Arizona Sun Devils women's tennis

Sheila McInerney enters her 30th season as the Sun Devil’s woman’s head tennis coach. McInerney has led the Sun Devils to 18 NCAA Sweet Sixteen appearances and eight quarter final appearances in her tenure. Her teams have made the NCAA tournament in twenty-seven straight years and twenty-nine years total. McInerney’s teams hold a high commitment to academics and had three members named to the PAC-10 All-Academic team as well as being the only team at Arizona State to post a perfect Academic Progress Rate score. 

In her collegiate years, McInerney attended USC, where she captained the Trojans during her senior season. The four-time All-American also was a four-time Trojan Spirit Award winner. During her time at USC the Trojans won three national championships. After college she played on the WTA tour and achieved a world ranking in the top seventy-five. 

SZ: You have a wealth of experience as a player having played junior, collegiate and professional tennis prior to your coaching career at ASU. What types of coaching did you receive on the mental game of tennis to prepare you for matches, and keeping your focus during matches as a junior? 

SM: I’ll be honest I don’t think we received much growing up. When I was growing up my dad was pretty involved in my tennis in a good way. I read a lot of books and one was, The Power of Positive Thinking. I think Norman Vincent Peale wrote it. Through the years as a coach I’ve been to a lot of seminars and listened to Jim Loehr who has contributed a lot to the tennis industry. Loehr emphasizes players having routines, and breathing techniques. Growing up the phrase “sport psychologist” wasn’t really allowed. But now, whether it be tennis or any other sport here at Arizona State we employ a sport psychologist that the player’s go to see. Certainly thirty years ago that service wasn’t available for players. Its really changed.

SZ: You’ve been the head coach at ASU for thirty years. What changes have you introduced over the years to prepare your teams mentally for the tennis season?

SM: Our staff works with the team around goal setting. We meet with the team after the tennis season is over and discuss summer goals, short and long term. When the player’s return in the Fall we check in with them and ask what they’ve done around their goals. We ask them what their short and long term goals are for the Fall. At the end of the Fall we move onto Spring goals, team goals, individual goals. We do a lot of goal setting. I meet individually with the players and work with them to construct individual goals. Then our sport psychologist meets with the team to work on team chemistry, and accountability goals. When I first began coaching I thought I could do everything. I see myself as a positive person and I’ve been involved in tennis all my life. I know how to get a player pretty well in their developmental progression from point A to point B. But then I realized that each player’s at a different starting point regarding being on a team. So from a coaching stand point our staff works with players more on technique, and the mental training we have the sport psychologist provide assistance in team dynamics because that becomes extremely important.

SZ: So the coaching staff sticks closer to more technical, strategic player involvement.

SM: Right, but also match play. I help the players understand momentum during a match. For example, when a player is in a match and they lose a couple of points, they need to slow things down. When they are up 3-1 in a match, that’s the time to keep their foot on the gas and keep up their playing pace. Our staff works with the players on mental match situations that are specific to tennis competition. 

SZ: Are any mental skills practiced off court?

SM: In the last three or four years we’ve done a lot more. Basically my experience with players is that they are visual learners. We video practices. Not every practice, but when we play practice matches we video the match. All our competitive matches in season are videoed. The player can now go right onto their i-pad or i-phone and receive instant feedback. That’s been a big help. Technology has made it easy for us as coaches. After matches players can go in and watch the video and we review. Tennis was always a little more difficult because there’s six matches going on at one time. Most schools now days have invested in cameras on every court. We look at technique, strategies, body language,  whether the player was performing her routine before starting a point, breathing etc. 

I think the players have really benefited from that. During a practice I can tell a player, “Keep your head up on your serve,” and they player may think she is doing that, but when I pull up the video she can see what her head was doing, it’s made a big difference. 

SZ: There was a period of time you traveled with Lindsey Davenport and Chanda Rubin who both had successful tennis careers. What mental qualities did they have that gave them a boost over their opponents? 

SM: Lindsey was such a good player, a great ball striker. She had fantastic stroke technique and really understood the game. Lindsey did not like to lose. That was a strong point with her. She was young, fifteen, when I traveled with her. Later as she continued to physically and mentally develop she got into great physical shape. When you are in great physical shape you become mentally stronger. I think visualization, and all that stuff is hugely important, but from a mental stand point if you look at tennis in general, you are mentally stronger when you are in great shape.

I look at Novak Djokovic, and you can say all you want about him, sure he’s got great coaching and all but he’s so fit. He has that much more confidence in himself. I see that across the board in all sports. Even the professional golfers are training and working out like never before. Tiger Woods brought this into the sport. Getting back to Djokovic, he’s changed his diet, he’s used one of those CVAC Pods, it’s incredible. 

Being physically fit has really taken over the sport of tennis and it’s helped player’s mentally. I find that within my own tennis team that the better shape the player’s are in the more confident they move on the court. One of my favorite quotes by Vincent Lombardi is, “Fatigue makes cowards of us all.” If a player gets tired out there they will make poor decisions. The player will go for big shots because they are tired and can’t stay in the point. Every player experiences nerves. All the top players in the world admit to it. But once a player gets themselves into great playing shape they feel they deserve to win. The mental and physical preparation is related. 

SZ: Year after year in big events such as the Australian Open, The French, Wimbledon and U.S. Open the women often have lopsided matches Many of these in the semi-finals and finals. In your opinion do you see these lopsided results as being more physical or mental defeats? 

SM: If you look at the great players like Tracy Austin even at fifteen years old, she always believed she was going to win the U.S. Open. If you look at how Richard Williams brought up his daughter’s Venus and Serena, he gave them the message they were going to be the number one and two female tennis players in the world. They entered their professional tennis career with that mind set. I do think that some of it is mentality. I look at Maria Sharapova, the media and some people don’t care for her tennis. But I have the utmost respect for her because she is not the most natural athlete, yet she works hard, she competes fiercely and rarely loses to someone she shouldn’t lose to. She gets nervous, but is a great competitor, believes in herself and fights to the end. Looking at Serena, she is a pretty confident person. She gets nervous but I think she just sort of toughs it out. Some player’s who are in great physical shape, for example, Ana Ivanovic or Jelena Jankovic move forward but then drop back. So it may be mental lapses. 

I find Rafael Nadal interesting because he’s very humble. I recently read an article where he basically said he never thinks he’s better than anyone else. What he does do is work so much harder than his opponents. That’s why his body breaks down. There’s just so many different levels. If you look at the top women overall I think the mental game plays into it a bit. Steffi Graf was another mentally tough player. You have to add to this list Li Na who just won the 2014 Australian Open. Her current coach is Carlos Rodriquez who previously worked with Justine Henin. Li Na said that in the off season her work with Rodriquez was very tough, very strong. So I think mentally this helps players overcome anything. Li Na’s level of play has improved. 

SZ: When a player puts that much physical work into their preparation, it develops mental ownership that no-one is going to take this match from me because I’ve put too much work into the preparation. My opponent is going to need to beat me every point.

SZ: Over the years some of your player’s have continued onto the professional tour. What do player’s need to know about the next step? What overall skills do they need physically and mentally to prepare for the next level?

SM: I think the hardest part probably of the transition from college to the pro’s is the lifestyle. I think some of these college players can go out there and do fairly well on the tour but it’s a challenge because they’ve got to love to play. They’ve got to love to compete because the tour is not an easy lifestyle. Media coverage at the Majors highlights the glamor. But making it on the tour starting at the beginning without a ranking is the hard part. It’s lonely, it’s not easy. As I continue to say in my opinion the player has to be in the utmost shape. The beauty of college tennis is that the best player’s have won a lot and they’ve learned how to win matches. Once a player is on tour they have that experience and believe in themselves. Along with that the players need a strong support system. In the old days we’d be on tour and have buddies to practice with. Now it’s a little more of an isolated existence. It’s difficult for a player starting out if they don’t have a lot of financial backing, which is another challenge. The player needs to be really hungry, because it’s going to be challenging. 

