By Victoria Laney
John Smoltz had a 2-11 record when he pitched for the Atlanta Braves at the beginning of 1991. His record soared to 21-2 following the all-star break that year. The dramatic difference resulted from the work of Jack Llewellyn, sports psychologist for the Atlanta Braves.
Jack has worked with players from seven baseball teams, professional boxers, tennis, and the Ladies Professional Golf Association. One tennis player was ranked two-hundred eighty-sixth in the world. In two months, he moved to thirtieth, and qualified for the Davis Cup Team. Llewellyn’s work has been so successful that he was appointed to the key role of the Sports Psychologist for the Polyclinic at the 1996 Summer Olympic Games.
“Are we winning, or just surviving?” asked Llewellyn, in a speech to athletes and would-be athletes in Atlanta. “As long as you worry about the competition, you aren’t a winner – you are playing not to lose,” he said.
“When we win, we don’t compare ourselves to others. Sometimes we listen to “motivational speeches,” and feel good. We should feel good because we are good, not because someone tells us we are good. Improving your performance makes you good,” he said.
Only three Atlanta Braves players are left out of 25 players on the team in 1991. The players are different, but the foundation hasn’t changed. “The team still wins. You have to make it so players want to play and win. If the players turn on a coach, you have to fire him, even if he is a good coach,” he said.
Seventy-five percent of kids drop out of team sports at age 13. It isn’t fun for them because their parents take it too seriously. Llewellyn coached T ball, which is a very simplified version of baseball. First, he announced that there would be no score keeping. Then he told the children to run out on the field and sit down. Wherever they sat is where they played. The goal was to hit and run. It didn’t even matter where they ran. They could run and hug Mom and say, “Did you see that? I hit the ball!” After a while, they began to run and touch all the bases. The kids had fun every day, he said.
On a team, it only takes one person to spoil the fun. We should make it a point to have fun every day. Emotion is good. We can’t win without feeling a lot of emotion. Talent has to be supplemented by emotion. Sometimes we are afraid to show much emotion, whether it is joy or anger. We are afraid of going over the edge. We are afraid of being unacceptable, he said.
Winners play on the edge. All of us we have a tape we play in our heads. We can control that tape. It contains our beliefs about ourselves, and our confidence in our performance. If we are playing on the edge, we might cross it some times. If we go over the edge, if we lose control, then we can rewind the tape for ten minutes. We can go somewhere, either mentally or physically, until we can come back to the edge, he said.
Great athletes learn to have this mental lapse before or after the performance, not during it. They understand that controlled stress is good. It is the stress of competing against themselves that drives them to new records, he said.
“Burn-out is a nauseating term to me,” he said. “Burn out is not an option.”
Stress is wonderful. Deadlines, budgets, and goals are good stress. I tell people not to relax. If you relax during the day you waste time. I have never told an athlete to relax. I tell them, play on as high an emotional level as you can all day.”
Its not what you are doing now that is important. It is what you can do in the future. We should learn more from children, and adults who are over 60. Kids can teach us about looking toward the future, and adults can teach us about not giving up,” Llewellyn said.
He coached a children’s’ soccer league in Culver City, California. He noticed the goal keeper never got a chance to run and kick. The goal keeper rarely had an opportunity to defend the goal, because the kids hadn’t learned to kick that well. So, he eliminated the goal keeper. The parents hated it, especially the ones from countries where soccer is a national sport. However, the children began to have fun. The players were more willing to kick toward the goal, and kick hard, without the goal keeper there. They began to score goals. They weren’t playing not to lose anymore. They had a chance to feel like winners.
In our games, we can mentally eliminate the goal keeper, even if he is still there. We can picture ourselves winning. If you can’t think it in, you can’t shoot it in, he said.
The Paralympics were cleaner, and far less political than the Olympics. In the 200 meter men’s race, one athlete’s artificial leg failed. He didn’t relax. He didn’t tell himself that people would understand if he didn’t finish. He played on the edge. He hopped on one leg for 80 yards until he crossed the finish line. He was a winner, Llewellyn said.
Lewellyn’s speech was sponsored by the American Wholesale Marketing Association.
