during the week which also added to the pressure of the tournament. Because of the pressure from the media and from himself, Harrington was under an incredible amount of stress which is the last thing a person needs when playing a difficult golf course.
However, the lowered expectations from being hurt likely allowed Harrington to relax and slow down, two keys to reducing stress under pressure situations. Another major aspect of coping with stress is the belief that your skill level is in line with what you are trying to accomplish. If doubt is in a person’s consciousness at any point, there performance will suffer with any task whether it is a difficult task at work to a tough test coming up at school. Simply, if a person believes they can accomplish something, the brain responds in a way that makes it much more likely to get the task done. With Tiger Woods not being in the field, Harrington likely had a greater belief in himself which allowed for his optimal performance to be carried out during the course of the week.
Harrington had two major things going for him at Royal Birkdale: a greater belief in his abilities and a higher level of relaxation as a result of lowered expectations from his wrist injury. Athletes throughout the years have been able to overcome injury or illness to put up a great performance. Willis Reed limping onto the court before Game 7 of the 1970 Finals with a torn thigh muscle to help the Knicks past the Lakers for the title. Michael Jordan overcoming flu-like symptoms in game 5 of the ’97 Finals to torch Utah for 38 points en route to his fifth title. Most recently, Tiger Woods dominating the field at Torrey Pines to win the U.S. Open despite having a torn ACL and stress fracture in his leg. As long as injured athletes believe they can play, the expectations are reduced which allows them to relax and play their best.
At Royal Birkdale, Harrington looked confident and relaxed and took home the Claret Jug easily. Perhaps the greater confidence he has developed from two straight Open titles and being ranked third in the world will translate to greater success in the American Majors. His first test comes August 7th at Oakland Hills with the PGA Championship. This time he will likely be the favorite for the first time in his career at a major championship.

Ichiro's Performance Secret

Even though the Mariners are suffering through a season in the cellar of the American League west, they still have a bright spot at the top of their lineup. This season, Ichiro continues to be a magician at the plate, batting .304 and ranking third in the AL in runs scored despite playing for the Mariners who haven’t exactly been an offensive juggernaut this season. In only six plus seasons, Ichiro has racked up an incredible 1,715 hits. Add that to his 1,278 hits in six Japanese League seasons and Ichiro is nearing 3,000 hits for his major league career.
What makes Ichiro so incredible is his ability to use his hands to serve the pitch to all fields on a consistent basis. Even when Ichiro is fooled by a pitch, he maintains the ability to put the pitch in play with his quick hands. This allows him to see the pitch longer which is part of the explanation for his .346 batting average against lefties over the past three years.
The amazing thing about the hands is that the cerebral cortex in the brain devotes much more space to the hands, meaning that they are more sensitive to brain commands than any other part of the body. Using electroencephalography, or EEG techniques, neurologists have found that the part of the brain that controls the hands is as big as the arm and chest combined. This means that by learning to utilize the hands to work the way in which they are capable could be extremely advantageous, especially in a sport like baseball and golf.
While many athletes work at adding speed and strength, the key to mastering sports may lie in the only thing that makes contact with the ball. Yet it is rare to hear about people doing exercises to develop their hand coordination. Everything the body does is a natural reaction to how the hands are behaving.
The next time you watch the Mariners notice the way Ichiro’s hands handle the bat through the strike zone. His hands lead the way and his coordination allows him to make adjustments while the pitch is in his wheelhouse. His hands respond to the pitch in the same way Tiger Woods’ hands handle the downswing. Since the hands are so sensitive to triggers from the brain, it doesn’t take much for the hands to be manipulated during the swing.
If athletes learn to train their hands in ways that respond to the brain, they could quickly become better at whatever they are playing. As Ichiro has proven, training the hands to respond the way you want will lead to performance that is much higher than the average athlete.

