Arsenal’s slump extends to four straight losses in the English Premier League… Bill Hall is hitting .194 and trapped in a 1-for-20 slump… Jason Giambi was sinking in a 5-for-35 batting slump. What is this mysterious thing called a slump?
Dr. Jim Taylor has written, “Slumps are used to describe a wide variety of performance declines. As a result, there has been no clear definition of what a slump really is. For example, Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary (Merriam-Webster, 1974) defines a slump as ‘a period of poor or losing play by a team or individual’ (p. 1095). However, this definition lacks precision. Several factors must be considered in defining slumps. First, ability is important. That is, if the team were always lousy, their poor play would not be a slump. As such, current performance must always be compared to a previous level of play. Second, the length of the decline is relevant. For example, a baseball hitter who goes 0 for 4 may not be in a slump, but if he goes 0 for 25, he probably is. Third, a common aspect of a slump is that there seems to be no apparent explanation for the decline. If there were an obvious reason for the drop in performance, such as an injury, then it would not be a slump. Finally, a slump is subjective, i.e., a slump for one person may not be a slump for another. In defining a slump, these factors must be taken into consideration. As a result, a slump is presently defined as: An unexplained drop in performance that extends longer than would be expected from normal ups and downs of competition” (Taylor, 1988).
Unexplained does not mean that there is not an explanation and reason for the drop in performance. The primary reason for a slump is a lack of physical and / or mental awareness during training or competition. Improving performance is relatively easy if you know in detail what you have done, your actual performance, and know in detail what you would like to do, your ideal performance. If you know the actual and the ideal, and your willing to work at bridging the gap between the two, improvement is pretty much inevitable.
Then why are there so many slumps? Because most athletes, when learning to master their sport skills, never fully develop the mental and kinesthetic awareness needed to end the unexplained drops in performance. Instead they resort to using vague and negative words in an attempt to explain their sub-par performances. As a result, they are left hoping that the slump will end and their performance will magically return if they wear a new pair of “lucky” socks, or a “rally” cap, or try a new bat or...you get the point.
Let’s say that you are a good hitter. One day, for whatever reason whether through fatigue or distraction, you strike out during your first time at bat. No big deal, everyone strikes out once in a while. The second at bat it happens again. The third time at bat you begin to think, “I don’t want to strike out again. I need a hit.” But once again you strikeout. Not feeling like the game is going your way, you are fortunate enough to get a fourth at bat and a chance to redeem a dismal performance, but once again you strikeout. You go home with head hung low and now you have to wait until the next game to make amends for your poor performance. Finally, it comes and you are fired-up and ready to play. As you approach the first at bat the memory of the last game’s four strikeouts comes to mind. You try to shake it off and probably would have if that first pitch wasn’t a swinging strike one. Little thoughts begin to creep in asking, “What’s wrong? I’m not feeling right.” Strike three, you’re out! The next two times at bat the same thing happens. You now are thinking, “This is bad. I am going to lose my starting spot if I don’t start making contact with the ball.” At this point you are still the same player that days before was a “good” hitter, strong, quick, and athletic. But something has changed. The words you are using to describe what is happening to you are faulty. They do not explain or describe why the strikeouts have happened. The words you are using only further distract and convince you that there is “something” wrong. The obvious problem is that you are not aware of what is actually causing you not to hit the ball and play up to your ability. If you don’t figure it out, you will mostly strikeout again and sink further and further into the slump which, in reality, does not exist. You have fabricated this thing called a slump and you now feel helpless to do anything about it other than hope it goes away on its own. Sometimes it may appear that the slump did end on its own because, believe it or not, the words and thoughts that were distracting you and causing you to strikeout, may suddenly stop due to some unrelated extraneous thought or distraction. In that moment, if you happen to be at bat, your natural ability which had never left you, returns just long enough to get a hit. Slump over! But there is always the fear in the back of your mind that it could return and if it does, you have no clue how to stop it.
The key is to stop using words that lead you to believe that you are the victim of some external, mysterious, cloud which has enveloped you and has indefinitely taken over your mind and body. Better awareness in choosing the words you use, and focus on the task-at-hand, will end a slump and steadily improve your performance.
Although the following example is about a professional golfer, I have seen it happen in just about every sport in which I have worked. The pro golfer, I’ll call him Jim, was extremely talented and had scored many rounds in the low to mid sixties. The problem was finishing. During a tournament Jim would be on fire for the first two rounds, begin to fade in the third, and then completely fall apart in the fourth. Even when he scored well in the early rounds I noticed that he would begin to fade a little toward the end of each one. Because it would get progressively worse, and more noticeable round by round, Jim thought it was only occurring in the final round. This often happens in sports where you have a lot of time to think and “talk” inside your head. For many players who fade toward the end of a hole, round or tournament, the problem is suddenly becoming aware of the end. They focus on the consequences of not finishing well and think that this last shot or two really “counts.” In contrast to many amateur golfers who struggle with their drivers off the tee, the faders are very relaxed and focused because they are not thinking about where the tee shot is leading, at least not yet. The second shot is much like the first, but as they begin to see or realize that the end is near, they change. They are suddenly very aware of every stroke and the finality of the approaching hole, and ultimate score. Thoughts and words swirl around inside their heads about pars, bogies, and looking good to whomever they are playing.