Whereas in college, although it’s still an individual sport the players are supplied with coaches everyday on the court, have access to video, a sport psychologist and  nutritionist to consult with, pretty much everything they need. After college when the player is off on their own they’ve got to have somewhat of a support system because it’s tough. 

SZ: What’s your favorite part of coaching at the collegiate level? 

SM: I’m helping 18-22 year olds mature. For some of these player’s it’s their first time away from home for an extended period. It’s a big thing to see them develop as people and players. I think I am a pretty laid back coach. I’m pretty organized and focused as a coach. I think though that some player’s may feel as though I am a tough coach. Whereas I don’t see myself as a tough coach. I think the young players need to learn a certain amount of discipline. Things have changed in coaching. Today’s athlete comes in and has high expectations and the school is providing much more support. 

But players arrive at college and they have personal coaches back home, the school provides tutors, sport medicine doctors, trainers, etc. Yet, I don’t always feel player’s are as confident in themselves as they used to be. Young players have so much done for them in their junior years. College may be the first time that they have been on their own and are not the big fish in the small pond anymore. So I think from a confidence stand point it’s very interesting. As coaches we try to encourage the players to be more accountable. We try to help them become more independent. I remember my college days at USC and I would call my parents collect once a week to check in, “Collect call from Sheila,” and hope they would accept the call. (Laughing....). Now the players call their parents three times a day, or text.

As a coach a lot of things have changed. I think the fun part for me is keeping up with the times. I’m much more flexible as a coach than I was when I began years ago. As a tennis staff while working with the players we ask them a lot of questions. If we “tell” the kids it’s in one ear and out the other. Growing up playing tennis I learned to place the ball in the court in response to situations. We find that a lot of young players don’t know the strategic game. We ask the players questions. For example if the ball is hit crosscourt where is the next ball going to go? Where would you expect this next ball to go? But as a coach, I’ve adapted, and have to to stay involved.  

We also have our team play a lot more matches than when I first began coaching. You were asking about the mental parts of the game earlier. I find player’s coming in aren’t as competitive, match tough as they used to be. We have our player’s compete more in practice because it’s not the end of the world if they lose in practice. So there are many aspects of a players development I get to see over the four year period. 

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

SM: We hand out a lot of quotes to the team. A lot of the time the player’s bring in quotes. Nothing profound but, “If it’s going to be, it’s up to me.” In college tennis whatever team wins four matches wins. So each player needs to take care of their match and not rely on another player to win for the team. “Don’t let your ship come in, swim out to it.” They need to go after what they want. Going back to these player’s having a lot done for them, many just wait and let things happen. The good player’s go after what they want. From a coaching standpoint, “Player’s don’t care how much you know, they want to know how much you care.” As a coach player’s need to know how much I am invested in how they are doing in school, how their family is doing, how life is going. But with that being said it’s got to go both ways. The coaching staff can’t be the only giver, the players need to give back. 

SZ: What would you like the public to know about the ASU Sun Devils tennis team and the upcoming season? 

SM: We take a lot of pride in their individual and player development. Our players get better as the season goes on. So I think that’s sort of the mantra of our program, “Maximize your ability.” If the players want to get better they will improve through this program because we invest a lot of time in them. Thirty years later I see myself as a much better coach. I think the public needs to know how fortunate student athletes of today are. They come to a division one school and receive great coaching. Athletes receive tutoring, and opportunities through the school such as, internships, leadership programs or mentors. One thing that’s always rankled me a bit, particularly in football, is when I hear, “Are student athletes really athletes?” They are. I mean these schools do so much for the athletes of today. If the player doesn’t finish college, they went pro early, or didn’t put the effort in because the schools are bending over backwards for these athletes. College athletes of today have fantastic opportunities. 

SZ: Sheila thanks for taking time for this interview. The Sun Devils play Stanford March, 29th @ Stanford.

*Photos provided courtesy of ASU media.

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

*This article can also be read @ examiner

Santa Clara U. Bronco men's tennis making an impact

Santa Clara University men’s tennis coach Derek Mills describes himself as, “Super motivated,” and it shows as the Bronco’s have moved from off the map as a team to being on the collegiate rankings radar.  Mills is in his sixth year as SCU men’s tennis coach and under his guidance the program has grown. In 2012, Mills led Santa Clara U. to it’s most successful season in program history, including a trip to the NCAA tournament where they won a first round match against the then No. 19 Texas in the first round.

Prior to taking the coach job at Santa Clara U. Mills spent two seasons at Saint Louis University, in Missouri, a d-1 school, where he doubled up as head coach of the men’s and women’s teams. During those two seasons, three of his players earned All-Conference USA honors. Mills then left Saint Louis for Honolulu, Hawaii where he spent six years working with some of the top juniors.

SZ: Prior to coaching collegiate tennis you were a successful teaching pro in Hawaii. What was the deciding factor to move into coaching collegiate tennis?

DM: Actually I was a coach at Saint Louis U. before I went to Hawaii. It was my first division one head coaching job and I was coaching both the men’s and women’s teams. I did that for two years and just got super burned out, working with two teams at that level. After that I moved to Hawaii and did some coaching and real estate stuff. While I was there I thought about how much I missed coaching college tennis. I missed the competition of coaching at the level. About a year before I took the Santa Clara job I started to look at different job opportunities that were available but I had been out of college coaching for five years already. That’s a long time with all the young coaches coming up. Even though I had two years of division one experience as a head coach it was still not a lot to compete with. But when the Santa Clara job became available I submitted my resume and it just worked out. A lot of my family members live in the bay area and I had planned a vacation to come and see them, which coincided with the SCU interview. But my basic motivation was I just wanted to get back into coaching college tennis, I missed it.

SZ: Prior to returning to college coaching your junior program in Hawaii was quite successful. Besides technical awareness what coaching skills do you feel transfer well over to the collegiate level?

DM: In Hawaii the tennis community is very small. When I arrived there and started teaching, with a division one coaching background, it obviously opened some doors for me. As people got to know me a bit, I was quickly working with a lot of the top boy’s and girl’s. Hawaii on kind of the down side, even though they have great weather, don’t really turn out really competitive players. I brought a competitiveness in my teaching that maybe the average coach in Hawaii wouldn’t bring out. The Hawaiians call it “the mainland” way of doing things. I brought that competitive perspective to the juniors and I think it excited them. That’s why I was able to attract them and work with them for a few years.

SZ: Since I am a mainlander, what was the difference or trigger point to help those kids broaden their dreams and ambitions?

DM: Purely from a competitive stand point people in Hawaii are so laid back, even when they are competing. It’s hard to explain. You just have to go through it to understand it. It was interesting for me to experience. Some of the kids that I started working with didn’t really understand the time commitment that a lot of the top players coming in from the mainland put in.

SZ: You guided them towards a discipline and focus of time commitment and competitiveness in tennis.

DM: Absolutely, no question about it.

SZ: In the six seasons as head coach of SCU men’s tennis you’ve transformed the program. What were the opportunities you saw in SCU before you decided to accept the position?

DM: Before I took the job and was going through the interview process the members of the interview committee were saying, “We had such a great year last year with the previous coach.” In the back of my mind I was thinking, “It was a pretty good year but I know for a fact I can help the team do better.” They were so used to maybe getting into the top seventy-five in the collegiate rankings. If your team is in the top seventy-five your school is kind of considered in the rankings. Maybe in a good year previously SCU had reach a high of sixty-eight or in the seventies. I just thought, “Wow I feel like what I bring to the table, we can do a lot better than that and expect it every year.” That’s what  kind of intrigued me to being at SCU. It’s a great school and in a great area of the country but I just felt this team should be doing a lot better than they have in the past.

