How are YOU feeling when you play?

HOLOCAUST DOCUMENTARY OFFERS UNIQUE MOTIVATION TO ATHLETES AND TEAMS

What can a film about Jews rounded up and herded into a concentration camp where they were treated worse than dogs teach athletes about what it takes to play your best?

There are dozens of films offering a tale of inspiration to athletes, coaches, and pretty much everybody – films like “Rudy” and “Hoosiers” and “Rocky.”  They show us what it takes to succeed – to make dreams come true.

Some films have less to do with success and more with sheer survival.  One such story was the New York Times Best Seller “Unbroken” (which Angelina Jolie later made into a film) about Olympic track star Louie Zamperini, a World War 2 soldier who, when captured and treated viciously by his Japanese captors, made use of the mental fortitude he cultivated as a youth to survive his ordeal physically and mentally.

But while the Zamperini’s extraordinary mental toughness differentiates him from 99% of the population, the lessons from another World War Two themed film speak to each of us, whatever the level of our mental resoluteness.

“Defiant Requiem," the initiative of American conductor Murry Sidlin, tells the story of a group of Czech Jews who stood up to their Nazi captors, though not by calling on stores of mental toughness acquired over the years.

This is a story about an entirely different kind of survival, and a different sort of victory.

Beginning in 1942, the Nazis rounded up Czech Jews as well as others from as far away as the Netherlands and Denmark and crowded them into the old garrison town of Terezin, just outside of Prague. Overnight, these Jews were stripped of 

their freedom, their possessions, earthly comforts, and their very dignity.  Forced to engage in harsh labor up to 14 hours every day and crammed hundreds to a barrack, some tried to hold on to their essential humanity by turning to the arts.

Among them was a man named Rafael Schächter, an accomplished young pianist and conductor, who took with him to the Terezin Camp a copy of the score of Verdi’s Requiem. He located a piano in a basement of one of the buildings on the grounds and then set upon recruiting individuals of varying musical ability to form a choir to perform the work for other inmates – to the dismay of the Jewish leaders in the camp eager to keep a low profile.  In the darkest of days, Schächter found a way to help a seemingly helpless group to fight back, and found the perfect vehicle to do so.

Indeed, few knew that the Latin words of this masterpiece spoke about the revenge that would be obtained in the future upon those doling out such brutality and how they would one day be called to answer for their barbarism. Through this musical piece a small band of Jews were able to sing to their Nazi tormentors what they dared not say.

While this moving film will speak eloquently to any audience, it offers a particularly unique message to athletes and teams who are asked - or ask of themselves - to give their most inspired effort in each and every competition.

For what could be more motivating than to consider the words of the  young conductor looking to get a masterful performance from his beleaguered choir. As one of the few surviving members of that choir had recalled: “Schächter used to say to us, ‘The MOST important thing is how you are feeling when you sing.’”

(photo of Schachter conducting his choir inside Terezin)

For Schächter, the gifted and devoted conductor, the critical thing was to immerse yourself in the experience – the words and the music – so as to obtain the most inspired performance.

As it turned out, Schächter’s words proved life-giving. 

For the beleaguered prisoners who crowded into a cold basement night after night, following a grueling 12-14 hour day of brutal forced labor, subsisting on a meager daily diet of some watery broth and a scrap of bread, this artistic activity proved to be life-affirming. As one participant recalled, “Maybe it was my hearing, but when we were rehearsing I never heard my stomach growl.”

As another put it, “On the outside, it was their (the Nazis’) world but in the rehearsal room it was OUR world.”

To further capture the imagination and passion of his group – and amidst circumstances where people had no idea that they would soon be packed into cattle cars and sent east to Auschwitz and the gas chambers – Schächter would tell the people that they were “rehearsing for the day when we will sing Verdi accompanied by a full orchestra in a grand music hall in Prague.”

The Latin words which these Jews sang in rehearsal, in some 13 concerts to fellow prisoners and then in their final concert in front of their Nazi captors before they, too, were sent to Auschwitz, spoke of the redress of grievances which the wronged would come to know, and that the evil doers would one day be punished for their crimes. So each night’s rehearsal was, in fact, a moment to seek redemption and release from their brutal reality. 

