Barry Buss - First in a Field of Two

“First in a Field of Two” is Barry Buss’s personal memoir about his junior tennis experience and the strains that put upon his relationship with his father and how this influenced his developmental life as a person and athlete. Barry and his business partner have developed a tennis/clinic seminar project and will be going to tennis clubs throughout the country to educate families concerning the environment of junior tennis, with his book as the foundation for the seminars. Psychologist, Dr. Allen Fox, who wrote the forward to the book says, “This book is a valuable guide for a tennis parent of how not to raise a tennis-playing child...Tennis culture portrays our sport as one big red carpet event riddled with fame, fortune and riches, and that’s all true for a lucky select few. But there are a lot more stories like Barry Buss....There is a lot in here for everybody.” 

SZ: “First in a Field of Two” is a remarkable story of your tennis life and personal survival under the weight of formidable obstacles. It took courage coming to grips with this experience and making your journey visible for all to read. How has writing your story helped your life transition forward?

BB: Thank you. It’s a little early to tell what lasting impact writing my story will have on my life looking forward. Writing this book was a pretty gut wrenching endeavor I must be honest. It would have been nice to have written it once and been done with it. There was no master plan. After it was written I needed to rewrite, edit and proof read, format etc...all which involved revisiting the events again and again and again. I have always dreamed of being able to write a book of some relevance and I hope I have done that. I’m proud and exited for what the near future holds for me. I feel a lot lighter emotionally after getting all of this out and having my story be so enthusiastically received.

SZ: Your story at times is painful to read as your life struggles and addictions became increasingly out of control and detrimental to your goals and athletic talent. The book covers many issues: parental/child sport involvement, developmental issues, bullying, mental-emotional-physical abuse, athletic mental health issues, player/coach communication, are there preventative insights you hope readers will gain from reading this?

BB: It’s an important question that I wish I could give you a nice set of succinct takeaway answers that would leave everyone feeling good but I just can’t. Every young person pursuing excellence in our sport is in a unique dynamic. I wish it were as simple as a laundry list of Do’s and Don’ts that everyone could abide by to avert potential troubles. But it’s not. There are a few factors that are critical to having success in this environment, number one is education. Competitive junior tennis is an extremely  

complex emotional terrain. I don’t think children are emotionally wired to experience the levels of anxiety, disappointment, frustration, fear, elation etc., that a competitive tennis player experiences on a nearly daily basis from a very young age all through-out their playing career. It’s imperative that these athletes are surrounded by an informed supportive team, coaches, team mates, parents,  organizing bodies, everyone has a huge role and responsibility in keeping competitive junior tennis as healthy and nurturing an environment as possible. 

Another is communication. All parties, player, coach, parents need to be able to communicate openly and freely about what’s going on. This is complex when you are dealing with emotionally involved young people. They don’t have the language skills to articulate what they are experiencing internally, so it begins to manifest in all sorts of red  

flag behaviors, such as, cheating, tennis tantrums, tanking, choking, excuse making and in the more extreme cases like my own, a gravitation towards substance abuse and hyper dysfunctional behavior. We can’t be mind readers but we must become expert mood readers and be able to identify quickly when problems are arising and nip them in the bud as best as possible. For there comes a point in dysfunctional behaviors when they take over the host and then it’s too late.

Lastly, trying to keep the bigger picture in mind, or better yet having a bigger picture vision that is rational and attainable. There is an over emphasis on what families and players are trying to get “from” tennis instead of what they are trying to get “out” of tennis. Fame, fortune, riches, rackets, scholarships, trophies, you name it, all the material benefits that come with one type of “success.” Let me be clear, there is nothing wrong with the success that comes from being able to win tennis matches. Tennis is competition in its purest sense and the countless hours of grinding hard work needs to be rewarded appropriately and often, but at some point and it’s not easy to see when one is immersed in it, but if one can keep in focus what the bigger life skills are that we take away from pursuing excellence at such a complex sport, then everyone is guaranteed a successful outcome. 

Not everyone can be the best, you can only be your best, and no player or organization can take that away from you. Make tennis an inside job, a personal mission to be the best you can possibly be, so when you’ve hit your last competitive tennis ball, you have that innate belief in yourself that you can put 100% into the next life endeavor you choose and make the most of it. That to me is the ultimate return on one’s investment, to be able to walk away from our sport knowing that you did your absolute best and that no other measuring stick of success really matters. For there is a lot of life left after we put the competitive rackets away. The goal in all this should be to be able to developmentally segue into adult life whole and confident in oneself, instead of feeling battered and beaten and on one’s way to therapy or rehab to have your broken defeated self put back together. Sadly my experience from decades as a player and coach is that the segue is often quite difficult. I believe it does not have to be that way if all parties involved learn and perform their roles well. 

SZ: After an amazing freshman year at UCLA, playing your way up to the number one men’s position then leaving the team at the end of the year, after being burnt out, did you complete your collegiate education? 

BB: Yes, it was a tortuous circuitous route. I started in 1982, transferred twice, and eventually returned to UCLA in 1993-94 and graduated.

SZ: Through the years many junior players have known other players that are in an unreasonably hard, abusive parental situation, as an adult looking back, where do you think an intervention could have been made on your behalf? Where do safety nets need to be in place to help families in this type of distress?

