Commitment

A sports career will require that you give it time and resources. To be successful, you will have to make choices and compromises. You may miss social activities with family and friends; you might have to postpone certain educational and career plans; you may have leave home to train and compete.

The results of a survey of athletes representing the United States at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics gives a good portrait of life at the top level of sports:

When asked what was the greatest sacrifice they made in their pursuit of a gold medal, 33%t said social and family life; 29% said financial.

When asked how much time they spent training, over half (53%) spent 21 to 30 hours a week and another 20% spent 31-40 hours.

When asked about pain, 17% said they trained in pain more than half the time; 23% trained in pain one-fourth to one-half the time; and 37% trained in pain one-tenth to one-fourth the time. (1)

At some point in your sports career, you may have to ask yourself the following questions: To achieve my goals, am I willing to make the sacrifices? Will it be worth the effort?

If you're not sure, that's understandable. But keep in mind that you will be competing against some people who aren't ambivalent about their decisions.

The Ability to Handle Success-Related Pressure

Pressure has always been a part of sports. In fact, it's the essence of competitive sports. A good competition involves pivotal moments which determine who wins and who loses. Great athletes are those who can rise to the occasion.

* Said runner Michael Johnson, winner of gold medals in the 200 and 400 meters at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, "It took me some time to realize, but I love pressure. If there is one thing that will really take you to another level of performance--to the plateau where your victories are measured in the blink of milliseconds--it might be the ability to embrace pressure, to understand it, to draw it in, to make it your own and use it to your advantage." (2)

But many athletes still find pressure hard to handle.

* When she was 16 and a favorite going into the 1992 Olympics, gymnast Kim Zmeskal (who in 1991 won the all-around title at the world championships, the first American to do so) said this: "The pressure never stops. It's hard to stay in gymnastics because there are always young gymnasts coming up with new things." (3)

Success itself becomes the problem. "Success is just as scary as failure. You go for another 'high' to kill that 'high.' It's hard to take when people adore you to that extent--and those same people can turn on you when you don't deliver." That comment wasn't from an athlete, but from an actress, Elaine Stritch, who described what happens to any successful person in the spotlight. (4)

"I know guys out here [on the PGA Tour] who fear success, who don't want the pressure that comes with success or the attention. Heck, I've seen guys back off on Sunday afternoon because they know if they win they'll have to give a speech and they're afraid of giving a speech," said golfer Paul Azinger. (5)

Many athletes have found that they have trouble dealing with the expectations which accompany success. Examples:

* Said tennis player Andre Agassi when he was heading into a slump that would last several years, "I sometimes feel that I have an obligation to win, that's not always so satisfying." (6)

* Skier Diann Roffe-Steinrotter hit a slump after she won a silver medal in Super G at the 1992 Albertville Olympics. "I had a lot of problems, mostly my fault. I think the expectations of having won a medal and being expected to win World Cup races got to me." (7)

Luckily, Roffe-Steinrotter got her emotions under control and went on the win a gold medal at the 1994 Lillehammer Olympics and then a gold medal in her final career race at the 1994 World Cup Finals in Vail.

* Tennis great Martina Navratilova also talked about the problems that accompany success. "The pressure is tremendous when you feel like you should win it and that if you don't win it, you're failure. It's like, you can't win. If you win, it's because you should. You've vindicated yourself, but you don't get the pure joy of winning that you do when you're an underdog." (8)

* Golfer Greg Norman made virtually the same observation: "The more you win, the more people expect you to win, so the more pressure you get under. if you've won 70-odd tournaments and you tee up and you get in the hunt and you don't win, people say, 'Well, look, he didn't win.'" (9)

* Even less visible athletes notice the pressure and expectations. Said shot-putter amd discus thrower Connie Price-Smith, explaining her poor performance the year following her first Olympic appearance in 1988 (she also participated in 1992 and 1996), "Once you're an Olympian, people expect so much of you. It's been tough to live up to those expectations." (10)

According to Mary Lou Retton (who won the gold medal for the women's gymnastics all-around competition at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics)
expectations to perform are one reason there aren't more repeat Olympians. She reported that only one-third of the 1992 U.S. Olympic team had competed in a previous Olympics. "After a while, you start to feel you have to perform to other people's expectations, not your own. That takes a lot of the fun out of training and competing." (11)

Athletes should be trained to handle success, but most of them aren't. For example, after Canadian downhill skier Kerrin Lee-Gartner won an unexpected gold medal at the 1992 Albertville Olympics and was trying to finish out the season, she said: "It's a distraction, everything out of your usual program is a distraction, and lately things have been quite unusual." (12)

In baseball, this problem is called the sophomore jinx because many players chosen "Rookie of the Year" have bad second seasons. Several reasons for the problem have been suggested:

1. As more is expected of them, these players have trouble dealing with the pressure.
2. Now that they're well-known, their competitors study them more carefully to spot their flaws and weaknesses.
3. Early success has made these players overconfident, distracted, and/or undertrained.