SZ: A few years back you were able to recruit some strong transfer players. Brian Brogan from Pepperdine, Andrew Kells, from USC, and Nico Vinel from Virginia Commonwealth. How did you sell them on the SCU program which was still pretty much unknown as a strong tennis university?

DM: Brian Brogan is from the bay area. He began his collegiate career at SCU and left when there was a coaching change. There was about a three or four month period where there was a coaching vacancy between the previous coach and my taking the job. So Brian actually left to go to a bigger program at Pepperdine then ended up coming back because one, he missed the bay area and two because he saw what I was doing for the team and the vision I had for the program.

The other guys who came on board were at big schools and saw an opportunity to get playing time right away by coming to SCU. These guys helped rebuild the program. We were one of the worst division one teams in the country. For example, the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) ranks teams 1-200 and we weren’t even in the 200’s. We didn’t even know where we were the first two years.

SZ: So it was a great opportunity for these guys to be able to play for a division one school, step right into the role of being impact players.

DM: And definitely be a part of it. They were already a part of it but they were at really, really good schools and big programs. They were on the cusp of playing. But I think they figured out that they might not get as much playing time as they wanted and they wanted more playing time.

SZ: That was good timing. This timing thing has been great for you.

DM: So far.

SZ: In previous interviews you mention that the team chemistry is strong and the players play for each other. What are the situations you create to build that team unity. What do you do to help them bond and develop respect for each other?

DM: I don’t want to put more importance on what we do for tennis but I think it’s one of the toughest jobs that we have. It’s a very unique situation on a college tennis team because we’re getting, especially with where the program is now, we are getting top level players and in tennis when you are growing up through the USTA it is really all about you. It’s not like being on a basketball team where team concepts are ingrained. Tennis is the absolute opposite. In the juniors some players won’t even practice with the other best player in town or in the city because they don’t want any advantage to go to another player, to figure out how to play your game. It’s very all about you.

So from the first time we get the guys into our program we preach team concepts. Everything we do is all about the team. We let guys know when we are recruiting them, that in the juniors it’s all about you, but when we get you, it’s all about we. That’s some of the things we really try to impress upon all our players. We do a lot of things that seem kind of basic but for some of these guys that are coming from a high school tennis background, they’ve never had team camaraderie. Just recently the whole team went to the movies. You might think, “Every team does that.” But for tennis? Players aren’t used to that, they just aren’t.

SZ: You spent the first part of your career coaching juniors. At what age is it important to help juniors develop their foundation for the mental game in tennis? What are ways you help young players grasp the importance of the mental game in their overall development?

DM: It’s important to start off right from the beginning. I don’t think you say, “Okay now that the player is twelve years old we are going to begin teaching the mental game.” In the higher levels of tennis, most players are equally fit, most players have a lot of the same technical background, the one thing that differentiates between the top players and maybe the guy that’s ten spots behind him is the mental game.

When I was coaching in Hawaii we started right away which included very simple things, for example, in between points whether the player wins or loses the point, focus on the racket strings and move them. Other things we taught the kids in Hawaii and do with the SCU team is to develop routines. To continually do the same thing whether you win or lose the point.

SZ: Are most of the players who come into your program already aware of how to manage their mental game?

DM: At the collegiate level many players have already been coached in this to a certain degree. We definitely remind them and we definitely talk with the team about it. I know how most of the U.S. kids are trained but you never know there might be some countries where their focus in on more playing skills development and less mental. So on a daily basis we talk about and practice routines and refocusing on the next point.

SZ: What is your philosophy for players to practice their mental game during practice?

DM: We try to create a very competitive atmosphere in practice. We work on that on a daily basis within a practice. Being competitive but also working out the different mental grinds that players are going to have during either a match or a drill, then getting through that using your routines. On the ninety second change overs some of the guys will bring out flash cards to remind themselves, “Okay this is what I’ve got to do as part of my routine.” Tennis is very routine based to get prepared for the next point and we work on that everyday in practice.

SZ: So during practices or several of the weekly practices you set up competitive situations for the players, such as, playing seven points and the winner moves up a court.

DM: Yes, that’s exactly what we do. Everything is competitive and we do it to where you think of just hitting cross court forehands to each other who is going to be the one not to make an error. We make it into a competition. Most everything we do in our practices is competitive based and then we have a different set of practices called “individuals” that’s more technique, and strategy based. When we have the team together at team practices I would say it’s ninety-eight percent competitive even within basic drills.

SZ: If your guys are coming from classes or a tough week at school and it’s competitive everyday on the court how does a player side step burn-out? Or do you believe that’s part of the conditions they will face when playing for real?

DM: If I feel the guys need a mental physical break I just give them a day off. It’s really a feel I have for the players as a coach. I can tell in the warm up if a guy needs a break. Some days we literally finish a warm up, talk to the team for ten minutes then say, “Okay you guys can go.” I have a feel for where the guys are at and know when maybe we need to put the brakes on. Some days we go and play soccer or something else to get some cardio in and step away from tennis.

SZ: You’ve established a new tradition of success for men’s tennis at SCU. Do you have any favorite, quotes, stories or tips that inspire you or that you use to inspire the team?

DM: I don’t have any quite honestly. Growing up I always idolized coaches like Bill Walsh, Phil Jackson and Pat Riley. I always looked up to coaches. During the NFC West playoffs this year Jim Harbaugh was being interviewed and a reporter asked him about an upcoming game and his strategy, his reply to the question was a quip from Al Davis, who used to say, “Just win baby.” That’s kind of our philosophy around here. “Let’s just win baby.” It’s a reminder we work as hard as we can every single day to get better. Let’s just do what we do.

SZ: Derek thank you for taking the time for this interview. Go Broncos@

The SCU men’s tennis season has begun. Click on “calendar” to find out more.

*Featured guests are not former nor current clients of Susan Zaro
*This article can also be read @ examiner

KiAi the art of energy integration

Jamie Leno Zimron is the developer of The KiAi Way, a leading-edge integrative, body based peak performance training. Jamie grew up in Wisconsin and at age seven was introduced to golf when her parents took up the sport. Jamie became a state and national junior golf champion and played competitively until she entered Stanford University and became interested in the martial art of Aikido. After graduating Phi Beta Kappa from Stanford she earned her Master’s Degree in Clinical Psychology, and continued to practice and teach Aikido. She founded and was the Chief Instructor of the Women’s Aikido School/Aikido Arts Center in San Francisco for many years. Along with her vast experience in golf, Aikido, bodywork and psychotherapy, Jamie is certified through the LPGA as a Class A Teaching Professional. She owns and operates KiAi Golf and founded The KiAi Way Inc. a company she formed in 2001 to bring innovative high performance principles and practices to golf, leadership and workplace wellness.

SZ: When you began playing golf what were the mental training programs for you at that time?

JZ: There were none except my dad was a big proponent of Dale Carnegie, PMA (Positive Mental Attitude). If there was anything I just had PMA, which was helpful.

SZ: The things we focus our thoughts on connected to mental dialogue is considered a mental training practice.

JZ: It’s interesting how Dale Carnegie’s programs from back in the 1940’s became expressed in modern mental trainings. My father’s “PMA all the way” from Dale Carnegie became like a mantra.

SZ: Dale Carnegie was instrumental for your mental game because he influenced your father and your father influenced you. Did you take any Dale Carnegie programs?

JZ: My dad was a Dale Carnegie program! Every day he woke up us kids at six in the morning even in the middle of the Wisconsin winter and said, “What’s today kids? And we had to answer “The best day of our lives until tomorrow - no matter how we felt.”

SZ: It wasn’t like you had to get up and sit around the breakfast table and recite Dale Carnegie secrets to success quotes?

JZ: Well we sort of did. Breakfast was early in the morning and Wisconsin mornings are really cold in the winter. The conversation was like, “Sit up straight it’s a wonderful day. Best day of my life until tomorrow. PMA all the way!” That was breakfast.

SZ: Did you feel that?