BB: That’s a big question. So much of what happens in the harsher parent/child dynamics is done in private behind closed doors; or in the car on those long drives home. Obviously if physical abuse is seen or suspected that becomes the responsibility of the State and social services to intervene to protect the child, even then the efficacy of such interventions are hard to quantify. The more insidious emotional and psychological abuse that myself and many other peers of mine endured is because we live in a society where the family unit is considered sacrosanct. Who is going to perform an intervention? The USTA is not equipped for such things. Coaches are not skilled in such matters. There is no training of any of the responsible parties entrusted with developing young tennis talent. It’s beyond the skill sets at the larger mega academies. 

It’s very complicated. No one should be interfering with how a parent raises their own child. Yet, at the same time the competitive junior tennis environment is a highly volatile environment in which to raise a child. We, the players, coaches, parents, governing bodies are all in and heavily invested from such a young age. I believe the awareness that the system is conducive to potential problems in child development has increased in my 40 years of being in and around it, but the knowledge and ability to enact the safety nets you ask of is still quite lacking. 

Again, it’s about education. Parents need to be keenly aware of the environment they are putting their kids into. Sadly that education is earned through trial and error with a great deal of error in there. I don’t think you could find a single parent in the junior tennis  world who, not having played the sport as a kid, would have anticipated the pressures and demands on every member of the family unit that having a successful junior tennis playing child can bring forth. For, as I share in the book, when I interviewed many of my peer group as to why they had not put their kids in tennis, a sport so many of them spent their entire childhoods playing, and where many had excelled at on a world stage, the prevailing response was, “I would never put my kid through that.” This comes from the parents who know the game and terrain like few others. Which begs the question who is guiding this generation of players and parents through the minefield that junior tennis can present? Ultimately the safety nets in place today come down to being a very engaged and knowledgeable parent, which I am happy to conclude seems to be the case for many parents, but certainly far from all. 

SZ: In your story it felt that Glenn Bassett who was the UCLA tennis coach at the time admired and respected you as a player as did many other coaches and players. Do you think that coaches today at the collegiate level are better educated to notice and act on “red flags” when a player is having personal struggles? Are there better resources to support the student/athlete in collegiate settings? 

BB: Yes, the coaches are much better at recognizing the red flags and kids in distress. There is not an adult in the tennis world who does not have first hand knowledge of a loved one or close friend who has not struggled in many of the issues I detail in the book so awareness is better than ever. I have friends in the college coaching business and I can list a couple dozen of stellar human beings who are coaching in the college ranks today. These people care about their players as if they were their own children. It’s awesome and quite powerful. The college tennis system is healthy and thriving. Parents should feel very secure in sending their kids off to these schools where their kids health and welfare is more important to these coaches than winning matches and that’s a great thing. 

Colleges have athletic department counselors for troubled student-athletes. The NCAA drug testing regiment could be improved. Coaches are kept out of the loop if there is a positive test and are only informed upon a second positive, by then, it is in the hands of the athletic director as what to do with the troubled athlete. Again, with scarce resources  devising a system that benefits all parties and is cost effective will always be challenging. 

SZ: In hindsight if Coach Bassett had requested you see a counselor at UCLA would you have gone? 

BB: Absolutely! I knew matters were not going in the right direction. Especially when the bipolar symptoms really started to accelerate and become obvious. With the full knowledge of bipolar illness that I have now, I was rapid cycling all throughout my playing career. I left the team my sophomore year and stayed in school. In my junior year it was getting out of control for me, and just randomly walked into the Psychology Dept. at UCLA, walked into the first door I could find open and told the receptionist I wasn’t doing well and could she help me. I was 20 years old, so even then I knew something was up and would have taken any help I could get. When I transferred to UC Irvine as a senior and started playing for Greg Patton, after my first challenge match and five sets of my freaking out on the court, Coach Patton arranged a meeting for me the next day with a school counselor for an evaluation - which I welcomed with open arms.

SZ:  There is a chapter where you share your observations of the Player Boxes of Andy Roddick vs. Bernard Tomic during the 2012 U.S. Open. “Both players’ on-court temperaments being a reflection of their respective support systems; their emotional investment a perfect corollary with the level of emotional support in their Players Boxes.” How do you bring this awareness into your role as a tennis coach today? 

BB: Let me preface my response with, I have never met either Roddick or Tomic nor people in their respective Players Boxes. That aside it’s not hard to draw strong inferences from observation. The Player’s Box is a powerful metaphor. Tennis is unique in that it’s the only sport I know of where coaching is not permitted during play, (with a few exceptions), so on one level it’s the most individual of sports. Yet at the same time the Player’s Box has quite a few seats in it; for parents, siblings, significant others, coaches, trainers, agents. The support system is quite extensive. For us mortals playing away from the cameras and bright lights, it's really no different. Everyone has an important role to play in the development of a successful junior tennis player and if any part of that support system is not holding up their responsibility, in time it will begin to show in the player’s performance. 

I do my best to communicate often with the parents of my players. I give them frequent progress reports, not just on their child’s performance, but in their energy, attitude, effort, preparation etc.. If I see the kids acting out on or off the court, I have made it a staple of my work to get involved with the kids and parents to try to troubleshoot any problems as they arise. Sometimes it has worked out and through hard work with the child and parents, have been able to turn some young lives around, gotten some kids into college programs that weren’t going to get there without some serious work being done with them and their “Player’s Box.” 

SZ: You are now a teaching pro. Where do you teach and what population of players do you teach? 