For Jim, there was no pressure teeing off. He was relaxed, focused, and usually drove it right down the middle of the fairway. Self-imposed pressure tended to build as he got closer and closer to the hole. He began thinking about what each shot would mean especially if it didn’t go where he needed it to go. In a tournament, the same thing happened to him. The first day he felt pretty good. The end seemed so distant that he never gave it any thought. When he hit an errant shot in the first round he would say inside his head, “There are a hundred shots to go, plenty of time, no one mistake is going to do too much damage.” That is how he would shake-off or rationalize the “bad” shot which temporarily helped him remain free and loose to focus on the next one. Toward the end of the round this became a little harder for him to do because he would become keenly aware of his score and his position in the tournament. The eighteenth hole was always a challenge because he would say aloud, “This is it!” By the start of the fourth round Jim would be almost exclusively talking about what he needed to do to in order to finish high and in the money. This led to not striking the ball as well as he could and adding strokes to his score. This intensified the internal rebukes of himself, the course and those around him. He would secretly say in his head, “Here I go again, the wheels are coming off.” Not surprisingly, they did! For Jim, the last day meant the score was finally going to count and as he got closer and closer to the end the feeling grew ever stronger and every hole now somehow counted more. Jim would either think, “I’m on track for a great score! If I can just keep it going I’ll finally make some money” or “Oh man, I lost three this round! I’ve got to make up ground for those three
bogies on the front nine.” But all of these thoughts and words prevented him from staying focused on the task at hand, being absorbed in the details, and doing everything that could help him to perform well. The score is merely a byproduct of performance, so using words that focus on the score rather than on the task, will almost guarantee a poor one.
The words you use to describe yourself and what you do can shape and influence your emotions and future performances. The labels you use to define yourself are often far worse than what anyone else might say about you. “I can’t speak in public. I am terrible at this. I have never been able to do that. I can’t... to save my life.” Then the world piles on by adding more labels and creating the jargon that defines some new defect or disorder that will further define you. Could anything be more likely to assure the Yips than the using the word Yips? You might ask, “What are the Yips?” The term “Yips” is believed to have been coined by World Golf Hall of Fame member, Tommy Armour, who said, “The Yips are that ghastly time when, with the first movement of the putter, the golfer blanks out, loses sight of the ball and hasn’t the remotest idea of what to do with the putter or, occasionally, that he is holding a putter at all.” He went on to say, “Once you’ve had ‘em, you’ve got ‘em.” He said that the yips were the primary reason for his early retirement from the professional golf tour. And he was not alone. Many professional and amateur golfers suffer from this condition called the Yips. It is a condition that is most often caused by psychological thoughts and words that create a sense of pressure and stress so great that you literally can’t move! Basically what happens—this is going to sound wild—you get up in front of the ball to putt, you line it up, and, you literally cannot move the putter. If you manage to budge it, you usually swing in jerky and erratic movements guaranteeing that the ball will go anywhere but near the hole. When it happens, it is very alarming and disconcerting because you want to hit the ball but your brain can’t get your hands and arms to move in order to strike the ball. This phenomena also effects some golfers when they try to hit a ball with their driver. The club stops at the top of the swing and sometimes stays there with the golfer unable to follow through and strike the ball. And this doesn’t just happen in golf, it occurs in many different sports. In baseball, there have been a number of catchers who couldn’t throw the ball back to the pitcher. In dart throwing, the Yips manifests itself by preventing the thrower from throwing the dart, a condition that is sometimes called dartitis in the sport. Basketball players suffering from the Yips often can’t make crucial free-throws or other important shots. There are two lines of thought as to the cause: one suggests that it is psychological and the other is that there is more of a neurological thing going on called focal dystonia.
“Focal” means that there is a specific area that the condition is focused and “dystonia” means the some muscles involuntarily contract due to misfiring of neurons in the brain. I have worked with golfers suffering from the Yips and, while it certainly could have a neurological component to it, I was able to help many of them improve and in some cases completely eradicate the problem. Therefore despite the possible neurological implications, there must be a psychological component at least for some individuals. Typically individuals who are very self-conscience and analytical tend to think too much about what they are doing and they can develop a fear of striking the ball. The fear is not of the ball but of the immediate judgment that will come when it is struck. To avoid the judgment they literally freeze up apparently unable to move. Ironically the fear of judgment they are trying to avoid is nothing compared to the embarrassment of not being able to swing their club. This tends to create a vicious downward spiral that often ends any enjoyment the game once offered and in the extreme, like Tommy Armour, an early retirement from the game. It is a difficult thing to overcome because the psychological thoughts that led to it happening become conditioned to physical cues tied to their swing. There are ways to overcome it if the individual is willing to work through it and let go of the words and thoughts that caused it in the first place.