JZ: No I didn’t necessarily feel it but whether I felt it or not that’s what we got. My dad acted that way whether he felt it or not. He was a Depression era child and had a very rough life growing up. He pulled himself up by his boot straps. Dale Carnegie was a role model who had gotten over his fears of public speaking and made a great success of himself through the power of positive thinking.

SZ: You mentioned a story about how Dale Carnegie training from your dad focused your thoughts to make a crucial, clutch seventy-two foot putt in a golf tournament.

JZ: I was defending State Champion and playing in a semi-final match. I was one hole down going into the 18th hole and had to tie the hole to get into a sudden death play-off. It was a five par and my opponent was already on the green in three with a giant green. I had this monster putt to make  from the fringe of the green. My opponent had a fairly long putt but mine was much longer. I just walked up the hill to the green thinking, “Anything is possible, never give up.” I ended up sinking the ball into the hole. A newspaper reporter later measured it and put my seventy-two foot putt in headlines. I went on to win the sudden death holes and the next day won the tournament to become the Wisconsin State Champion all over again.

SZ: Do you remember feeling as though you were in a meditative state? What was the experience for you?

JZ: Interesting question. When I think about it I was in a bit of an altered zone state because everything was sort of a blur, behind and around me. I was definitely in an extra-focused state. I wasn’t nervous, my heart wasn’t pounding, there was no sense of dread or negativity. I just looked over the putt, went up and stroked it and it rolled right into the hole. The whole thing was sort of surreal.

SZ: Were you saying a mantra?

JZ: Not really. I remember being in a really quiet state, feeling slightly scared walking up to the green and thinking, “I’ve really got to make this.” Then I just went about my business and everything else kind of receded into the background. It was general positivity like, “This can be done. I can still win this. This is possible.” My main interest was to get the ball close enough to the hole to two putt, while hoping she might three-putt. I knew it wasn’t over. I could still win. Making that putt was thrilling and I guess I had made mental space for it to happen. 

SZ: You were able to take that day’s victory and be successful the next day to win the Championship. Sometimes players after experiencing a huge success the next day are flat.

JZ: I didn’t feel that the next day. The next day for me was a piece of cake. I think I won by a lot and everything seemed easy. I was in an extremely positive whole state. I can feel that right now as I think about it. I felt very whole, mentally and physically strong.

SZ: Why did you shift your athletic direction from golf to Aikido?

JZ: I shifted my direction from golf to Aikido when I entered college. I had had the opportunity to play professional golf as I was ranked in the Top Ten in the national with player’s who are now in the LPGA Hall of Fame. When I began college Title IX had not yet come to pass and I developed other interests. These athletic interests included an introduction to the martial art Aikido. I became involved in golf again in the late 1990’s when a friend asked for a golf lesson. At the time I was living in San Diego and when my friend asked for the golf lesson I taught it like an Aikido lesson. I brought my sword and she brought her 7-iron to the Torrey Pines driving range.

SZ: You brought a sword? What did you do with the sword?

JZ: A sword and a golf iron are very similar. The way you hold the sword is almost exactly the way you hold a golf club. I brought my sword to show her the the proper grip, club face position, and how to use her energy from her belly-center through the club to make better contact with the golf ball. I showed her how to stand to have more balance and stability like a martial artist does. I was using my sword to show her these things and then we used her golf club and she began making these beautiful swings and hitting the ball in ways she had never hit before. All this happened within an hour and it was fun and easy for me to teach. I had been teaching martial arts and I knew golf so this lesson for my friend was what started my program of combining martial arts and golf. More friends began asking for lessons so I began to develop my program KiAi Golf, which blends martial arts, sport psychology and body-mind fitness with golf instruction.

SZ: KiAi Golf is your branded name.

JZ: Yes. Ki, is the life energy and Ai, means love, unity, harmony, oneness. KiAi is about holistic integration. Using your energy, mind, body and spirit all working harmoniously together. When everything is working together - like gears in a finely tuned car or a great orchestra, everything works well. The idea is that you are the master of that. You are in charge of things working together. You can’t have your mind saying one thing, while your emotions are feeling something else and undermining your belief. You can’t have your mind saying, “I can reach this green” while emotionally you’re flooded with fear of the water hazard or bunkers ahead of you. Emotions can overtake your mind, your hands may begin shaking or sweating and your physical motor control becomes compromised. There needs to be synchronized harmony in your thoughts, emotions and movement. And there are self-mastery skills to learn and practice.

SZ: Avoiding distracting thoughts.

JZ: Yes,and you are the one in charge of that. That’s what I teach. I call it Body/Mind Technology. There are principles and practices that are like a roadmap to “the zone.” When we are centered and relaxed, grounded, when we breathe, have a quiet mind and not in the reactivity of stress, fear, anxiety or anger we calm down. We move into more balanced and harmonious states. It’s very practical and the effects are tangible. It’s actually somatic psychology. Somatic psychology is the integration of body/mind interaction.

SZ: The terminology in biofeedback is psychophysiology.

JZ: I think a big mistake made in sports training is that physical training is frequently taught separately from the mental. For example people go to an office to learn visualization techniques which is good but it’s more effective when it’s presented in a more integrative way. The steps I’ve taken are in uniquely combining my knowledge as a golf professional with my training in martial arts, fitness, bodywork, and psychology to offer clients more holistic peak performance training.

I try to give clients whether it’s through golf or corporate leadership training, generic tools to teach them to center themselves in their body. They are taught how to focus, how to quiet their minds, and be in an integrated zone. People get to a place I call the, “Stress Mess.” Stress is a biochemical/psychophysiological happening in the body. Our thoughts and feelings are influenced by stress hormones and chemicals. We need to calm that down so we are able to think better, feel better and perform better. People need to have ways to move from “stress mess” when it happens. To shift themselves into a more integrated zone where the person is centered, calm, balanced, focused. It’s like driving a car. You are always making little adjustments. In golf it could be that you just hit a great shot and then you miss a putt. All of a sudden the golfer is in the “stress mess.”  The person can get out of it back to the integrated zone. They can learn the road map back to center when they get off track. Something unknown is always going to happen when people play. I teach an easy demystified road map out of the “stress mess” back into the zone.

SZ: Explain what KiAi Golf is and what a client would expect from the experience.

JZ: The idea of using martial arts in golf has been taken up in recent years by great names like, Phil Mickelson, Annika Sorenstam, and Tiger Woods. Tiger Woods has a very strong East/West background. A client can expect to understand the golf swing in new ways and to discover how to use their lower body and core power properly. They will understand that a relaxed, centered, balanced, swing motion is going to get them a lot further in their performance than trying to kill the ball with their arms and upper body tension. They can expect to gain a lot more power, accuracy, consistency and a more positive mental game that keeps their swing motion relaxed and contact centered when striking the ball. They can also expect a great fitness program called, “Make Your Golf Club Your Health Club.”

SZ: What is this?

JZ: These are new warm-up exercises and a fitness program to create balance, core strength, flexibility and focus - using their golf club. They don’t have to go to a gym, lay down on a mat, get exercise balls or ropes and pulleys for their conditioning. They use their golf club. The exercises can be done either indoors or out. On the golf course you have to keep re-centering, re-grounding, re-balancing yourself. The exercises have them work on their fitness, their focus and their swing patterns so that they gain power, accuracy, consistency and confidence.

SZ: What is the typical amount of practice required for people to benefit from KiAi training?

JZ: When people do the exercises 5,10,15 minutes a day it is going to help them. The martial arts training idea is daily practice. When you do something every day you are working on ingraining it. To benefit the most it needs to be in the context of daily training. Routine becomes a part of you and everything I’ve designed is technically correct.

SZ: How is Aikido different from other martial arts or yoga practices?