One difference between a good athlete and a great athlete is the ability to accept the pressure and take it in stride. According to Dr. Don Greene, a sports psychologist, "We use the term mental toughness to mean performing well under pressure. There are rare people in sports like Jack Nicklaus who actually perform better under pressure. But for most of us, the best we should hope for is to perform at our normal levels in critical situations." (13)

"Without stress we'd all be dead," said Stanford University neurobiologist Robert Sapolsky. "The trick is knowing when to turn it on and turn it off. One person might panic and say, 'I don't know if I can do it.' The other person says 'Great, I've been preparing for this all my life.' Those two people are both experiencing stress, but they are having very different biochemical stress responses." (14)

Football great Jerry Rice explained his take on pressure: "If you don't have stress in your life, I don't think you can be successful. You need stress. People without stress aren't living a full life." (15)

Similarly, Russ Hellickson, head wrestling coach at Ohio State University, said, "In sport you don't ever eliminate the pressure, you just plain deal with it." (16)

Golfers in particular give considerable thought to handling pressure because theirs is a game of control. Here are a few coping mechanisms suggested by golf experts:

* David Leadbetter, a famous British golf instructor, said it helps to pretend that you're just practicing. "You can't admit that one shot means more than any other. Whether it's the tee shot off the first hole with 10 people watching or a two-foot putt on the last hole for the Masters with the whole world watching, stick to your routine." He also suggested that you remind yourself that you can handle the situation. "Don't let one bad shot affect another. If you've been putting well and miss a short one, think of it as an aberration. Don't allow doubt to seep through your game." (17)

* Paul Runyan (1934 and 1938 PGA champion) said he liked to cut himself some slack. "I always thought in those tough situations that I could afford to make one mistake. With the pressure off, I was more likely not to make any mistakes." (18)

Learning ways to deal with or diffuse pressure is an important part of an athletic career. Here's the advice Mark Rypien (quarterback of the 1992 Super Bowl winner, the Washington Redskins) was given: "Coach [Joe Gibbs] told me his definition of pressure is having a chance to prove yourself." (19)

How Do Your Evaluate Your Resources?

Before you begin each new stage in your sports career, take a realistic look at where you are going and if you have what it takes to get there. Always be prepared to see how you stack up against your competition. Are you ahead, equal to, or behind them? Are you improving, maintaining, or losing ground? Are you already performing at your peak or do you still have untapped potential? Are you as enthusiastic about your sport as your competitors are?

Be willing to shift directions if you don't have what it takes to make it to the top, have no chance of getting there, and are overextending yourself by trying. Remember that sports will always be but one part of your life. If you refuse to see the bigger picture, you are hurting yourself in the long run. Don't take risks unless you can live with the consequences. Don't ignore the realities of your situation to such an extent that in doing so you deny yourself the opportunity for
success elsewhere.

For example, don't take out a second mortgage to fund your training expenses unless you are willing to accept the fact that not only might you not reach your ultimate goal as an athlete, you might also lose your house. Don't use the money you have saved for college to pay for new equipment unless you are prepared to compromise on your education.

According to Michael Johnson, "Being realistic isn't settling for less than you're capable of doing; it isn't throwing away your dreams; it's simply acknowledging that, right now, you are incapable of doing some things." (20)

Remember--having a sports career is about making choices. With enough information, you will make the right ones for yourself.

1 USA Today, July 22, 1992.
2 Michael Johnson. Slaying the Dragon. New York: ReganBooks, 1996.
3 Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph, March 20, 1992.
4 USA Today, April 8, 1992.
5 John Feinstein. A Good Walk Spoiled. Boston: Little, Brown and
Company, 1995.
6 USA Today, June 1, 1989.
7 USA Today, January 14, 1994.
8 Rocky Mountain News, June 21, 1992.
9 Knight-Ridder article reprinted in the Boulder Daily Camera, June
14, 1995.
10 Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph, July 29, 1989.
11 USA Today, July 28, 1992.
12 The Vancouver Sun, March 14, 1992.
13 The New York Times, August 21, 1989.
14 U.S. News & World Report, February 14, 1994.
15 USA Weekend, September 15-17, 1995.
16 Steven Ungerleider. Quest for Success. Waco (Texas): WRS
Publishing, 1995.
17 The New York Times, August 21, 1989.
18 The New York Times, August 21, 1989.
19 AP Wire Service article reprinted in the Colorado Springs Gazette
Telegraph, January 23, 1992.
20 Michael Johnson. Slaying the Dragon. New York: ReganBooks, 1996.

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