The death and birth of Josh Hamilton

On Monday night in Yankee Stadium, Josh Hamilton made yet another gigantic statement to the rest of the world with his record-breaking first round in the Home Run Derby. After being the first overall selection in the 1999 MLB draft by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, Hamilton succumbed to a drug and alcohol problem that sent his life spiraling in the wrong direction. Over a four year period, Hamilton was suspended four times for drug violations and eventually was suspended for good by Commissioner Bud Selig. After cleaning up his life, Hamilton was reinstated in 2006 and has shocked many baseball experts with his meteoric rise to the top.
After a great 2007 for the Cincinnati Reds which included constant ribbing from opposing fans about his past drug use, Hamilton is the leading MVP candidate in the American League for the Texas Rangers. With 95 RBIs at the all-star break, Hamilton is on pace for one of the best seasons of the past 10 years. With his unbelievable performance on Monday Night in New York, Hamilton told the world that he was on top of the baseball world to stay. What surprised many viewers was the fact that Hamilton appeared to be a light-hearted kid that could have been the neighbor boy next door, not the drug-riddled thug that many critics labeled him during his years fighting his addiction. The thing that people don’t realize is that drug addictions, especially those to stimulants like cocaine and heroin, take over a person’s brain and often leaves the person helpless. Understanding what cocaine and heroin do to the brain will make a person better understand how incredible Josh Hamilton’s comeback has been.
In a normally functioning human brain, neurotransmitters are constantly firing to keep the brain on even grounds and to allow people’s cognitive abilities to function on a normal level. The main pleasure pathway in the brain contains large levels of dopamine transporters that, when triggered, provide people with a feeling of euphoria throughout their body. When cocaine is introduced into the brain, it binds with the dopamine transporters causing the transporter to stop functioning and creates a build-up of dopamine in the synaptic cleft where the reward circuit exists. Using cocaine results in extreme pleasure that people can’t normally feel when the brain is working properly.
Prolonged exposure to cocaine causes the need for more dopamine in the synaptic cleft in order for the person to simply feel normal. The answer to the need for more dopamine in the brain is either for the person to use even more cocaine or to suffer the consequences of withdrawal. When an addict cuts free from cocaine, the brain is so deregulated that it often results in severe depression and research has shown that the brain’s reward center may never be the same after the use of cocaine. All of this seems to occur as a natural reaction from the body which gives you a sense of how difficult it would be to quit using. With other addictions such as cigarettes and marijuana, people can often will themselves to quit because the brain isn’t being altered. With cocaine, the brain becomes so deregulated that addicts are pulled toward cocaine by their natural instincts to fulfill the reward center, which makes it that much tougher to quit.
Not only was Josh Hamilton not fulfilling his baseball dreams, his addiction was causing his brain to react in ways that likely made his life a living hell. Once a person reaches that point in an addiction where they are no longer able to understand pleasure, death usually becomes the next destination. Now, Josh Hamilton is clean and fulfilling everyone’s dream of what he would be when he was the top pick in 1999.

Rafael Nadal's Courage Under Pressure

When the epic Wimbledon Final between Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer concluded, many people were wondering whether they had just witnessed the greatest tennis match in history. Even though Rafael Nadal won the first two sets and looked like he was on his way to a tiebreak victory in the fourth set, Federer fought back in a way that only great champions can. After winning the past five Wimbledon championships, Federer looked as though he would make it six. However, Nadal did something remarkable, overcoming nerves and darkness to defeat perhaps the best grass court tennis player of all time.

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While most tennis experts were wondering whether they had seen history, I was thinking about the match in a much different way. After Federer forced a fifth set, it appeared that it would be next to impossible for Nadal to squeak out a win. After all, Federer had never lost at Wimbledon and Nadal only seemed to have luck against him on the slow clay courts of Roland Garros in Paris. However, as Nadal did on Sunday, some people learn how to overcome mental fatigue and learn to perform their best under pressure.
The cognitive model theory in psychology, popularized by Aaron Beck, states that a person’s core beliefs become automatic thoughts later in life, that tend to pop up during everyday life in response to certain situations. Often times, these automatic thoughts are learned during a child’s social development, meaning that parents often have a large role on how their children behave as adults. This is part of the reason Tiger Woods has become extremely mentally tough in situations where most people would fold. As a child, Tiger Woods was taught things by his father that made his learn to block out distractions and focus on what needed to be done. The same can be said about Nadal, who learned to play his free-swinging style from his father under extreme circumstances.
When people have compulsive disorders, such as OCD, they are often treated through the means of classical conditioning and habituation. This process allows people to become more comfortable with what bothers them by presenting stimuli and eliminating the person’s escape response. When people learn to confront distractions at an early age, it is often much easier for the reaction to become automatic as they get older. For example, it is much easier for children to get over their fears than adults because they don’t rely as heavily on their escape response.
Woods and Nadal were presented with negative stimuli while competing at an early age which made them better prepared for difficult situations later in life. The key is to make your mind respond to abnormal situations in an automatic way. This response becomes easier for the body to employ when it has been habituated to receiving the stimulus. As Nadal showed, the pressure of the Wimbledon final didn’t bother him in the way that it would for most young players. He was able to block out all of the distractions and concentrate on the game he was confident in. The result was a win over the greatest grass court player of the modern era and a place in the history books.