JZ: Karate is a linear and combative martial art. You spar, you win or lose. Aikido did away with competition. The notion of “Ai” / harmony is this idea of going with the flow. Ki is using your inborn energy- power not just your muscles or will power. This is what makes it different. Aikido is almost dance-like because it uses the notion of blending, moving with and harmonizing to access energetic integrative power instead of brute force muscle power. It’s known as the most advanced martial art philosophically and spiritually, and helps us develop much greater mind-body control and self-mastery.
SZ: Jamie thank you for taking the time for this interview and sharing your thoughts on integrating mind/body training in golf.

*Featured guests are not current nor former clients of Susan Zaro
*This article may also be read @ Examiner

Has sport psychology influenced sport reporting

Dennis O’Donnell is the Sports Director at CBS 5. He appears Sunday through Thursday on KPIX 5 News. O’Donnell has been a fixture in Bay Area sports broadcasting since 1982. Prior to CBS 5, O’Donnell was executive sports producer at KRON-TV. O’Donnell is the pre-season voice of the San Francisco 49er’s, calling the play-by-play on CBS 5 and has called play-by-play for over 100 sporting events since 1999, including Stanford and USF basketball for Fox Sports and Bay TV. In addition to a daily sportscast on CBS 5 Eyewitness News, O’Donnell hosts or has hosted CBS 5’s
post-game show, “The 5th Quarter,” “49er’s Preview,” “Last Honest Sports Show,” and the number-one rated Sunday night sports show, “Gameday.”

SZ: What sports did you play growing up?

O’Donnell: I played baseball, basketball and wrestled all up to and through high school.

SZ: As an athlete growing up what memories do you have around the subject of sport psychology? Did parents/coaches talk about sport psychology and performance?

O’Donnell: Sport psychology was discussed in rudimentary terms. For example, “Imagine yourself being in a situation, what would you do? How would you act? How would you prepare yourself mentally so you are prepared physically?”

SZ: Coaches you worked with were talking about visualization techniques?

O’Donnell: Absolutely, but not to the extent that they are today. The old cliche, “Golf is 90% mental.” I think that was true when I was growing up. I’m not so old where sport psychology had not yet entered the realm of youth sports. (laughing). But it wasn’t very deep. Things like, imagine being mentally prepared before walking up to the plate with the bases loaded, notice the positioning of the infielders, and the outfielders. Notice where you are going to find a hole, that sort of thing. The discussion of sport psychology was definitely on a secondary level. It was never the priority of the practice. We didn’t start with that type of thing but it was definitely part of the conversation.

SZ: Today coaches/athletes talk freely about “the mental game.” What does this term mean to you as a sports reporter? 

O’Donnell: I think a lot of the questions we as reporters ask pertain to the mental aspect of the game. Both in the preparation of the game and post game. For instance I may ask a coach, “What was your thought process when you called a time out leaving you without one at the end of the game?” That’s sort of the mental aspect of the game. A question to a quarterback might be, “What did you see at the line of scrimmage that made you decide to call the audible?” In baseball, a question to a coach may be, “Was there any thought to making a pitching change since the batter has had so much success against this pitcher in the past?” So much of competition I think of as a chess match. Often football coaches sort of use that term. The mental game is fairly significant in terms of analyzing what went right or what went wrong in a game. The mental strategy in most cases precedes the physical strategy. A lot of post game questions will pertain to that.

SZ: Is that different from the types of questions that sport reporters asked before? In the last several years have you noticed a shift into more sport psychology type questions?

O’Donnell: I wouldn’t say so. If a play doesn’t work. Or if a team loses a game the questions are going to be, “Well why did you do this? Or why did you try that?  Or why didn’t you change the pitcher? Why didn’t you have a pinch hitter in that situation?” All those questions really revolve around a strategical approach that in my opinion is the mental aspect of the game. But I don’t think, speaking from my perspective personally, that there’s been a dramatic shift in the last twenty years. It’s still what it was about then and what it’s about now.

SZ: Pete Carroll, coach of the Seattle Seahawks, is building a team culture and drafting players who fit into his sport psychology methodology. For example, they have a hands on high performance coach who engages the players in meditation and coaches are being retrained in their communication style with players. If teams like the Seahawks who are quite enthusiastic about the benefits of sport psychology, win the Super Bowl, will winning influence the focus on media reporting and the impact of sport psychology on other team cultures? Is there a ripple effect?

O’Donnell: I think the NFL is a copy cat league. If you look at the read options strategy by the 49er’s for instance, several other teams tried some version of the read option or drafted player’s with abilities that would fit that system. It also forced virtually every team in the NFL to spend the off season figuring out how to defend the read option play. Consequently if Seattle wins the Super Bowl you can bet other teams will scrutinize every aspect of that organization and figure out how to copy it.

However I think psychology is a bit tricky because it’s more difficult to see tangible effects. For example, you can see how Colin Kaepernick’s skill sets for the 49er’s compliment the read option strategy. But I think it would be more of a challenge to see how a psychological approach helps a team win a football game.

SZ: The impact it has on the overall team performance.

O’Donnell: To me what comes to light are issues you have inside the locker room. Of course the Richie Incognito and Jonathan Martin situation in Miami is the obvious one that comes to mind. If there is a sport psychologist like there is in Seattle embedded in this locker room with fifty-three guys and the fifty-three guys trust this person enough to speak to him about issues that are going on in the locker room that they are uncomfortable enough with then I think there’s a huge benefit to that. You could argue that had that person been in the Miami locker room that perhaps the whole situation could possibly been avoided.

If you look at the 49er’s when I first started reporting, even the S.F. Giants, the Giants had a fellow named Dr. Joel Kirsch working with the team. The Giants were one of the first teams that I recall that had an actual sport psychologist. He was more performance related for example, “How do you maximize your potential as a baseball player?” The 49er’s had Dr. Harry Edwards, a sociologist. I know that during the 1980’s the 49er’s had some issues among the player’s in the locker room that Dr. Edwards worked with and assisted with. Dr. Edwards may still be associated with the 49er’s. There is a definite value to having a sport psychologist associated with a team. You’ve got fifty-three guys in a locker room and they’re not all going to get along. They come from different socioeconomic backgrounds and academic backgrounds. When you put fifty-three men in a locker room, this sort of melting pot, they aren’t all going to get along. There are instances I know of where a sport psychologist has sort of calmed the waters between players.

As a reporter when it comes to issues in the locker room and you’re trying to find out why a player is having trouble assimilating, it’s difficult to find out what happened behind the walls of an organization. The coaches aren’t going to be very forthcoming obviously and the player’s aren’t going to be very forthcoming. It’s difficult finding out what’s going on inside the locker room because as a reporter you’re not inside it. When it comes to a sport psychologist solving issues in the locker room it’s hard to get that information. Sometimes you get it years later. In the case of Jonathan Martin and Richie Incognito, there’s been such a dogged pursuit of what really happened. Everyone has been working on that one and we’re slowly getting layers and layers unfolded to find out what happened but we still don’t know.

SZ: Because of the locker room code.

O’Donnell: Absolutely. No player’s want to talk about the dirty laundry to a sports reporter.

SZ: I see more information in the media around mental preparation and information about sport psychology.

O’Donnell: In terms of how I prepare for an interview, be it a pre-game interview or a post-game interview, during pre-game interviews there is more time to analyze the questions and what you’ve looking for. During post-game interviews as a reporter, you’re reacting to what happened in a particular game. I think I’ve always been cognizant of the mental aspect of a game. The “why” questions usually pertain to the mental aspects of the game not the physical. I can’t distinguish the difference between how I asked reporting questions thirty years ago as to how I do it today based on a psychological approach. You might find a difference in other media. I would guess that today’s athlete’s see a much greater difference in the psychological approach than they did thirty years ago, right?

SZ: Yes, definitely.