BB: I take all comers. My current favorite student is a four year old who has the best happy dance you’ll ever see. He has turned his weekly tennis lesson into an art performance. My coaching arc has ranged from coaching college tennis, working as a hitting partner to many successful women tour players, to four fabulous summers in the Hamptons, to a couple of mega tennis complexes in Southern Cal. I now teach at a cool little park in Redondo Beach called Alta Vista. 

SZ: You have a goal to compete in the National 50’s. How’s your training coming along? 

BB: Ironically the fuel for writing the book came from my recent resumption of training when all my old junior stuff started to surface again. The on court anger, the fear to put myself out there completely and be fully vulnerable to frequent disappointments. I haven’t played competitive tennis in fifteen years and I thought the hardest part would be the physical conditioning but it wasn’t. It was the emotional part of playing that I was so rusty at. I will always be athletic and able to hit a tennis ball well, it’s all the other stuff that is the challenge. I always looked at playing as a sort of free therapy in our automated routinized world it is easy to become a stranger to oneself. Not so on the tennis court. The court is where I get introduced to myself in so many ways. If I’m having a great experience playing it’s because all facets of my life are in order. My physical health, mental health, emotional health and likely most importantly my spiritual health and ability to see the bigger picture and the role tennis has always played in my life. It’s a privilege and honor to be able to play a sport so many millions of people admire so much. I still love the feeling of playing great tennis, so if my body can hold up, I look forward to giving it one more good run in the 50’s and see what I can learn from the process. 

SZ: The funding to publish “First in a Field of Two” was well supported on Kickstarter. Now that it’s written how/where can people purchase the book?

BB: A special shout out to all those who were so gracious and generous to support the publication of my book through Kickstarter. The book is available on Amazon and directly through me via the Kickstarter address.

SZ: Do you have any favorite quotes, stories or tips that give your life guidance today?

BB: Thoreau has always been one of my favorites. “A voice said to him - why do you stay here and live this mean moiling life, when a glorious existence is possible for you?

Those same stars twinkle over other fields than these.” This quote has always resonated with me to keep pushing the boundaries of my comfort zones in a lifelong pursuit of a better more fulfilling “glorious existence.”

SZ: Anything you would like to add? 

BB: My story is more the exception than the norm and it should be read as an eye opening expose of what can happen to young people who are brought up in challenging situations. It is not an indictment of anyone or anything. I truly believe that everyone along my life’s path was doing the best they could, myself included. There are no guaranteed outcomes in life, but I know if one keeps trying to push forward to improve their lot in life, good things do come. 

SZ: Barry thank you for taking the time to share your story. Hopefully it will reach  those athletes that may be in need of some personal guidance.

*Featured guests are not current nor former clients of Susan Zaro

* This article may also be read @ the examiner on line.

John Van Every - Cross Fit Longevity

Cross Fit describes its strength and conditioning program as “constantly varied, high intensity, functional movement,” with the stated goal of improving fitness. Work-outs combine movements such as sprinting, rowing, jumping rope, climbing rope, weight lifting, and many body weight exercises. The equipment used during work-outs include barbells, dumbbells, gymnastic rings, kettle bells, medicine balls and boxes for box jumps to name a few. These elements are brought together in numerous creative combinations for work-outs. Classes typically include a warm-up, a skill development segment, a high intensity work-out and a period of stretching.

John Van Every a Cross Fit Trainer in Santa Cruz has developed a unique program, 

Cross Fit/Longevity, which is geared towards an older client population.

SZ: What’s your sport participation background?

JE: I played high school sports mainly basketball and baseball. I’ve participated in a lot of different sports through the years. Currently I play softball on the weekends in a men’s league. I also mountain bike and my family are big fly fisherman.

SZ: How long have you been an athletic trainer?

JE: For three years. I had joined a Cross Fit gym and was working out there. I fell in love with the programs. I started doing it more and more and entering Cross Fit competitions. One night I was sitting at dinner with my dad and because he’s an active guy I suggested that he try Cross Fit. He said, “I don’t want to get hurt. You guys are like taking working out to an extreme level and I just want overall fitness and not to hurt myself.” This was where Cross Fit Longevity was kinda born, out of this conversation at the dinner table. The idea of developing a Cross Fit program geared towards the older athlete. I hate to put an age on Cross Fit Longevity because there are 30 and 40 year olds who haven’t done anything physical and they can be just as out of shape as someone who’s active in their 60’s. I try not to limit the age limit of the class participants. 

Three years ago I received my level one certification through the Cross Fit trainer program, then I opened Cross Fit Longevity with the hopes of encouraging older athletes to become active in this particular program.

SZ: What other trainings do you have? 

JE: I’m Cross Fit level one certified, Cross Fit football certified and Cross Fit endurance certified. I have kept my trainer credentials focused on the Cross Fit Arena. 

SZ: Are Cross Fit programs franchised?

JE: They are affiliated. So to put a Cross Fit sign on my gym door I pay an affiliate fee, which gives me the Cross Fit name. All the gyms have a different flavor and Cross Fit is open to letting trainers run them however they wish. 

SZ: You can orchestrate your gym anyway you wish.

JE: There’s eight different Cross Fit gyms in Santa Cruz and they are all different. They all cater to different personality types and they have different programming. I run mine pretty heavily based on strength and conditioning. Other gyms may be more heavily focused on gymnastics and endurance. 

SZ: Describe the principles behind Cross Fit and how it’s different from other work-outs. 