Members of Rafael Schächter’s group found through music the occasion to rise up in the worst situation imaginable and to champion the best of themselves and of the human spirit. In the words of one of them, “The Nazis had our minds, but they could NEVER have our souls. And in the end, they didn’t succeed.  We survived.”

In one of the most moving lines of the film, one woman who had been a part of that choir said, “This will sound strange to say, but in the nightmarish conditions of Terezin we found hours of pure joy - if you can talk at all of joy in a concentration camp. The Requiem was a gift that I took with me from those days to the rest of my life.”

If people who have been sent to hell – and nearly all of them to their deaths  – could find joy in the most despairing of conditions, then what a great lesson for any athlete to take with them – or for any of us to take to our daily tasks – to find that same JOY each day in practice. To remember, as Schächter put it – “The MOST important thing is how you are feeling when you sing.”

To see the theatrical trailer of "Defiant Requiem" visit
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgimWmMqav4

FINDING OUR INNER CHAMPION

Mental Toughness: 
How Champions Respond to Stress

   THE PRESSURE AND STRESS WHICH ATHLETES EXPERIENCE during big competitions can significantly impair their ability to play at their highest level.  From Greg Norman’s blowing a big lead at the 1996 Master’s to Karl Malone missing 2 critical free throws at the end of a 1997 play-off game against the Bulls – we’ve seen time and again how the pressure of the moment can take even the most seasoned athlete out of his game.

   Those athletes who have developed the capacity to effectively manage stress – or who have learned critical coping mechanisms from working with sport psychologists – have been able to be in top form when it matters, and have the awards to show for it.

   While it is essential to have talent and technique, that is not enough to succeed at the highest levels.

   In elite sports, stress is a fact of life. Athletes who lack critical mental management skills are NOT going to fare as well as those who develop effective tools for coping with – and even embracing stress.

   In 1994 Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario was knocking on the no. 1 ranking in women’s tennis, but went for six months without a title win. She began to work with a sport psychologist. An initial series of meetings was followed by constant phone calls, faxes (that was before texting!) and periodic visits. The sport psychologist helped her develop strategies that kept her focused and determined no matter how far ahead or how far behind she might be. In three months’ time, she won the French Open, and won eight more titles that year. Perhaps her biggest victory was a win over Steffi Graf in the finals at the U.S. Open; she had never beaten Graf on hard courts before that. What is particularly worth noting is that Sanchez-Vicario LOST the first set 6-1.

   While stress is often given a bad “rap,” the fact is that stress is critical to our growth as athletes and as human beings. Stress is the thing that impels us to seek out and strive to achieve lofty goals.  As sport psychologist Dr. James Loehr notes, “Stress is a prerequisite for mental, physical and emotional growth.”  Take for example, how we develop physical strength: by stressing our muscles in resistance training – by actually tearing down muscle tissue – and then allowing it to rebuild in stronger form.  The same thing is true of MENTAL toughness.

   Consider the tale of Bonnie St. John, winner of the Silver Medal in the slalom skiing event at the 1984 Paralympic Games. St. John recalled,

In the first run of the slalom, I was ahead, but then I fell down and had to get up to complete the race. In fact, the woman who won the gold medal also fell down. I knew from previous races that I could ski faster than her.  But what won the gold medal for he was that she got up faster than I did after falling down.  I learned that everybody falls down … but Olympic athletes get up faster, and gold medal athletes get up the fastest of all

   Mental toughness is the quality that enables athletes – or any of us – to get up fastest of all – by remaining focused, positive and clear-headed under conditions of stress. Whatever your level of talent and skill, developing mental toughness is what enables you to perform consistently at the peak of your talent – and flourish in the process.

Having the ability to anticipate and recognize stress, to manage your stress during competition, and to recover from stress between competitions (matches) – and even between points – are all critical to YOUR ability to compete with confidence, control and consistency.  

What are you doing to maximize YOUR mental toughness?

© 2015 by Dr. Mitchell Smith.  All rights reserved.

A LESSON FROM THE WORLD OF ACTING

Alexander Fehling, the German actor who plays Claire Danes' boyfriend Jonas Hollander on TV's "Homeland," recently told the New York Times how he learned an important lesson while auditioning for the prestigious Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts.

