Author David Kauss looks at how athletic performance fits into your own life experience. His "total athlete" system takes into account your internal strengths and weaknesses instead of applying a predefined set of mental training exercises.
When I met Rod he was 6 feet, 4 inches and 245 pounds of solid muscle. He had exceptionally long arms; good hands for his size; and excellent speed forward, backward, and laterally. A quick learner who could read game situations and react to them instantly, Rod was, at heart, a team player that always played his position as he was coached to do. If football coaches could construct a linebacker in a laboratory, Rod is the guy they'd make.
I met Rod early in his third pro year. To young football players, what I've just described sounds like dreamed-of success; but more objectively, Rod was nearing the life expectancy of an NFL player. He was an average player in a league of physically exceptional men. Now he faced a crossroads: he would either grow enough to have a long, productive career that would provide him an outlet for his talents and energies and leave him in excellent financial shape, or he would struggle to maintain his position against the tide of ever younger, faster, and stronger athletes eager to steal his place in the league. If the latter scenario got to him, he would play for perhaps another year or two, sustain an injury in his struggle to keep his position, and ultimately leave the game with memories of a few great years, aches and pains that would compromise his functioning for a lifetime, and the need to start over in some new, non-athletic career to support his family.
Performance Problems
Even beyond his desire to give his coaches the aggressiveness they were looking for, it was Rod's awareness of how different he was from his football brethren that ultimately brought him into my office.
David R. Kauss, PhD, has been practicing psychology since 1978, but he began his psychological consulting work with athletes and coaches--including the UCLA football and baseball teams--four years earlier. In his role as a consultant, Kauss has provided performance-enhancement training to athletes and coaches at the elite and professional levels. He wrote about his early work with athletes in his first book, Peak Performance.
Mastering Your Inner Game: Part 1
Rod, a Football Player
Rod was not afraid of the challenge these two divergent scenarios represented. He wanted to do everything he could to increase his chances for success, not just for himself but also for his family. Rod was married, with a toddler at home and a baby on the way. He was what his pro team management would call a solid citizen type. He had grown up in a good family. Mom went to church every Sunday and usually got the family to come along. Dad ran a moderately successful plumbing supply business that probably would have been more successful if he'd been willing to cut corners with customers here and there, but that wasn't in his nature and wasn't how he wanted to raise his kids. Rod's older brother was considered the brains of the family and was completing an advanced surgical residency. His younger sister was considered the family jock. Although no professional athletic career lay ahead of her, she had been dominant on girls' teams throughout her school years in competitions from soccer to softball. Rod was the good guy in the middle.
Find more information about the book Mastering Your Inner Game by clicking here.
Even the most physically gifted athletes struggle in competition when they lose control over their thoughts and emotions. Mastering Your Inner Game arms you with the tools to understand, manage, and maximize your mental and emotional forces, factors that often determine whether you're an all-star and or an "also-ran."
If Rod had any particular problem as a player, it was a relative lack of aggressiveness in certain game situations. Since high school coaches had been pushing him to be meaner, more punishing in his tackling. He tried, but this was difficult for him. Rod was a genuinely nice man. Away from football, around people who were not exceptionally large and powerful as in the NFL, Rod impressed as the gentle giant' type of person. He was aware of his own strength and took care not to hurt anyone with it. To watch him play with his baby daughter was a lesson in tenderness. Rod's life off the field was a far cry from the savage, brute force required in his gladiatorial assignments every Sunday. Rod told me once that it sometimes felt strange to him that everyone around him in the game, especially his compatriots on the defensive squad, were so big and fast and got so excited by a bone-crunching hit on an opponent.
On his high school team, Rod was a good player but nothing special. In college he blossomed, and he was a star, at least to the degree that a defensive player can be a star at a small college. He caught enough attention from professional scouts to be drafted late in the third round. As a pro he learned quickly and continued to develop physically. He played some during his first year, with increasing responsibilities by early in his second year. By late that season, he was starting at left outside linebacker on a successful NFL team. Sportswriters generally had good things to say about him. The home fans cheered when he was introduced before games.
A member of the American Psychological Association, Kauss is also an associate professor of psychology at UCLA. He received his BA from Harvard University and his doctorate in clinical psychology from UCLA.
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