O’Donnell: I think the team investment in the athlete is so great today. The economic structure of a player’s contract is so significantly different today than it was thirty years ago. Teams want to and look to use every possible benefit that they can to keep the player engaged. To keep the player healthy both physically and mentally. The investment is too big not to. So definitely from an outsiders perspective I clearly see that and that has definitely changed in the last thirty years. Does it affect the way I report the news? No.

SZ: Dennis thank you so very much for talking with me today and sharing your views of sports reporting and it’s relationship to sport psychology.


*Featured guests are not current nor former clients of Susan Zaro
*This article can also be read @ examiner.
*Photo KPIX media

Biofeedback for athletic performance

Dr. Leah Lagos, Psy.D. B.C.B. specializes in sport psychology and is board certified in biofeedback. As a licensed clinical psychologist she maintains a private practice in Manhattan where she works with children, adults, business executives and athletes of all ages and competitive levels to help boost individual health and performance. Highlights of her work include conducting interviews for NFL teams, as part of Professional Sports Consultants for more than seven years, Dr. Lagos has served as a consultant to PGA tour players to provide on-site support at tournaments such as the Masters’ Tournament in Augusta, GA. Dr. Lagos has served as a consultant to US Olympians providing consultation and on-site support at venues such as the London Olympics. Dr. Lagos is also a lecturer, author of published studies, and Chair of the Optimal Performance Section of the Association for Applied Physiology and Biofeedback. Her research interests are in the implementation of heart rate variability biofeedback with golfers. Through a combination of traditional psychological approaches and biofeedback, Dr. Lagos works with clients to improve mood, reduce anxiety, decrease muscle tension and improve focus.

SZ: Did you participate in a competitive sport growing up?

Dr. Lagos: I did. As a high school athlete I was on the track team as well as the cross country team. In college at the University of Florida I rowed with the crew team.

SZ: Do you compete competitively now?
Dr. Lagos: I am an avid weekend warrior. I play golf, tennis, run and some dancing.

SZ: When did you become interested in biofeedback and the uses of biofeedback to help athletes?

Dr. Lagos: During graduate school at Rutgers University, I worked with Dr. Paul Lehrer who is well known for his work in heart rate variability biofeedback particularly to treat anxiety and health conditions related to anxiety. I approached him during graduate school because as a specialist in sport psychology I noted that about 90% of my athlete clients were coming to me struggling with, “How do I manage anxiety in sport?” I posed the question, “Do you think this could be helpful for enhancing performance?” That question was for the next seven years of my research and work with athletes using biofeedback to help reduce anxiety.

I began working with Dr. Lehrer and Dr. Evgeny Vaschillo, who had been the Russian physiologist for the Russian Olympic team many years ago. For two years I worked with the Rutgers golf team using biofeedback to enhance health and performance. We found that biofeedback had specific health benefits including, improving mood, reducing anxiety as well as some important performance benefits. Athletes who used to be affected by their anxiety could now perform at their peak during moments of challenge.

SZ: A sixteen year old golfer who has played for about four years currently plays and/or practices about two to three times a week. His goal is to play on the golf team at school but hasn’t made it yet. One area holding back his progress is that he has difficulty getting his momentum/focus going in the early rounds. It takes about two or three holes before he feel he settles into his game. How could biofeedback be useful to this player?

Dr. Lagos: It can be useful in the sense that anxiety and stress actually change how our body functions. It increases muscle tension, it changes our mood and it can impact our ability to focus. What we found with biofeedback is that as athletes improve their control over their autonomic nervous system they gain control over how their body responds to stress. One area that it impacts is gaining momentum or focus. His ability to manage stress would be significantly stronger after the biofeedback allowing him to have stronger focus, more effective focus, more efficient focus that happens more quickly as well as for a longer duration.

SZ: Over time this builds confidence in the athletes abilities.

Dr. Lagos: Absolutely.

SZ: What is an assessment of mental/emotional strengths? What does an assessment involve?

Dr. Lagos: The mental assessment usually occurs in the initial meetings in the office. I ask questions about their history of sport, their ability to manage stress and how they’ve coped with stress. I often times conduct a physiological assessment, called a Stress Profile. The Stress Profile has several different tasks such as counting backwards by seven, a Stroop Test, or when the client isn’t expecting it I clap my hands to create an unexpected scare. It allows me to see how their body actually reacts to the stressor. While the athlete is taking the test there are different physiological modalities that are being monitored including, galvanic skin response, brain activity, heart rate variability, respiration, and muscle tension. I look at how all of these areas respond during these different activities to see if there’s a particular area that we need to target and the areas that the athlete is particular strong in. Included in the assessment is having the athlete just talk to me about their perceived mental/emotional strengths and how they utilize these on the golf course. With all their physical training athletes tend to be very aware of their strengths.

Depending on the age of the golfer and with their permission, I may include the parent or a significant other in the assessment phase. What I’ve found is that parents, and significant others have a lot of specialized insight about the athlete that can expand the assessment of the athletes mental/emotional strengths.

SZ: Would you invite a coach in?

Dr. Lagos: In the very beginning just because the focus really is on the athlete and because the sessions are a confidential relationship, the parent knows, the significant other knows I don’t always bring the coach in.

SZ: A coach has such a powerful influence, the way that they deliver their verbal messages can influence the stress level of the athlete.

Dr. Lagos: Absolutely and what you’re saying is a very interesting point. There are certain types of athletes who I call physiologically gifted who have specialized responses to how coaches speak to them. In those cases I will bring a coach in, of course with the athletes approval, to help the coach learn about how their athlete actually has a physiological response to how they are being coached.

SZ: When a client begins a biofeedback training program how much time is spent in the office? How much if any time would be spent with the client on the golf course?

Dr. Lagos: The actual biofeedback training program requires meeting with me once a week for ten weeks in the office. The first year I worked with the Rutgers golf team I only met with the athletes in the office. At the end of our first year working together I asked them as a team about the process and how they liked it. They all loved it and asked me to work with them again the following year. This time though they asked for more training on how to actually use the skills on the golf course. So I implemented some virtual reality training sessions during week one, four, seven and ten at a virtual reality golf center. Being out on the golf course would have been just as effective but it was snowing at the time so this was the next best option.

SZ: Biofeedback is a process in that with low-tech, high-tech, or no-tech tools the client becomes aware of the interrelationship between the psychological and physiological processes of their body’s communication which is dynamic and bidirectional. With awareness and training clients can over time voluntarily learn how to change physiological activity. Biofeedback requires that the client practice at home. Generally how much individualized homework will the client be required to do on his/her own?
What type of equipment would a client expect to use?

Dr. Lagos: Initially the client learns to voluntarily change their physiological activity but the aim of this is that after ten weeks where the client meets with me once per week and practices breathing exercises at home twice a day for twenty minutes they gain the ability to regulate how their body responds to stress involuntarily. The goal of this is that they are training a muscle, the heart, how to respond on its own automatically during moments of stress. If an athlete before a meet or a tournament feels tremendous anxiety there is going to be a need to voluntarily change the physiological activity but there’s also moments during let’s say a basketball game where the athlete doesn’t have much time to voluntarily change it and that’s why we’re doing the training because the stress response becomes moderated by the improved autonomic control that’s garnered by the biofeedback. Over time it becomes an involuntary response. We’ve studied and documented it to see if we could make this a shorter or faster training. Every athlete wants to be able to come in here and do it after two sessions. It does not work like that. Ten sessions tends to be the rule of thumb that produces the greatest effect. We do see changes begin to start happening as soon as week four but the maximum changes tend to occur around or after week ten. I’ve had athletes that continue doing this after the ten weeks and we continue to see gains in most of these athletes.

SZ: In there any drop off after a certain amount of time?

Dr. Lagos: What we found is that they don’t have to continue practice the breathing exercises twice a day for twenty minutes a day after the initial ten weeks. After the initial training breathing can be practiced once a day for twenty minutes to maintain the same level. Some athletes during their sport season practice twice a day and in the off season drop off to once a day practices.

