Athletes should understand their lives to understand their performances

Why are so many professional baseball hitters underperforming this season?

Cafardo published “Stumped by their stumps” in the Boston Globe on June 21st, 2009, an article acknowledging the frustration of baseball athletes, coaches, managers, and team owners at the poor seasons of many top baseball athletes this year. The article highlights a few theories thrown at this concern – from the need for athletes to learn more about opponents’ weaknesses to the natural decline associated with age. One theory is simply that athletes are experiencing down seasons for no apparent reason.

Lets look at this from a different angle.

What about the mental stressors that can affect performance? What about the effects of the current athletic climate in the US? Athletes have received negative attention in recent media surrounding use of performance enhancing drugs and other ergogenic aids. Perhaps these stressors are taking their toll on athletes’ performances.

At least acknowledging the possibility of mental barriers preventing optimal performance allows athletes, coaches, managers and owners to be open to sport psychology interventions. For example, Springer identifies potential mental barriers to performance in “Some think slump is all in Ortiz's head” in the Boston Globe on June 7th, 2009. Springer suggests that Ortiz is experiencing, what we call in the biz, a performance block that prevents him from executing what and how he knows how to execute at the plate. One technique Ortiz has tried to resume his typical power hitting is to tap his bat against his left shoulder, providing a rhythm and routine to narrow his focus on his performance task. This behavioral technique is exactly the type of technique athletes often feel comfortable executing because it is concrete and repetitive. Often, however, behavioral or cognitive techniques are not enough to improve athletes’ performances without additional treatment.

I align with other sport psychologists who acknowledge the importance of understanding the context of athletes’ lives, not just the context of athletes’ sport reality. As I mentioned earlier, often non-sport related concerns interfere with sport performances.

What can we learn from these articles?

If your own athletic performance is on a decline or is inconsistent, rather than adding extra training, new techniques, more stretching, or new weight lifting programs into your routine, take an honest assessment of your current climate. Are you stressed at work? Are you experiencing relationship difficulties? Are you emotionally tired from family demands? What are the prominent factors in your life that may influence your performance? What changes has your life undergone since your performances began to decline? Odds are your performances are spotty due to outside factors, rather than sport specific factors. Once you address your performances as a result of all your life’s stressors and consequences, you can begin to understand why you are performing poorly or inconsistently and make changes in your life specific to your own needs.