JE: The difference from a traditional gym work-out is that Cross Fit takes a lot of different disciplines. In our work-outs there are Olympic lifts, slow lifts which are like back squatting, front squatting, dead lifting, power and strength moves. Clients also develop a lot of gymnastic moves for example, pull-ups, push-ups, rope climbing, wall ball. Cross Fit training takes all those to mix and match the work-outs. Every work-out is different. 

Cross Fit is an overall system of training that builds on a hierarchy;

1. Diet: Lays the molecular foundation for fitness and health.
2. Metabolic Conditioning: builds capacity in the three metabolic pathways aerobic, lactic acid, and phosphocreatine pathways.
3. Gymnastics: Establishes functional capacity for body control and range of motion.
4. Weight lifting and Throwing: Develops ability to control external objects and produce power.
5. Sport: Applies fitness in competitive atmosphere with randomized movements and skill mastery.

People that join a gym typically end up spending most of their time training in an oxidative state. They get on an elliptical machine for an hour and a half and watch t.v.. This raises their heart rate up into a certain level but it doesn’t do much but elevate their heart rate. There’s no spike in their heart rate then recovery. Cross Fit training builds capacity in the three metabolic pathways: phosphocreatine, glycolytic and oxidative. A metabolic pathway is just a method the body uses to produce ATP, the body’s storehouse of energy which is utilized by muscles. A person is as fit as their capacity in each of the three pathways.

SZ: Is training as a group another differing feature from other gyms?

JE: The community aspect is absolutely another large part of Cross Fit training. Everyone kinda knows when people come in, at what times, and what classes they are taking. They cheer each other on. If someone is struggling through a work-out and someone else is done with their sets that person will come over and cheer on the others encouraging them to finish. The sense of community is a big piece of the work-out process.

SZ: You currently run a very popular program in Santa Cruz, Cross Fit Longevity. Is this a regular part of Cross Fit’s programs or a pilot program?

JE: It’s a pilot program. I am the only person running a Master’s program out of all the Cross Fit sites. 

SZ: In the nation or locally?

JE: In the nation. Some sites offer Master’s classes like one class a day. But the programming is not really geared towards them. They just kind of do the same work-outs with lighter weights. My program is focused on things that are happening in older athletes. They need a lot of strength in their legs, glutes, and hips so we focus on getting that strength back first. You can’t have balance, agility and coordination unless you’re strong enough. The first three months of the Longevity Program is to develop strength and technique. Once the base strength is established the athlete is able to do a 

lot more.

SZ: Who is your target senior audience? What inspired you to run this program for clients in the 50 plus years age group?

JE: It was really all around my dad. It’s a demographic that has been missed. People have this impression that these work-outs are only for military, first responders, young kids and that the programs are really intense, hard on the body. My dad is sixty-six years old. He’s in incredible shape and he was the one that said, “You have to target this age group. We are the one’s who need it the most.” 

SZ: If you were talking to a group of seniors who fit into the following categories:

1. Dropped out of an exercise program in their 40’s b) Never were into exercising. c) Were competitive athletes years ago but stopped regular exercising after starting their adult work life. What would you say to these folks to motivate them to try this type of program? 

JE: I would say you can’t afford not to do this. It’s for your health. You can’t do any activity three hours a week and receive the benefits this gives your fitness. Someone can sit in front of a computer fourteen hours a day and one hour a day should be devoted to their fitness. 

SZ: For people concerned about injury, what are the types of preventative measures you take? 

JE: I tell them I’m not here to injure them. I am not in their body so they need to communicate to me. If their muscles are tight, if their hamstrings or back is bothering them, we work around it. I will work to come up with an alternative that’s lower impact, but still receiving the benefits of training their energy pathways. If someone tells me that they have tendontious in their elbows then we will just work on squats and not pull anything on that day. I understand that people have aches and pains and modify work-outs to the clients particular needs. Each day during the warm-up I check in and ask how they are feeling and if there is anything I should be aware of.

SZ: What are the mental/physical hurdles seniors may face when they engage in this program? How do you help them through the early stages so they continue to remain inspired and believe in their abilities to gain fitness in their later years?

JE: I give them a lot of feedback and the community keeps them motivated. There’s such a variety of skills within a Cross Fit program you can’t master any of them so I think people stay motivated and inspired by their progress. They shoot for personal goals. I see clients who may start off dead lifting 45 lbs. and can’t believe they can lift that much. Months later the person has improved to the point of lifting 113 lbs, that’s a big change. People see themselves becoming stronger and the progress of their health I think that’s what inspires them. 

SZ: Do you have any favorite stories, quotes or tips that has given your career guidance?

JE: I love the people that come in to my classes. I think it’s more inspiring for me to see these people come in and make progress in their overall fitness and strength. They may not believe they can do it and then they do it. The people that are consistent, that give the program a shot and work hard are the most inspiring. It makes me realize that what I am doing is totally worth it. It can change peoples outlook and lives. Going through a work-out they don’t think they can get through and getting through it, can carry over and empower other areas of their lives. 

SZ: John thank you for taking time out of your busy day to talk about the training you are providing at Cross Fit/Santa Cruz.