"Imagine ... they only take 20-25 students from as many as 1,000 people auditioning. I didn't get in, and felt terrible. Later I realized that when I was on the stage, I was concentrating on showing (everthing that) I can do. And this is not interesting. It took me a year to change my perspective on the purpose of an actor. Then it worked out."

In my opinion, the exact same thing holds true for athletes. If you are looking to show what you can do, you will be making it about yourself and NOT about the moment of the competition. 

One of my first sport psychology involvements was with members of an elite boys' gymnastics team. I used to tell them "If you are out on the floor routine or on the high bar and you are trying to prove something, it is as if you were wearing a 40 pound weight around your neck."

Trying to show how good you are (as in the case of Fehling) is probably going to work against you - in part because you are busy focusing on someone else (whether it is the person deciding which students pass the audition or your coach or the people in the stands). 

Instead, an athlete who can allow himself to be ABSORBED in the moment rather than FORCING the moment will be more likely to produce high level competitive play - or in the case of the actor - a compelling performance. 

Any self-judgement will only get in the way of this process. Any fear of failing to prove something will similarly keep you from your best performance. But when the LOVE of competition is your main focus you are likely to have a performance you will be happy with.

More recently, Constance Wu, one of the stars of "Crazy Rich Asians" and TV's "Fresh Off the Boat," had this to say:

"I've always found that if you stop thinking about the results, or the product and just think about your love for what you do, and you re-connect to your creativity, you feel such a wealth of meaning in  your life that keeps you going when there is adversity."

THE QUALITIES OF A CHAMPION (Part 1)

A great mark of champions is not so much their exceptional talent as much as their exceptional ability to play consistently with the full measure of whatever talent they have without distraction, loss of focus or decrease of  confidence at any moment throughout the entire competition regardless of what is happening.

THE QUALITIES OF A CHAMPION (Part Deux)

"A team is made up of people who respect each other and who place themselves at each others’ service."  

These were the words of Marcello Lippi, head coach of the Italian national soccer team that won the 2006 FIFA World Cup, who noted that, “Each player (has to) feel equally useful, but not indispensable.  If all the players cater to their own self-interest, you will have some spectacular moments of soccer, but in the end the teams which have a ‘we’ mentality will prevail.”

FEAR OR TRUST: WHEN THE PRESSURE IS ON, WHICH WILL TRIUMPH ?

In the 1990s Jonny Wilkinson was a budding young British rugby talent with both remarkable skill and an unquenchable passion for the game. In a new documentary about the rise of British rugby entitled “Building Jerusalem” Wilkinson recalled his readiness to do what it took to succeed:

“I don’t remember feeling I needed to escape the pain that came on the field. That came very naturally. What I struggled with was the pain of the mental anguish behind it – the pressure riding on the result … that lack of control in losing or not losing that brought with it a sense of doom.”

Called to the British national team at age 18, Wilkinson faced an early test of that mental anguish in his first major international tournament, against rugby powerhouses Australia, New Zea-land and South Africa, the so-called “Tour of Hell.”  When he was called upon for a penalty kick in one match, the TV commentator noted, “For a man of his talent it's a simple kick, but believe me, those goal posts are going to seem quite narrow at this moment.”

Indeed, at that moment, it was not only the pressure riding on the result, but the pressure as the youngest member of the squad to be seen by his older teammates as one who could be relied on when it mattered – as a player who deserved a spot on the national team.

That kind of pressure must have entered his thoughts.  His kick was just wide of the mark.

The TV analyst then commented, “I think it's important that the next kick go to Wilkinson as well … to help him re-establish his confidence.” And when that moment came, he noted, “This will be an important test for him after what was an easy miss.”

The player kicked the ball … and once again failed to score.

“After I missed the second kick I felt embarrassed. Later, in the dressing room, I didn't know where to look. I was always trying to avoid stains on my career path, and now I wasn't sure how I was going to wash that one off. I thought to myself, 'What's the point? I'm a waste of space. It's all a lie.’”

In a series of conversations with his father over a period of weeks, his dad finally said to him, “OK. Enough. What are you going to do about it?”

Wilkinson eventually came to see that one of the most important things he needed for success was learning how to think correctly under pressure.