The only equipment the athlete needs at home is a Breath Pacer. It’s a pacer you can get for the i-phone or for your computer. There are several applications out where you can actually set the breathing pacer to what’s called resonance frequency. That’s the rate of breathing identified in here by me or another biofeedback practitioner. Resonance frequency produces optimal heart rate oscillation. Everyone has a different rate of breathing that produces optimal heart rate. Oscillation, meaning as you inhale your heart rate goes up and as you exhale your heart rate goes down. These changes reflect important changes in autonomic control.

SZ: If there are not any issues such as technical flaws, impeding performance how much time will it typically take before an athlete begins to notice improvement in their mental game? How is that level of improvement measured?

Dr. Lagos: If the athlete has been practicing at a hundred percent and meeting with me once a week we begin to notice improvements in their ability to focus, their mood, and reductions in anxiety at week four. Those changes tend to increase and amplify through week ten and beyond. We measure the level of improvement certainly in sport performance comparing it at week one, four, seven and ten. I also have them fill out a questionnaire regarding mood, regarding anxiety, and regarding muscle tension at those intervals. I have them complete a before and after Stress Profile that looks at the physiological modalities that I spoke about earlier, galvanic skin response, respiration rate, heart rate and we look at how the athlete is performing under stress, at week one versus week ten.

SZ: You were the lead author of “Virtual Reality Assisted Heart Rate Variability Biofeedback: A Strategy to Enhance Golf Performance,” published in AAPB’s Biofeedback Magazine in 2011. Explain in layman’s terms what virtual reality assisted heart rate variability biofeedback is and how would a player access this method of biofeedback?

Dr. Lagos: The golfers are playing golf through a program and what it allows us to do is to bring biofeedback into the golf setting. At the virtual reality center you can recreate specific courses that the athlete may play. You can also recreate sounds such as applause, which some golfers are sensitive to. The golfer in this setting can learn to access their breathing and through biofeedback mitigate their stress response. The virtual reality is a method to bring biofeedback breathing to the golf course so that it isn’t just a procedure the athlete learns in the office.

SZ: Do you hook the athlete you are working with up to a portable biofeedback monitoring system such as the NeXus?

Dr. Lagos: We used Polar devices. Watches and heart rate monitors strapped around the athlete’s chest. It was a way for us to collect data about the heart rate responses during stress. If you use the Thought Technology portable device you can now collect more data than through the Polar devices, which tracks heart rate.

SZ: Moving away from the topic of golf for a moment you have been doing research on the impact of ten weeks of heart rate variability biofeedback training on the post concussion symptoms of young athletes who have experienced mild traumatic brain injuries. What are some of the findings you have discovered through this research?

Dr. Lagos: In terms of post concussion syndrome as we know both in the news and research there is an increasing problem not only with professional athletes but athletes who make up the largest population, youth athletes. Post concussion is defined as having symptoms related to concussion for three weeks or longer. It means that some athletes are not healing within the normal time frame. Traditional therapies have included such things as cognitive behavioral therapy as well as anti-depressants and they’ve had limited effectiveness in actually treating post concussion syndrome.

About seven years ago I was at the University of Miami and a neurologist called me and said, “Dr. Lagos I have an athlete here who has had her second concussion. Medicine isn’t working, therapy isn’t working. Do you think your biofeedback can help her.” I said that there is no evidence at this time that heart rate variability biofeedback can improve brain functioning but I told him the if she is experiencing depression, anxiety, and problems focusing, biofeedback is likely to help her. He then referred the athlete to me.

This athlete has given me permission to discuss her case. In fact this athlete has created a non-profit organization for athletes who are suffering from post concussion syndrome. She came to me and her mood improved by about week six. Her anxiety reduced and around week seven she came in and said, “Dr. Lagos I can read again. I haven’t been able to read past three sentences in over six months. It’s due to biofeedback.” I said there’s really not a ton of research in this area, it’s an interesting concept but let’s not be too hasty, although we will continue doing it.

I told this story to a sport medicine doctor who was treating high school athletes with post concussion syndrome in New Jersey. He said, “Well if you can tell me you can improve the mood, reduce the anxiety and enhance the focus of kids who are simply not able to attend school because they are laying in bed and don’t have any other alternative, I think it’s a great option.” In the past three years this doctor has sent me over thirty high school athletes with this debilitating condition. What I began finding is that at week seven they are reporting the same types of results as my athlete at the University of Miami. Biofeedback treatment was not only improving mood, reducing anxiety and enhancing focus this was impacting their cognitive functioning. So I published my first case study in this area. It was the first and only research in this area about the potential for this to help athletes who are suffering from post concussion syndrome.

We found in this case study and reported that several symptoms of the concussion had reduced. Not just anxiety but headaches had decreased and then there was also some shifts in cognitive functioning that prior to working with biofeedback hadn’t changed. We need further studies and I’ve recommended along with my colleagues who co-authored the article with me that further studies be conducted in a randomized controlled trial.

SZ: Biofeedback requires a state of self reflection and inner connection which is sometimes a challenge for young athletes to access within themselves. What advice do you have that works to keeps these kids using biofeedback long enough so they understand they do have the capability to manage their mind/body connection?

Dr. Lagos: After about two weeks the athletes I work with see, feel and embrace the changes of being able to control their stress response and it’s only the beginning. It becomes self reinforcing. The first two weeks I say to them, “Let’s set some clear goals. What do you want out of this process? Let’s stay very focused on these goals and keep checking in with these goals every three weeks and see how you are doing with your progress.” I tell them upfront that they are not going to feel much of a change except it’ll be slightly more relaxing and they may sleep a little bit better. After about four weeks they will notice some difference. It takes about a month, although after two weeks there’s enough change and it’s reinforcing.

SZ: How do you monitor the quality of the practices?

Dr. Lagos: It’s generally self report. I ask them to fill out a training card for each of their practices. The cards have fields to write in the time they start, the time they finish and their mood on the scale of one to four. For example recording their level of anxiety, level four would be the highest and level one the lowest level of anxiety. We track those changes over time and we have data for each of their breathing sessions for the ten weeks.

SZ: Do you have an upcoming appearances, or research coming out that you would like the public to be aware of?

Dr. Lagos:  I will be speaking at the University of Florida, Nov. 15th with their academic and athletic faculty about, “Optimizing Health and Performance for Collegiate Students and Athletes.”

SZ: Dr. Lagos thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule to share how you utilize biofeedback with athletic performance.

*Featured guests are not current nor former clients of Susan Zaro
*The article may also be read @ Examiner

Bay Area Breeze Women's Soccer

The Bay Area Breeze is a women’s soccer team that originally played in the Women’s Premier Soccer League and joined the W-League in January of 2013. The USL W-League is a North American women’s developmental organization. The W-League is unique in that it is an open league, giving college players the opportunity to play alongside established international players while maintaining their collegiate eligibility.  Vicki Linton was hired as Head Coach of the Bay Area Breeze in April. Prior to taking the head coach position Linton, who is from Australia, coached the Melbourne Victory in the Australian W-League, ran a National Training Centre program, and  was the U17 Australian Women’s National Team Head Coach. 

SZ: What is your soccer playing background? 

VL: I started off playing when I was six years old in Australia. All the kids around me one day were signing up for soccer and I went home to my mom and asked if I could sign up to play soccer. All my friends on the street happened to be boys. I didn’t realize that when I went to sign up I was the only girl in the whole club and the whole league.

I went from there and played from six years old with the boys until I was in the U13’s and then came across into girls teams. I continued to play and played for an Australian team at the World University Games in 1993. I actually came across to play at the University of Massachusetts in 1995 for one year. It was through an academic exchange  

program. I wished I could have stayed longer but I had to return home to graduate. 

SZ: You came over through an academic program and were able to play for the University of Massachusetts? What a great opportunity.