*Featured guests are not current nor former clients of Susan Zaro

*This article may also be read @ the examiner online

Brad Webb - Oracle Racing AC72

Brad Webb is a member of Oracle Team USA and participating in the 2013 America’s Cup to be held in San Francisco Bay. Brad has been involved in six America’s Cup campaigns and been a member of Oracle Racing for the last ten years participating as a bowman. Brad was the bowman on the Trimaran USA 17, the winner of the 33rd America’s Cup in Valencia Spain in February, 2010. Brad is a member of the Muritai Yacht Club in Wellington Harbor, New Zealand where he learned to start sailing P- Class dinghies at age twelve. In the last twelve years he has competed in more than 140 events in sixteen countries. 

Brad and his wife recently started AC Sailing SF, which departs from Pier 39. AC Sailing SF offers guests the unique experience of sailing on former America’s Cup boat, the 85 foot USA 76.

SZ: You began sailing P-Class dinghies at age 12 on the shores of Wellington Harbor in New Zealand. What early experiences fueled your passion for competitive sailing?

BW: When I got out on the P-Class and I started racing. I guess that competitive spirit was always in me. I tried a lot of different sports before I picked up sailing. Sailing was one of the last sports I tried and in the dingy being at the helm it was all me. I liked that week to week there was always more to learn. There were always little tweaks I could do with the boat and technique. Obviously when I began racing I was way in the back. I found it rewarding each week to go out and try to learn something more and try to get closer and closer to the guys who were out in front finally getting to the front. 

I grew up by the sea so with sailboats in front of the house where I grew up I was kind of teased for a good dozen years before I finally got out and began sailing. Once I had my little P-Class, when I came home from school I’d rig it up and sail around the bay before 

night fall. Then I would go home and do my homework and do all the other things I was supposed to do.

SZ: That sounds like quite a pleasant life.

BW: Yeah it was. It was great. But my friends were doing other things. They were going surfing or playing rugby or hanging out at the mall doing whatever kids do, but that’s what I enjoyed doing. When I began sailing on big boats that’s when I really got bitten by the sailing bug. On the big boats I could really feel the loads and the boat going faster and faster. Obviously every kid reads magazines he’s into and I was reading sailing magazines. I saw all these rock stars sailing off on incredible boats to exotic places and that was the life for me.

SZ: What’s the process to prepare for the 2013 America’s Cup? Is it a two year project developing as a team? 

BW: It varies. The America’s Cup doesn’t have a set date year to year like the Olympics or other World Cup events. The America’s Cup is dictated by the defender which this time is us. The defender decides the venue, dates for the regatta and the class of boat we are going to sail etc., that’s what makes the America’s Cup unique. This time was quite a short turn around just three years from winning it in 2010. But the idea behind the short turn around was not to clash with any of the other huge sporting events that are going to be taking place in 2014. The idea was to try and have the America’s Cup stand alone in 2013. 

SZ: To stand alone as an event and create more public awareness and viewing opportunities.

BW: That’s really been the biggest push this time. In 2007 there was an incredible regatta in Valencia, Spain. The reception in Europe was fantastic. Bringing the event to the U.S. market is a little bit tougher because there are so many other distractions and sports in the U.S. to compete with especially as far as viewership and television time. 

Coupled with the global recession it’s a tough time to be trying to do this but the roads been set. 

SZ: A sailing team has many issues to attend to from preparing the boat, getting out to the starting line, weather conditions, the competition, handling the boat, coping with crew issues to name a few. What role if any does sport psychology play in preparing for the demands of a race of America’s Cup magnitude? 

BW: It’s all about technology and innovation. Our design team and technical people are incredibly smart finding boat speed on the computer screen. That’s what the America’s Cup has been about since the very beginning. It’s about building a fast boat and using the best technology that’s available at the time. In 1851 the America’s Cup coincided with the 1851 World’s Fair which was about innovation technology. So certainly for me that’s what I love about the America’s Cup. Being a sailor I love the team aspect of it. I love being part of a competitive environment where we’ve been given these tools, these boats that are on the cutting edge. But ultimately we as a sailing team have to go out and sail them and really get the best potential out of them especially now that we’ve gone to catamarans where the performances are off the charts, but also the chance for catastrophic failure are a lot greater as well. The room for error with these catamarans especially with the 72, is so fine that we are really relying on our skill and our team-mates around us to make sure we keep the boat on it’s feet. 

SZ: Are crew members on board using a computer in real time reading information to make decisions about the moves the boat should make?

BW: It won’t be as prevalent in the 2013 Cup because the race course on S.F. Bay is very short. With the city on one side and Alcatraz on the other side. In the past when we had long courses it was a much bigger playing field. We will definitely have tablets on board that are telling us loads, boat speed, what the winds and tides are doing. But this time the races are so short and the work load on board is so high we’re not going to have as much time as we’ve had in the past to have someone’s head in a computer. We’re going to have to be making a lot of decisions intuitively as compared to the past.

SZ: What is the decision making hierarchy between the helmsman, tactician and crew during the race? Which situations dictate who decides?

BW: It really depends on the boat. On some sails the helmsman makes all the decisions. But in every case all the boats all the crews are constantly talking about what they see around them. John Kostecki is the tactician and quite often makes tactical calls so Jimmy (James Spithill-Helmsman) can maintain focus on boat speed. But there are other times when Jimmy makes the call completely based on intuition of what he thinks and sees at the time. They don’t always have time for a discussion.

SZ: In an interview with Sail-World.com you describe the AC72 as Alinghi 5 with 17’s wing and “the big deal will be the wing.” Explain the significance of the wing and what benefits it brings to the speed of the boat and challenges it presents to sailing the boat.