After the stunning blow to Britain during that international tour, the head coach addressed not just Jonny but the entire team when he asked, “Can you commit to doing whatever it takes to succeed? Because the teams that do sacrifice the most often win.”

Wilkinson made that commitment. A teammate remembered, “You would be on the bus after a practice and Jonny would still be on the field kicking goals.”

But relentless hard work wasn't enough. Wilkinson came to understand what was needed mentally.

“Dealing with the pressure of a kick is really a matter of the process. You get away from the outcome and take it back to the understanding if I do this in the zone around the ball and focus on the parts that I can control … and if I do this and this and this, then I'll get there.”

As a result, it was a more seasoned and mentally tougher Wilkinson five years later on the England team in the 2003 World Cup, held in Australia. There he faced another critical test when England advanced to the final game against the host (and favored) team.

With England trailing in the first half, Wilkinson came up to kick to close the gap to one point, then made each of his next two kicks to help take England to a strong lead by the half.

However Australia came back strong in the 2^nd half to tie the score at 14-14. Wilkinson heeded the words his head coach had shared with the team before the match:

“Let's just do what we do. Don't look to do anything special. Don't force anything. Just stay focused and stay accurate and opportunities will come.”

Wilkinson hit his mark to put England up 17-14, but Australia came back to tie it up once again.

With the clock ticking down, England had the ball and it was passed to Wilkinson who made a quick kick on the run to secure the victory just seconds before the ref's final whistle. It was a classic example of the ultimate in sports execution – when an athlete executes the very thing he has trained his body to do over and over and over – without thinking.  It was “the only kick I can remember in my whole career where I didn't think about it,” Wilkinson recalled. Indeed the sheer joy of the moment was only diminished by the thought that when the ref blew that whistle the moment would be over.

Perhaps it was the fact that at that moment there was simply no time for fear, or that he had mastered the ability to free himself from the fear and replace it with trust in his ability to do under pressure what he had done thousands of times before in practice.  

Something he stated in the film harkened back to his above-mentioned comments about the mental anguish that accompanied his lack of control over winning or losing.

“My kicking sessions (during practice) were my way of regaining total control.”

MIND OVER MATTER: YELLOW LIGHT MOMENTS

When it comes to athletic success, there is often a point where an athlete needs to push himself to his limit. In some sports, like swimming and track and field, this “comes with the territory,” but there are other sports, like soccer, basketball and tennis, where athletes are asked to push themselves in practice to develop the physical conditioning that may well make the difference between winning and losing in games. Few athletes may possess the iron will of a Michael Phelps or a Novak Djokovic to push themselves unrelentingly hour after hour -  but there are mental strategies that can help an athlete who is on board with the need to push himself but may find himself giving up too quickly when pain or fatigue set in.

                            

     WE’VE ALL BEEN THERE… You are approaching an intersection as the light turns yellow. Most of the time, we speed up to make it through the yellow light. Sometimes the light turns red as we are going through the intersection. It happens with drivers thousands of times every day.

     Sometimes, a driver slows down and comes to a stop at the intersection.  And while it is often a matter of our ability to get an immediate read on our timing relative to the light, there is something else at play… our motivation (in this case, the motivation to save time).

     We’re coming up to the intersection… the light changes to yellow… and we’re thinking “I don’t want to get stuck waiting at this intersection. What a waste of my time that is. I want to go on my way.”  (And if we are in a rush, all the more so…)

     And so we go through the light. (Hopefully it’s yellow… how many senseless deaths are cause by people running  the red light – but that’s another matter for another time.)

     But any reasonably responsible driver will also be saying something else to himself/herself at the same time … something like “I need to stop at the intersection because that is the safe thing to do under the circumstances.”   Or even “I need to stop at the intersection because there could be an officer nearby – or a traffic camera, and I don’t want to get stuck with a ticket.”

     IN OTHER WORDS… we are faced with two reasonable but opposing motivations – one which translate into “GO” and the other which translates into “STOP”

     It all happens in a fraction of a second, but in that fraction of a second ONE of those factors (“GO” or “STOP”) wins control and determines our behavior.

