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In light of the words—about the New England Patriots—spoken by New York Jets head coach, Rex Ryan (and some of his players), and the media discussions about the impact they will have on this weekend’s AFC playoff game—here is an excerpt from chapter seven of my upcoming book.
THE FALLACY OF “BULLITEN BOARD MATERIAL” ……Here is another fallacy about the power of external diversion. Throughout my growth as a young hockey player, like many athletes, I was often subjected to unwritten rules that were supposed to make a player or team more successful—if only faith was placed in such external “truths.” For example, I had many coaches who cautioned us about speaking disparagingly, especially in public, about our opponents. The common thought system was then, and still is today, that you don’t want to provide the other team with fodder for “bulletin board material.” Reason being you might give the opposition added incentive to hate you, and thus more motivation to want to kick your butt on the field, court, course, or ice. Like virtually all athletes, the notion sounded right to me and so I bought in. As I moved on to play high school and college hockey, I refused to even mention my opponents during press interviews for fear of potentially saying the wrong thing. Then, one day during my junior year at Hamilton, several days before our yearly match-up with Colgate University, one of Colgate’s players commented in the local paper that “puny” Hamilton didn’t belong on the same ice with the more seasoned Colgate squad. Well, you guessed it. The day before the big game, the article was posted on the bulletin board in our locker room. And man, did it tick us off! Just as my former coaches had indicated, my teammates and I wanted to rip the heads off the rival players from Colgate. For the rest of the day, through our practice, and during our pregame meal, all we could think about was getting out there and sticking it to those guys. Finally, it was game time, and you know what happened? After a physical opening shift in which we dominated, “puny” Hamilton made tons of mistakes, couldn’t find the answer to Colgate’s systems, and lost 6–1. There are, I think, several lessons to be learned from this personal story. First, “bulletin board material” does not work. Actually, it is impossible for it to work. It provides the illusion of “firing up” a team when the genuine fuel for performance is inner clarity and calm, or stillpower. As we are aware, an external factor or judgment has no ability to impact a player’s performance positively (or negatively), and the minute we look in that direction is when the answers to competing with precision start to drift away. The second lesson has even deeper practical applications. Today, in one locker room after another, coaches and athletes are making the mistake of looking outside of themselves in order to prepare for competition. Tactics, such as making comments to the media or trying to inspire hatred of opponents, are only serving to rev up thought and emotion—the exact opposite of the clear level of functioning necessary for long-term success and growth. As opposed to what many of us think is true, respect for (and cooperation with) opponents is what allows us to prepare and execute fully. Looking down on the opposition, or judging, will always have the opposite effect. The crux of these two lessons, however, can be summed up in the following question: Isn’t it simply time for players, coaches, and leaders in the sports world to start to dispel these longstanding motivational misconceptions? Not only because it feels right to do so—judgment and contention will always bind; respect and cooperation will always free—but because these motivational mistruths do not work. They have absolutely no power to contribute to the development of players or the enduring success of teams. . |
Inner Sports founder Garret Kramer’s book Stillpower.
