Imagine this: You are an athlete – and not just any athlete – an elite athlete.  You are a highly successful player in the sport of your choosing.  The highlight of your day includes stepping onto the field, ice, or court.  The sport drives you, and it serves as your passion for countless years.  Many of your best memories come from your sport, but so do a few of your worst.  After suffering from 5 concussions, you have limited your ability to focus for more than a ten-minute span.  Having a dim light on causes you pounding headaches.  Feeling faint and dizzy has become apart of your physiology. And worst of all, the thought of getting back into the sport you can’t live without shoots a bout of anxiety and fear ripping down your spine.  It does not take an athlete to understand the effects of an injury due to sport.  It does however, take the right knowledge to understand how to best treat those injuries.  A study published by the Journal of Sport and Health Science in 2012 open the topic by saying:

“Sport injuries frequently have profound negative consequences on the physical health of sports participants.  They also have the potential to cause a great deal of psychological disturbance through increased anger, depression, anxiety, tension, fear, and decreased self-esteem.  Sport injuries often result in an immediate imbalance and disruption to the lives of the injured athletes including loss of health and achievement of athletic potential.”

The study is quick to note that while there are serious physical implications that follow an injury, there are serious, and often times more detrimental, psychological effects.  Laura Reese, Ryan Pittsinger, and Jingzhen Yang sought out to decipher what steps psychologists can take to help restore the most crucial component in recovery: an athlete’s mind.  The study targeted populations of injured competitive and recreational athletes age 17 years and older by using interventions commonly used in sport psychology.  The interventions included imagery, goal-setting, relaxation, micro-counseling, written disclosure, and acceptance and commitment therapy.  The interventions showed promising results.  Guided imagery/relaxation was associated with improved psychological coping and reduced re-injury anxiety.  Psychological techniques such as micro-counseling, acceptance and commitment therapy, and written disclosure demonstrated effectiveness in reducing negative psychological consequences, improving psychological coping, and reducing re-injury anxiety. While seemingly small, these improvements may be exactly what an athlete needs to get back to where they want to be.

The reality of injuries in sports is that too often the process of recovery turns a blind eye to the single strongest operating force in our bodies: our brains.  While we work daily to subdue concussion symptoms, heal a broken bone, or undergo surgery to repair a tendon, we forget that the component driving that recovery in the first place lies in our head.  The encouragement of psychological repair must be reinforced by psychologists, doctors, social support and the athletes themselves.  Using interventions such as those demonstrated in this study may provide the foundation needed to get athletes back in competition both more timely and safely.  The importance of mental stability during a physical injury could not be more crucial.  You would never allow an athlete to go back to competition with a broken collarbone.  They are simply not ready.  Think twice before sending an athlete – or yourself – into competition before mentally ready.  You may not be able to see the injury, but that is an injustice of equal offense.

Reference:

Effectiveness of psychological intervention following sport injury. Journal of Sport and Health Science, 1, 71-79.

With one of the greatest spectacles in all of sport – the FIFA World Cup – set to begin just around the corner, there is undoubtedly one question on every soccer fan’s mind: Who will win it all? There are a few obvious favorites, such as the host country Brazil and international powerhouse Spain, but if the history of international competition has taught us all anything it is this: Anything can happen on any given day.

Take, for example, the United States’ victory over favored Colombia in 1994, or their triumph over soccer great England in 1950. In both of these games, the United States entered a significant underdog – their game against England had them at 500:1 odds to win the World Cup while England boasted 3:1 odds – yet when the final whistle sounded our own American team found themselves victorious.

There could be any number of reasons for these outcomes (e.g. influence of weather, particular game strategies that prove particularly useful against certain opponents), but no matter the case the United States’ national team was, needless to say, fortunate. In all reality, they had little reason to be competitive in those games, let alone victorious. That is not to say that they didn’t still earn those wins, but it’s clear that something happened on those days to allow the United States to get that extra edge they needed to propel them to victory.

Looking at this year’s World Cup team, it may be apparent just what this USA team’s X-factor is: Confidence. Coming off a string of three international wins over Azerbaijan, Turkey, and Nigeria, the United States is heading off to Brazil on a high horse they have never ridden before, having never swept their World Cup send-off series before.