BW: We had a wing on our trimaran when we won in 2010. It was a huge gamble that ultimately paid off but it really opened up some incredible possibilities for what we could do with the America’s Cup. There are a lot of logistical issues with the wing. Instead of there being just a mast, boat and hoisting a sail, you’re dealing with the wind from the

second you roll it out from the shed. It’s constantly creating lift and it’s a very delicate piece of equipment to get onto the boat and in the water all in one piece without damaging it. The benefits of the wing are incredible. It’s just so much more efficient because it’s an attached wing, attaching flow to the wing, like the wing on an airplane, it maneuvers so much easier. 

SZ: Other than being on the boat and sailing what physical training does the crew do to keep their body physically fit for the demands of getting around the boat when at times it’s 20-30 feet off the water?

BW: We couldn’t believe how physical these boats were. While they had the same load as a the Cup boats we’ve sailed in the past, because the crew is dealing with a platform that’s quite wide we’re essentially sailing two boats. The crew works on one side of the boat then runs to the other side and we are constantly running so that requires a higher standard of cardiovascular fitness. Coupled with that because we are dealing with high loads we have to maintain a high level of strength. There is a maximum weight limit to the crew as well so we’re kind of playing this game, trying to get the best fitness and the best strength out of each of our sailors, at the same time trying to recognize how the best crew might be put together. For instance we can’t have too many grinders because they are all over 100 kilos. We also can’t have too many light guys because we still need the strength and the power that the big guys provide to grind the sail, winches, and hydraulics. So that’s a balancing act when it comes time to putting a crew together.

SZ: Do crew members have special diets? Are they aware of their weight?

BW: Absolutely, we weigh in every morning and the fitness department keep tabs on that. They also keep tabs on our body fat and muscle make up to make sure that we are not over doing it in one area or another. 

SZ: What tips do you have for spectators who are watching the sailing competitions from the shore so they have a better understanding of what they are seeing, other than which boat is leading?

BW: My advice to people would be to, for whatever reason, find a team to root for. Whether it’s that they saw an interview with someone on a particular boat and they liked what the person said or whether it’s a color of a boat that they like. Just find a reason to focus on a team and follow them. The races are so short there’s an opportunity for everyone in the race to win so while you might think you haven’t backed the right horse in one race, all of a sudden you might find in the next race they’ve blitzed everyone and gotten out in front and won the race. That’s really the exciting thing about this race course, sailing on the city front and the fleet racing that it’s anyone’s game. The race is just so spectacular and it’s getting easier to understand. The way that Stan Honey has set up the television viewing makes it a lot easier for people to figure out who’s in front and who’s behind, along with some of the more technical aspects of the race. 

SZ: You and your wife recently created the AC Sailing SF business which sails from Pier 39 in San Francisco. Describe the sailing experience guests receive when they sign up for this tour.

BW: The idea came about after the last America’s Cup. I saw one of our our old race boats, USA 76, still parked in our base in Valencia, Spain and it occurred to me that the America’s Cup excursion model had worked in other parts of the world. San Francisco has a rich history in the America’s Cup. It’s a little bit hidden but there’s been challengers coming out of San Francisco for a very long time. There had been nothing really here for people to touch and feel. So my wife and I made the decision to begin this project. We made the decision to bring the USA 76 here and modify it for tourist service. We made this decision prior to S.F. being announced as the host city for the 2013 America’s Cup. We thought, the Golden Gate Yacht Club is the America’s Cup holder, S.F. is the current America’s Cup team champions, there needs to be something here. 

The whole idea was to allow people to touch and feel to some degree the America’s Cup experience. We’ve been operating for a year and a half now and it’s going great.

Because of my current responsibilities we’ve installed some incredible people to run the program. But I’m still part of it day to day. The experience allows people, even though the boats have gone to multi-hulls, to be part of the crew. Guests grind the sails and trim the lines, drive the boat. We’ve had incredible responses from participants. 

SZ: You’ve spent a lot of time sailing all over the world. Do you have any favorite quotes, stories or tips that have given your career guidance?

BW: I always go back to a quote that Grant Dalton, he is the head of team New Zealand, gave me years ago. I was seventeen or eighteen at the time and bumped into him at a yacht club where he was promoting his sail around the world campaign. I was this bright eyed kid and I told him that all I wanted to do was to go sailing and travel all over the world. He said, “Take your time, enjoy your sailing and continue trying to be better because the next 10 years are going to go by in the blink of an eye. You will achieve your dreams but enjoy the ride and really just enjoy your sailing.” He was dead right. Ten years, actually twenty years have gone by in a blink of an eye. By the time I was twenty-eight I had been in three America Cups. When I look back he just said, “Go sailing and enjoy your sailing.” That’s what I did and ultimately I think that’s what led to my success. I was always trying to get up in the morning and do a better job but ultimately enjoy what I was doing. Let’s face it not many people get to go out everyday and make a living doing exactly what they love to do.

SZ: Anything you’ve like to add about sailing or the America’s Cup?

BW: I mentioned it earlier. What we are trying to do within the America’s Cup and AC Sailing SF is to get people to experience sailing. There’s still that stigma out there that it’s untouchable. I bought my first P-Class dingy for $250 U.S. and started a life long passion. The night I got the P-Class my dad pulled out a little note book and wrote $250 at the top and said I got $5 every time I mow the lawns and $5 for washing the car and I had to pay it off. 

SZ: You were given the opportunity to take responsibility for it.

BW: Exactly and so I think what we are trying to get people to understand is that sailing is accessible and we are welcoming people in.