VL: I was a walk on. My intention was to find an academic program where I could also play soccer but obviously it was luck really or fortune that allowed me to play. I just knocked on the coaches door a couple of days after arriving at the University. I arrived in January, so I was lucky to have the Spring semester to actually work through eligibility and whether the coach was interested in me. 

SZ: In your youth when you learned soccer through playing on the boy’s soccer clubs did you feel that helped you learn assertiveness? Or did your skills sort of roll forward at it’s own pace? 

VL: At the time obviously you don’t know any different. It’s just what it is. Looking back now at my playing days, and as a coach today seeing other players come from that type of environment I think it certainly does help. There are a lot of girls who grew up in those sorts of environments. You’ve got to have certain characteristics and ability to be able to enjoy those environments. 

It probably made me a better player and it’s actually a shame that at twelve years old you get kind of pushed across to the girls. But from six to ten years old it really doesn’t matter. Girls and boys play together at young ages now. For myself it was a good experience, it gave me an opportunity to play because at the time there were no girl specific teams where I lived.

SZ: What shifted you into coaching? Was it related to injury, age, opportunity or all the above?

VL: All of that actually. I was twenty-four, not professional at the time and playing on our National Women’s Soccer League in Australia. At the same time I was involved in a coaching accreditation program and coaching a junior elite training program when the injury occurred and I couldn’t continue playing. After the injury my professional path went straight into coaching. More coaching, I love coaching, and went from there. 

SZ: What are some new challenges/adjustments/duties for you in the role as a professional league head coach?

VL: The Bay Area Breeze is a professional team in a pro/am league. 

SZ: The W-League has two tiers one is a pro/am feeder program and the other is professional?

VL: The W-League itself is a pro/am league. The National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL), has eight teams and only professional players. The W-League is a separate league, has twenty-something teams across the country and has been around for twenty-five plus years. 

SZ: So the NWSL has only eight teams and are professional players. Are players in the W-League paid to participate?

VL: The Bay Area Breeze is the only professional team in the league so we are allowed to pay our players. Other teams in our league aren’t professional but teams can provide for their players.

SZ: So what are the new challenges/adjustments/duties for you in this role?

VL: It’s not dissimilar to the coaching duties in the W-League in Australia that I was doing. From an administrative stand point it’s different. Instead of working for a federation sporting body, where the focus is on doing all sorts of things, I work for a privately owned club. Everyone in our organization is fully focused on this one team and getting us out there to perform. I’m really enjoying working in an environment with like minded people that are focused on helping the Bay Area Breeze be the best it can be.  It’s quite different working for an owner rather than a federation. It’s a more intimate involvement. It’s a great opportunity. The Bay Area Breeze is a young club in its third year. It has great potential and I’m finding enjoyment in coming in to help guide that vision, giving it substance and direction.

SZ: The team played a twelve game schedule between the months of May-July. Player’s need to have other jobs to sustain their income. Some player’s balance their professional careers playing in Europe. How far in advance do player’s begin arriving in the Bay Area and begin practicing as a team prior to the W-League schedule beginning?

VL: We have a real mix of player’s with us. They are on a six month contract and live basically on what we provide for them. However that’s six months out of twelve months of the year. For example in the other six months some players may do coaching, or personal training or other sorts of things. During the season, so they maintain those jobs during the off season some players work. Players graduating from college arrive at a different time than players who are already living here in the area. 

The W-League is really interesting in that some player’s arrive in March and others in May after graduation. This also limits our preparation. The league basically caters to the college players. It’s played in the summer months, and the schedule is completed by July 31st. Because we are professional we don’t have freshmen, sophomores, or juniors but they play on other teams. 

SZ: So all the players on the Bay Area Breeze are out of college?

VL: They may not be full time professional players but they are supporting their ability to play soccer and that’s what the Bay Area Breeze is wanting to provide. 

SZ: With the twelve game schedule and players participating in different leagues abroad, are there team building skills you utilize to bring the team together mentally and physically?

VL: This is my first season coaching the Breeze. This season was a little different and not an ideal environment. I arrived for the job mid-April six weeks before the league started. We didn’t have our squad until the final week before the first game of the season so it was a challenge in regards to doing those sorts of things. We didn’t have lot of prep time. I’m a full time coach so now I have this off season to prepare, organize and put some things in place for next year. 

In regards to the challenges and differences from my environment in Australia to here is that the players bring with them different skill sets, mind sets, training from all the different colleges and/or clubs that they were playing in. In Australia it’s quite different in that through our system, certainly as a national team coach, the players all across Australia have gone through similar training so when they get onto a national team there’s a certain expectation of what they know, mentally, physically and how they will play. 

So that’s a real interesting question for the Bay Area Breeze in the W-League. There are certain things that you can do in regards to bringing them together through team building. I brought them together through physical training which is a team builder and also we had sessions where people came in and did certain things. Those were great opportunities for team building and setting the culture. Other things which helped with team chemistry and bonding was all the players lived together in one apartment complex. I also started a leadership group which is part of how I was able to implement certain things within the team. The leadership group did a lot of things socially and that actually works pretty well. 

SZ: Mental skills training is a large part of any top tier sport. What types of mental skill routines do player’s engage in pre-game and during games? I assume each player has her own routines. As a coach do you provide this training for players?

VL: There were one or two players that I had individual chats with around goal setting before the season. Then a couple of other players highlighted that this was something they thought they needed to focus on. So I tried to work with those players a bit. We didn’t do this as a whole group. I’ll be honest in Australia it’s something we actually have time to do because I was with them all year round and it was part of the program. But with the time frame you have in the W-League it’s very difficult. I found it very interesting that the player’s came in with different sorts of mind sets and routines. Although different for each player, they all have routines.

A simple example is music in the change room. As a coach the interesting part of this is what type of music, who wants it loud, who wants it lower even though music is often part of a routine. It took the players a little bit of time to feel comfortable with what I was asking them to do pre-game and feeling comfortable around each other to do their own thing to prepare. 

SZ: The team creatively has made itself visible in the community through soccer tournaments, school visits, youth league jamborees and a fun “Soccer Walking in San Francisco” video. What are some upcoming events that the public may be interested in keeping an eye out for?

VL: We hosted a viewing party for the U.S. Women’s National Team game against Mexico and we are looking to do another one on October 20th when the U.S. National Team plays Australia. The last event we met at Kezar Pub which is a venue just across from where we play at Kezar Stadium but the venue is to be announced, check our website for more information.

We are also holding some youth clinics during Winter break and Spring break. Player’s who are living in the bay area make public appearances at soccer clubs, or training days and people interested in this can contact the Bay Area Breeze office. We have ongoing announcements of Bay Area Breeze activities through our website, Facebook, and Twitter. 

SZ: Will the leagues schedule be the same next year or will there be additional games?

VL: The league schedule is fairly set in the months of May-June. The game schedule comes out in December. We are looking to have some Spring games.

SZ: Do you have any favorite stories, quotes or tips that inspire you as a soccer coach?

VL: I was quite impacted the one year that I played at U. Mass by my soccer coach, Jim Rudy. I was coaching the Boston Renegades in the W-League in 2004 and came back to Massachusetts for an alumni game for the first time. I only played for Jim Rudy for one year, but to see him with the generations of players that still have such affection and admiration for him, and we could all play together because we’d been coached by him was really great. And as a coach that encouraged me. I coach a lot of youth players and then you see them move on and play at higher levels that’s always encouraging as a coach. I feel fortunate to not only coach good players but good people and it’s a privilege to be part of that journey and story. 

SZ: It’s a nice reward for your efforts and providing a vehicle for these players to come through your system for a certain period of time and know that you’ve helped them to reach the next level.

VL: They will get there anyways but that’s why it’s a privilege. I think that’s what’s fun about youth coaching they generally soak it all in and you see them grow up. That’s fun too.

SZ: Vicki thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule for this interview.

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

*This article can also be read @ examiner.

*Photography: John Hefti