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.
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