SZ: Brad thank you for taking time from your very full schedule to talk with me about

the America’s Cup and sailing.

*This article can also be read @ examiner & www.susanzaro

*Featured guests are not current nor former clients of Susan Zaro

*Photography credit: Oracle Racing

*Photo credit: Erza Shaw/Getting Images

Brandi Chastain - Celebrity Soccer Challenge

For many years Brandi Chastain has been well known for her outstanding professional soccer accomplishments as well as her major contributions during her participation on the United States women’s national soccer team. Chastain currently plays for the California Storm of Women’s Premier Soccer League and has played for the San Jose CyberRays of the Women’s United Soccer Association, and FC Gold Pride of Women’s Professional Soccer. In her position of defender and midfielder through-out her playing career she has been a major force, helping her teams win two Women’s World Cup championships, two Olympic gold medals, and an Olympic silver medal. Off the field, for many years Chastain has been involved in charitable causes. On Sept. 22nd at San Jose’s Municipal Stadium, Chastain is hosting the Brandi Chastain Celebrity Soccer Challenge and Radio Disney Concert.

SZ: Team building exercises can be an important intervention to overcome individual differences and clarify roles and strengths. As a player and later as a coach which team building exercises have been your favorite and why?

BC: We’ve done so many of these over the years. Two come to mind immediately.  The team (1996 National team before the Olympic Games) were out on the soccer field and a soccer field is a really big space. The team was at the Olympic training center in San Diego and the sport psychologist pumped up a balloon for each player. There were around 24 players and each player was given a balloon. The first part of the exercise began and the task was each player had to keep their own balloon in the air. We had three minutes to keep the balloon going. Then more balloons were introduced and the exercise shifted to player’s needing to manage their balloon and another balloon at the same time. As a team our task was to work together to manage all the balloons. Players couldn’t just worry about their own balloon. The message was can a player manage their own balloon amongst other people who were trying to manage their own and how long could we as a team keep all the balloons going? It was an exercise in effective communication, focus, and managing the space as a team. The exercise was timed to see if collectively we could beat the previous time. I remember that exercise as being really fun. It parallels a lot of things that you do in life. We talk about juggling different things in our lives so the balloon exercise was really effective. 

SZ: What a great exercise.

BC: And it’s fun! That’s the great thing about team building. Let me go back a step. I think psychology is something you have to buy into. You have to practice these things and be diligent about it. You have to buy into, “Okay I am going to try this exercise and get something out of it.” I think that was one thing that the (1996) national team did that year was buy into the idea that this was critical to our success. Even though the balloon exercise was a silly exercise of keeping a balloon in the air, we took it seriously.

SZ: This exercise really impacted you.

BC: For sure. There were many exercises we practiced and the sport psychologist gave us some great individual exercises, and sometimes stories. I remember one story in particular about an individuals impact on society. It was a story about a man walking down the beach and from the opposite direction a woman was walking down the beach. The woman noticed from the distance that every few steps the man would lean down and throw something into the ocean. The woman finally was close enough to inquire what the man was doing. He said, “I’m helping these sand dabs get back to the ocean.” The woman said, “That’s like an endless task. You can’t make a difference in the big scheme of things.” The man replied, “Well to this sand dab I did.” The message being that the task seems really, really big but as one person you can make a difference maybe to one other person or thing. Overtime you make a greater difference. That message stuck with me as well. 

SZ: The examples you just shared with me planted some powerful seeds in your mind. In the experiences and story the seeds of meaning were planted. As a player when you are in the experience competing, somewhere in your mind you have these resources to draw on. For example, “We work together as a team. My contributions big or small make a difference.” It’s particularly valuable when the whole team is carrying the same messages and beliefs. 

SZ: In any sport there are calls missed by officials. Whether it’s in a  professional, Olympic or collegiate game things happen. What mental skills have you developed or acquired over the years to avoid letting those emotional moments on the field trip up your performance when the calls have gone against you or the team?

BC: My husband, (Jerry Smith head coach of Santa Clara U. women’s soccer), would be laughing to hear you ask me this question because I am a very emotional player. I’m a reactive player. I react to these kind of distractions in the heat of the moment. It was one of the biggest obstacles for me on the field to not allow those things to throw me off one way or the other. Two things helped me with this. One, was someone pointing out it out to me and two maturing. I was able to see that there was no positive end result in reacting. Coming to that realization myself, it’s like anything else, if someone says they want to quit smoking or lose weight until they are really ready to do those things it’s just not going to happen. That’s how it was for me. I didn’t want to let go of that emotional component because it was a part of who I was and how I played. I assume it was a part of what I thought of as playing with passion. Until I could take a step back and see that it was really a distraction for me, because it took too much time to regain my focus once I began reacting to the distraction. 

That was another exercise the sport psychologist gave to us. She gave us examples of other athletes who use a physical....

SZ: Symbolic physical releases.

BC: Yeah. The sport psychologist showed us what athletes use to refocus themselves after being distracted. The homework was to find something that had meaning and was useful to us individually. It didn’t mean sitting down, it was actively applied while on the field. We developed individual cues which was helpful because when my focus began to shift I now felt more in control that I could let go of the distraction and bring back my focus. 

SZ: Was the cue to take a breath, or pick a piece of grass and let it drop?

BC: Mine was tightening the hair band around my pony tail. I could do that while I was still on the field and participating in the game.