For every athlete there comes a time when the days of training and competition come to an end. For some it is the only thing they have ever done well and it can be very difficult to let it go and move onto the next phase of their lives. This is why you often see very successful athletes, and some not so successful, hanging on far too long or continually trying to make a comeback. Their sole identity and self worth has been tied to what they did as athletes. When their athletic careers comes to an end it literally feels like their lives are coming to an end. The main reason they feel this way is because they have never developed any other interest or skills and therefore have no idea what they want to do next.
One day I received a call from an NFL free agent who had played for a little over two years and he knew his career was coming to an end. He did not want to be one of those guys who desperately hung on bouncing from practice squad to practice squad or worse, playing in the Arena League until he was an old man. However, the thought of moving only seemed to increase his feelings of depression and anxiety about the future. He knew that I had worked with a number of players who had successfully transitioned to other careers and wanted to know how he could do the same thing. He had considered a couple of ideas that other players had tried but he really had no desire to pursue either of them. He had not saved a lot of money and he was worried that it would run out before he found another way to make a living.
He asked me,”How do you make a transition from sport to no sport when it has been such an important part of my life every day since high school? I love playing and it is the only thing that I am really good at doing.” Listen to what he said, “ I love playing…” No he doesn’t. He means like or enjoy or satisfying. But the word love attaches something to an inanimate object that shouldn’t belong there. He finishes the sentence with, “. . . it is the only thing that I am really good at doing.” No it is not, but the power of those words left him feeling empty and afraid. Sure it is a difficult time with a lot of mixed feelings as some part of you says go and the other part says stay, but that can’t stop you from moving on to a better life. My dad always had great advice and he used to tell me, “No matter how successful and good your current position or career may be, it’s good to have many irons in the fire.”
That little bit of wisdom saved me from becoming a hanger-on. Two months before the Los Angeles Olympic Games something happened to me that changed the course of my life. I was so excited about the opportunity to compete in the Olympic Games. It would have been a dream come true if not for the jump at the 1984 Irish National Championships where my knee gave out and I collapsed to the ground. I instantly knew that was it, my last jump. I was not sad or depressed or upset. This may sound strange to you but I had been praying for a long time to accept God’s will in all things so when this happened I trusted that it was perfect. Al Guy was International Secretary for Athletics and he was extraordinarily kind to me. Even after I told him that I would be withdrawing from the Games he strongly encouraged me to keep going and see how the knee felt in a few weeks. But I knew there was no way for me to be ready to jump. Fortunately, I had put my Dad’s good advise into practice. While training for the Olympic Games, I was in the process of finishing my doctoral degree, pursuing licensing as a sports psychologist, begun a small sports performance consulting practice, and best of all, met my future wife, Mary.
Dad believed that the more options you had the easier the transition and the better you will feel about making it. Of course he was right about that and I’ve always encouraged the players I have worked with to start developing other interests and skills early in their careers while they are still actively playing. This can be done in a reasonable way without distracting them from performing at their best during the season.
If you came to me one day and said, “I am not really sure what I want to do in life.” I would suggest you sit down in a quiet place with a big yellow pad and write down every single thing you can p
ossibly think of that might be of interest to you. Suspend all judgements about any one of them. Do not consider education, money, time or anything else at this point. Just list everything you can think of even if it seems wild or remote. Spend the time necessary to exhaust every possibility and then put the list aside for a little while. In a day or two come back to it and read through the entire list. Then read through it one more time and pick out your top ten choices. After you’ve done that, go onto the internet and actually research those ten career choices or things you want to pursue and find out everything you can about them: what kind of education and training do you need?, what are the salary ranges?, what are the time commitments? what does it look like to work in those fields?, and more. Interestingly, after you’ve completed that exercise, I guarantee you, you’ll probably drop out at least five of them. With the five that remain, I suggest that you go out and meet a specialist in each of those five fields. If you picked teaching in secondary education, go talk to a good high school teacher; if you’re interested in a orthopedics and sports medicine, talk to a orthopedic surgeon with a great reputation. Don’t be concerned that you will be bothering them. They usually are passionate about what they are doing and they would welcome the chance to tell you all about it. Ask them what it is really like, day in and day out, to do their work because every job has it’s mundane, “regular stuff” that is far from exciting. You will very quickly get a feel for life in their shoes and whether you would like to try them on. By the time you are through visiting the five, you will have whittled the choices down to one, or possibly two.
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