“This game gives us confidence, but the whole send-off series should give us confidence,” defender Matt Besler said following the 2-1 victory over Nigeria. “It’s been a grind but at the end of the day we’ve accomplished everything we set out to do, and that’s to get three wins. That’s really all that matters.”

Confidence they’re likely going to need, if they’re going to advance past the Group Stage. Playing against two of the top five seeds in the world, Germany (2) and Portugal (4), and against the team that has eliminated them from the last two World Cups, Ghana (37), this year’s U.S. team certainly has their hands full. But while such a task may seem daunting, the United States players and coaches are doing exactly what they should be when faced with this kind of adversity: staying poised, collected, and continuing to play their game.

In this year’s case, that is going to mean sticking with their guns. Playing against some of the best players in the world, such as Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal and Mesut Ozil of Germany, the United States will be leaning heavily on their stars. This year, with the recent dismissal of long-time star Landon Donovan, that’s going to mean forward Jozy Altidore.

“He’s our horse. It’s no secret,” goalkeeper Tim Howard said of Altidore. “We have to ride him. He has to put us on his back and score some goals for us.”

Though the task seems near impossible, there is still reason to have confidence in the boys wearing the stars and stripes. Between the upsets previously mentioned, Rulon Gardner’s gold medal wrestling performance over Alexander “Siberian Bear” Karelin in the 2000 Summer Olympics, and of course the United States’ men’s hockey victory over the Soviet Union in the 1980 Winter Olympics, U.S. national teams have taught the world two very valuable lessons: 1) Never count out the men wearing red, white, and blue, and 2) There is no limit to what you can achieve when you are confident in what you are doing.

So say what you will about this year’s United States men’s soccer team, and make your own choices when filling out your World Cup bracket. Just remember that confidence can take you places no one believes you can reach, and this year’s U.S. team has a lot of it.

References:

Associated Press. (2014, June 8). World cup 2014: U.S. heads to Brazil with boosted confidence. CBS News. Retrieved from http://www.cbsnews.com/news/world-cup-2014-u-s-heads-to-brazil-with-boosted-confidence/

Staff. (2010, June 20). Greatest upsets in World Cup history. Fox Sports. Retrieved    from http://msn.foxsports.com/foxsoccer/worldcup/lists/Greatest-upsets-ever-in-World-Cup#photo-title=U.S.+over+England%252C+1950&photo=11232455

When Pete Carroll was fired by the Patriots following their season in 1999, he had only one option: to move forward.  Carroll did just that and came away with a whole new frame of mind. He’s been with the Seattle Seahawks since 2011, and so has Mike Gervais, a high-performance sport psychologist. Both men understand that winning a game or building a successful team isn’t just about what happens on the field. In a “suck-it-up” NFL culture where players are all too aware about their personal well-being and lives being uncared for, they’re bringing a softer side to football. The idea is that happy players make for better players.  And that idea works.

Focus on the mental training and needs of the players through meditation sessions where the players are encouraged to be introspective and visualize their goals is hugely important. “Meditation is as important as lifting weights and being out here on the field for practice,” Russell Okung (Seahawk Offensive Tackle) says. “It’s about quieting your mind and getting into certain states where everything outside of you doesn’t matter in that moment. There are so many things telling you that you can’t do something, but you take those thoughts captive, take power over them and change them.”

Dedicated to the mental well-being of their team, Carroll and his colleagues pride themselves in finding players with positive attitudes. If you take one look at their Quarter Back, Russell Wilson, you can see the success that it has brought to their team. “I truly believe in positive synergy, that your positive mindset gives you a more hopeful outlook, and belief that you can do something great means you will do something great.” This is nothing but the truth from Wilson. He’s known for setting goals and records alike; achieving and even surpassing them. In 2012, his first year in the NFL, Wilson led the Seahawks to the playoffs; one of only 6 rookie QBs in NFL game history to win a playoff game. He finished the regular season ranked #4 in NFL passer rating and tied Peyton Manning’s record for most touchdowns scored by a rookie. To top it off, Wilson has even started his own charitable organization: The Power of Mind Foundation.

The “experiment” going on in Seattle may have other NFL teams scratching their heads, but the goal is to change the way that the football franchise approaches the well-being of the players. There’s a public stigma about psychologists: in order to work with one, something has to be wrong. Fortunately, the Seahawks are paving the way in proving that this idea holds little value.

Full Article: http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/9581925/seattle-seahawks-use-unusual-techniques-practice-espn-magazine