AASP Newsletter - August 2017

Charlie Maher, PsyD, CC-AASP, Cleveland Indians
Interviewed by Andrew Friesen, PhD, University of Wolverhampton, UK, on behalf of the Newsletter Committee

Could you tell us about your consulting philosophy and how you practice sport psych?

My overall approach is very, very basic and has to do with trying to establish a relationship with the client whether that’s a player, a coach or executive. I try to identify priority needs that should be addressed and put those needs into a relevant context. Meaning: What do we need to know about the organization, its readiness, anything about culture and ethnicity, and it is based upon all of that.

And once needs have been identified, how would you describe your consulting style?

I would probably call it more collaborative. So, you’re working with the manager and the team and the coaches, and collaborating with all of them so they perceive me and respect me as part of their staff and as someone who is trying to help them; as opposed to being a researcher, so to speak, coming from the outside. So the more the approach can be a collaboration with other people with the purpose of designing a program, implementing it, helping, whether it’s the athletes or staff getting better mentally and emotionally and then trying to consider the value of the program in relation to performance.

How do you nurture the buy-in from coaches or players?

Every coach, every player, every support staff member – they have to really see and feel that you are interested in them as people, particularly players. If not, they’re not going to be interested. Unless they can see that you care about them, they’re not going to care about what you’re doing. So, it’s a very personal kind of approach. Without establishing rapport, down the line there will always be some sort of barrier or road block. For me, that’s very, very important to look at them first as a person and then from that point to say, “Okay, how can we work together so you can get better at what you’re doing?”

Say a coach asks you to come in for four sessions where it’s very time-bound contact with the players, how do you get that buy-in when you don’t have the time to nurture that kind of relationship, that kind of holistic approach?

If the coach wants these four sessions, I would say, “Let’s go back, what are you trying to accomplish?” I always try to work them back to the players in relation to what their needs are. And if the coach isn’t willing to do that, I’m very up front with them and say, “Hey look, I need this information if you want to do anything worthwhile. So, let’s look at that first before we look at the number of sessions. Because it might not be enough; it might need one session, it might need ten sessions.” Like any athlete, it’s about getting the coach to slow down and say: “What are we trying to accomplish here?” And in time, many coaches appreciate that, although they may initially not like it. They feel a little uncomfortable, but they say, “Hey yeah you’re trying to help me. You’re not trying to come in and push some kind of program or product or something along that line.”

How are you able to maintain a consistent approach when there is such a mass turnover in coaching staff in professional sports?

Because I’ve been doing this for such a long time, I’ve established a track record and a reputation and so I think that I’m pretty confident in what I’m doing and how I’m relating to coaches and their athletes and that usually comes across. But, each coach is different and some of them you have to move slowly. Some of them would not even want any intervention or program, they just want you to be available to them as a resource. Either because they want to vent about things or they just want your opinion and nothing more. You really have to get a sense of the readiness of the coach to deal with sport psychology type of matters. Some coaches are more formal, more systematic, programmatic and others are just informal and they want you there as a resource. So obviously knowing the difference is really important.

You mentioned the term, “readiness.” What indicators are you looking for to gauge the readiness of players, coaches and the organization?

First is their ability to commit resources for mental skills and sport psychology work. What resources in terms of money, space, people, their values, and what the idea of mental skills or sport psychology means to them. If they think the idea is I’m going to go in and do some kind of therapy or something like that, it’s not a good sign. Readiness is also gauging if the circumstance is right: Is the organization stable enough? Are the people going to get fired in the next week? Is the timing right to do this, and why? Who’s obligated to do this and what kind of resistance might there be from either a union or from a front office? And then again what might be their perception of the benefits? There are some major factors that I actually use to gauge their readiness. And then that term, “mental skills program,” what does that mean? That’s the idea, but what does that idea mean to them? They might say, “Well I read this article about such and such and I thought that it would be a good idea.” Well, we need to talk about that and place it in a relevant context.

Have you observed coaches using mental training strategies on themselves?

Most of our coaches are open, very experienced and very supportive of the mental side of the game. They use that to relate to their players as well as to themselves. Our principles that we use at the Major League level are what we call, Quality Preparation: How do you go about being ready to compete? Competitive Follow Through: How do you maintain productive contact with the moment and recognize when you drift out of the moment, how to bring yourself back? And then, Accurate Self-Evaluation: How do you use your results and deal with them honestly as much as you can and objectively. That framework applies to every player but also to every coach. So, the coach and manager have to prepare themselves for the game and maintain productive contact with the moment, especially during those times when their emotions can get out of control. And they also have to have a way to be accurate in evaluation of what they’ve done in terms of their work. With the Cleveland Indians, the whole team is using the same language. It makes sense to the players and it makes sense to the coaches, managers, and the strength and conditioning and athletic training staff too.

What kind of psychological skills do you use on yourself to navigate through the high-performance environment?

I try to stay patient in what I do. I like to get things done but I have to temper that. I try to recognize that whatever I’m doing, that’s the most important thing. I try to keep myself in the moment and recognize that, this player, or this staff member who’s in front of me, I’m going to devote my attention to him. I’m not going to start thinking about what I’m going to do next. The other thing too is that I’ve been doing this for 30 years. So I have to ask myself, “Am I enjoying what I’m doing? Despite the ups and downs, despite the ambiguity, whatever it might be, do I still enjoy what I do?” And my answer to that question right now is yes. Otherwise I wouldn’t be doing it.