SZ: Many young athletes experience competitive anxiety. What advice do you have for young players who struggle with competitive anxiety?

BC: This is a tough one because I see it all the time and I think my words to young players are I remind them that even the best players in the world make mistakes. I’ve seen World Cup and Olympic Champions literally people who are the best examples of how to play the game, make mistakes. Along with that is just taking a deep breath and reminding young players that they’ve done whatever it is they are about to do a lot. They’ve practiced what I call the mental hurdles already. They’ve got to close their eyes and image themselves playing the way they want to be, not scared but seeing their best selves. Taking a breath and knowing that nothing bad is going to happen. If things don’t go perfectly, which it won’t, you can let go of that and get on with enjoying the challenge of being in the game.

SZ: Your involvement in soccer is all encompassing from playing the game at every level, coaching commentating for NBC sports and much more. In the future can you envision yourself involved owning a soccer team? If so what changes/adaptations to professional women’s soccer would you like to see?

BC: I wish I had the deep pockets to own a team. That would be a wonderful luxury and I would jump at the chance if I did have the opportunity to be involved in ownership. I would like to see the integration of men and women’s soccer so the leagues aren’t separate. That it’s just about the game and men can coach women and women can coach men.  Also influencing the professional league by having a system where younger players have young teams.

SZ: Like a farm league.

BC: Yeah, exactly. The team would be about coaching and teaching them the skills and maybe one day the young player would become a professional. But also that the players would enjoy learning the skills, team work, the psychology of sport, and how how it impacts things off the field.

SZ: Do you see similarities in your vision of the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) and how they are attached to the National Basketball Association (NBA). 

BC: There are a few women’s teams for the Major League Soccer (MLS), Seattle has a team, Vancouver has a team, Portland has a team. I think that’s going in the right direction. I’d like to see more of that. 

SZ: The Brandi Chastain Celebrity Soccer Challenge and Radio Disney Concert at the San Jose Municipal Stadium is coming up Sept. 22. Proceeds from the event will help to fund you non-profit ReachuP Foundation. Explain the motivation to create this foundation and its organizational goals.

BC: I helped found a non-profit Bay Area Women’s Sports Initiative (BAWSI) and that organization services 3rd to 5th grade girls. ReachuP expands to the middle age group of young girls. The ages just before high school is a very vulnerable age. So the idea behind ReachuP and the website is to create an environment that is a positive place for girls. In that kind of vulnerable stage for girls where they can be themselves and ask silly questions or questions they might think are silly, or be around other girls who aren’t afraid to have their voice heard. They can influence each other in positive ways by showing all the good things they are doing in the community. Through the charity component we fund organizations to support their efforts. 

SZ: The website provides resources for parents and kids?

BC: Yes. I just think there’s a lot to be learned and not just about sports. The inspiration for the site was to give parents and kids of that in between age a component where they can ask questions. There is a section where they can ask a doctor any questions. Or maybe a parent is finding that their daughter isn’t talking to them, or hanging out with the wrong crowd. The site offers parents tips. It’s a way to bridge gaps that exist between parents and kids, or kids and other kids, or for young girls to ask questions about their body. 

SZ: What is the format for the Celebrity Soccer Challenge? Can you name some of the celebrities that will be on hand to participate?

BC: It’s a small sided game, probably 8 v 8. It will be played on a smaller field so hopefully there will be a lot of goals. Some of my former teammates from the national team Kristine Lilly and Julie Foudy, one of my teammates from the San Jose CyberRays and the Gold Pride, Sissi who was the captain and player of the year from Brazil.

Former San Jose Sharks hockey player Mike Ricci, and former 49er Joe Nedney are coming out to play as is Carrie Dew who played at on the Gold Pride when they won the championship. We are also holding a clinic beforehand with up to 100 kids that sign up. The celebrity soccer is followed by the Radio Disney Concert afterwards.

SZ: Your athletic career has gone through many transitions. Do you have any favorite quotes, tips or stories that have guided you over the years?

BC: Maybe I bought into sport psychology a long, long time ago due to my grandfather. At the time I didn’t know he was doing sport psychology on me but now I know that he actually was. When I was a kid and would score a goal he’d give me a dollar as a reward. “Congratulations you’ve scored a goal.” Then if I made an assist to a goal he would give me a dollar fifty. He taught me that giving is really important and that being a support system to someone elses success makes you successful too. That’s probably one lesson that if I could share any of the lessons I’ve ever learned, I think is critical to success. 

SZ: Is there anything you’d like to add?

BC: Two things come to mind. I hope people come out to the Brandi Chastain Celebrity Soccer Challenge and Radio Disney Concert because it’s a healthy environment for young girls and boys to participate in sports and see people enjoying themselves and getting the beautiful part of sports. My colleague Dr. Joan Oloff was a music major at NYC before becoming a podiatrist. She loves music and music is such a wonderful outlet to be excited and develop good memories. I love that we are having a concert for that reason. 

I also think it’s important for parents to remember that competition can be really, really health as long as it’s competition for the right reasons and not just about winning and losing. An eight year old is not going onto the World Championships in a year. So as parents if we can keep in perspective that for our children to enjoy sports is for them to be able to make mistakes, have losses and victories. To let the kids have their sports experience without us parents getting in the way is really important. 

SZ: Brandi thank you so taking time out of your very busy schedule to share your experiences. 

*Featured guests are not former nor current clients of Susan Zaro

*Photo credit: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

*This article can also be read @ examiner