     This thought occurred to me recently while doing interval training on the bike. As I was pedaling at maximal effort I was feeling an energy drain – and probably would have dropped down to a lower speed.  But all of a sudden an image came to mind that gave me a surge of energy – enough energy to keep me going strong! (What was the image? See the end of the article!)

     There I was, my body sending signals of pain and fatigue to my mind, which in turn was ready to activate the “STOP” response … when a different (opposing) thought came into my mind which sparked the “GO” response instead. That thought prevailed over the other tendency and won out… with the result being that I kept going “full throttle” instead of giving in to my original temptation to slow down.

     A similar situation was reported during the 2008 Summer Olympics, when U.S. Olympian Jason Lezak captured the world’s attention by recording (unofficially) the fastest relay leg in swimming history to help the U.S. to a gold medal finish in the 4 x 100 freestyle. This was one of the races needed to help teammate Michael Phelps set his Olympic record of eight gold medals – a loss in this event would have put an early end to that quest.

   Lezak was going against French swimmer Alain Bernard, who, at the time, held the world record in the 100m freestyle, and had earlier that day bragged to his teammates that they would “smash the Americans.”  Lezak was swimming the final leg of the race, and trailed the Frenchman noticeably at the turn. With 50 meters to go, Lezak was a full body length behind. After having taken first place in this event for nine consecutive Olympics, the Americans had come up short in both 2000 and 2004. In fact, just prior to the 2004 Olympics, I asked Jason what aspects of the experience – his second time there – he was most looking forward to, and he replied, “I’m looking forward to getting the gold in the 400 freestyle relay back from the Aussies.”

     So when Lezak swam his part in what television commentator and former gold medalist Rowdy Gaines called “the greatest relay I have ever seen,” besting his own personal record by 1½ seconds, he later explained:

“When I flipped at the 50 and I saw how far ahead he still was, I really thought, ‘There's no way (I can catch up with Bernard). The guy holds the world record. This isn’t possible.’ And then I changed and I said, ‘You know what, that is ridiculous. This is the Olympics, and I'm here for the United States of America. I don't care how bad it hurts. I’m just gonna go out there.’ I’ve been part of two teams at the last two Olympics that came out behind, and I wanted … to show that we are the nation to beat in that relay. In like five seconds I was thinking all these things. I just got a supercharge and took it from there.”

     Whether it is that “supercharge” that helps an athlete surge ahead in competition, or just the motivation to maintain a high level of energy and effort in practice … it often comes down to that “Yellow Light Moment” and WHICH ONE of the conflicting messages we tell ourselves – “Take it easy” OR “Keep on going!” – takes hold.

   I often ask athletes to picture some sort of image or scenario that will remind them of the way they want to perform. In this case – me on the bicycle - I thought of filling my car up with gas to fuel me on the way … and then imagined passing someone on the highway (i.e. going strong). That image over-rode the other signal my body was sending my brain – the one of feeling tired and feeling about to quit. 

   Another time I was on the treadmill, going at full speed, when the pain/fatigue kicked in. Although I was similarly tempted to slow down, I thought to myself “What if I was to get my second wind in the next 2 minutes? What if I was to get a surge of energy if I could just keep it up for the next two minutes? I thought to myself that IF that would be true and IF I would have slowed down instead that would have been a shame… and that thought – that my second wind could be right around the corner – gave me the determination I needed to keep going for the next two minutes. THAT MENTAL STRATEGY MADE THE DIFFERENCE between stopping and keeping going. 

     Like the saying goes – “mind over matter.” Which one of two opposing thought will prevail in your mind. That is what matters!

Post Script… There is probably not a basketball coach around who hasn’t made his players run suicides in a certain time, (e.g. 28 seconds) only to have them run again because some team members didn’t make the required time.  So the team runs again, and still comes up short. Eventually they push themselves and everyone finishes in time.  The thing is that by the fourth or fifth time they are that much more exhausted, and yet they manage to run the best time of the lot. This certainly speaks volumes about the mental part of our ability for endurance!  As former Celtics great and Hall of Fame basketball legend John Havlicek put it:

“Most people think they’re overworked so they stop. They could have kept going but they didn't. They weren't beat physically, they were beat mentally.”

            © by 2010 by Dr. Mitch Smith.  All rights reserved.