The unspoken rule

Another broad theme which emerged in my project*** was the theme of Self-Sufficiency & Stigma, in which participants expressed their hesitations to open up about their experiences as a man within American culture. Broadly, all the participants reported never being sat down and told what a man “should or should not be”, save for messages of chivalry and that men don’t hit women. Instead, the messages of what it meant to be a man were learned from watching others and absorbed through values instilled in them on the field. However, most participants identified the value of self-sufficiency as something that was tied to their concept of masculinity. In discussing the need to be self-reliant, there was a sense, across most participants, that their ability to be self-sufficient was intertwined with their perceived success as a man.

Hunter:  If you answered the – if you phrase the question as do you feel comfortable asking for help, asking for help, um, I would have said strongly disagree I think on almost all of them [Laughs]. Um, I don’t know where that comes from.  Maybe that’s, maybe that’s one of like the, what does it mean to you to be a man.  

Matt:  Um, I think that a lot of people, and this again might be, you know, is one of the     qualities that I think some men are taught growing up is like, you know, you figured out on your own you can do – the direction.  You don’t need to ask directions, everything can be done by your own.

Connor:  I remember my mom asking me in high school – I crashed my car, I wasn’t playing well on the football field and my girlfriend dumped me and I was depressed probably.  I was like really upset for like a month and she said, ‘Do you want me to take  you to a psychologist?’ And I was like, “What?  No, I don’t want to do that.” She was like, ‘I think you need to talk to someone.’ And I just remember being like no, I’m too manly for that to be honest.  To be honest I think it’s hard for the stereotypical man, football player to say, “Hey, I want to sit down and talk about my feelings.”...So like I never really did that with my dad.  That’s weird. 

Given the overall goal of my project was to unearth barriers to mental health services, I explored the ways in which the need for self-sufficiency may impact a man’s decision to seek help. Many participants discussed an unspoken agreement among men to only offer advice or recommend seeking help when they specifically asked—otherwise, the assumption should be that the other man could take care of himself. Even amongst teammates who spend a majority of their time together and are bonded through time and competition, all of the men shared they would be extremely hesitant to approach a teammate (or other male friend) with their struggles or ask about theirs. Importantly, this traditional masculine ideal of self-sufficiency and the internalized image of the invincible football warrior reinforce one another as young football players negotiate the stressors of their lives, and decrease the likelihood of these young men seeking help.

Hunter: ...college football players are probably less likely to seek that sort of thing out –for the same reason, versus an NFL player, for the same reason that any college student is less likely to seek that sort of thing out, versus someone who’s you know older, has a sense of invincibility.  Ah, I’ll get through this and whatever else.

Connor:  I do think as a football player and especially as a man you get in this place where it’s like you can’t – you don’t really want to – you can’t be sensitive.

As a clinician, it is imperative to work to reduce the stigma of seeking and offering help within full athletic system. The “see something—say something” mantra has begun to be instilled on high school and college campuses, but it will require a more concerted effort within Athletic Departments and individual teams.

***Based on results from my dissertation: "No pain, no gain: American football players' attitudes towards help-seeking and barriers to mental health service utilization" (2015).

Modern Day American Gladiators

Continuing the ideas from last week, a majority of the participants in my study*** criticized the prevalent ideas of sacrificing one's body and playing through pain within football culture. The idea of sacrificing one’s body is not unique to football, but seems to be a highly valued mantra across sports within American culture. I remember watching a football game one Sunday night and listening to the announcers praise one of the quarterbacks for playing through a ACL/MCL tear. They touted this young quarterback as tough, strong and as a real leader. It gave me reason to pause as I thought about this young man’s career and the likely permanent damage he was doing to his body in the hopes of making the playoffs. I realized my hypocrisy since I played on an ankle that needed surgery because it was my recruiting year and I was a captain.

The pressure to play through injuries is pervasive and glorified, but the participants in my study spoke of another fascination. Participants highlighted the glorification and vicarious experience of violence as part of broader American culture, and emphasized the media’s role in portraying football players as modern day warriors. Because their words are more powerful, here are a few of their thoughts (*pseudonyms are used):

Ryan:  I was always trying to nail someone what wasn't paying attention and I think Americans love legal violence so the ability to watch football, I mean I'm sure everybody watches what happen to players. They're faster. They're stronger and it's not stopping...so I mean I think we all thirst for almost from a gladiator standpoint....So I think overall, I think Americans love the violence. I think they feed on it...      

Connor:  I think there’s kind of this thing around people who like watching people hurt each other. You can’t see that on the streets. You can’t see that in public. So there is this kind of feeling that I get that people think that football players are objects, kind of like modern day gladiators almost...

Patrick: Football is just a representation of like human brutality and like, and form, right? Like if you think through, like, the evolution of what humans love to watch –they love watching violence. Like gladiators, right? People killing each other. Like, humans love watching these things. Up until a few years ago, every Monday, they’d play the NFL’s biggest hits from the week. Like that just stopped over the past few years because of the concussion stuff…Um, so I think that if you look at the culture of football, it’s, it’s one that’s always been kind of predicated around, around, you know, masculinity and violence.

Patrick goes on to consider the language of violence used by coaches as they teach young men about the fundamentals of football.

Patrick: Like we would have coaches saying, “I want you to, you know, punch his heart    through his chest.” Right? Or um, “Take him off the field.  Get rid of him.”  Like, like that is a culture of like violence really.  Like right? Because the more violent team wins. Because half the game is physically dominating someone.  O-line and D-line, you don’t ever touch the ball.  It’s about taking the man in front of you every play and physically dominating them.  So yeah, that’s, that’s definitely one of the cultural norms, is like being aggressive, being physical, violence.

Similarly, comparisons with the military were common across several of the interviews who described the language of “going into battle”, being a “soldier”, and “being in the foxhole”. In these ways, the language of the participants’ coaches and of the media reinforce the glorification of violence within the sport and within broader American society. 

As clinicians who work with athletes, we must look for the opportunities to discuss this value on violence and fighting. Football players are compared to warriors in battle on the field, but many players struggle with leaving the battle mentality on the field and have yet to develop anger management tools that don't involve physical engagement.  Prominant wide receiver Brandon Marshall described his struggle: 

'Football players are trained to be bipolar,’ he said. ‘You have to have a switch. You have to be able to turn the switch on when you touch the field, play with a lot of passion and emotion, violence, be able to hit a man, try to hurt a man.  Be hit by him, and love it. When the clock hits zero, you have to turn that switch off.  And 'The Beast' didn’t have that switch.’ (Deveney, S., 2011)

As we think about the ways in which we, as a society, vicariously consume violent media, we can also consider our own responsibilities in advocating for safe play and players' rights. For those who argue that recent rule changes which protect player safety "ruin" sports, I would argue that it's better to have sports evolve as the physicality of athletes evolve than it is to continue to have athletes be physically and mentally impaired for the rest of their lives. 

 

***Based on results from my dissertation: "No pain, no gain: American football players' attitudes towards help-seeking and barriers to mental health service utilization" (2015).

Deveney, S. (2011). Brandon Marshall becomes unlikely voice for mental health. Sporting News, October 25, 2011. Retrieved on October 8, 2012 from: http://aol.sportingnews.com/nfl/story/2011-10-25/brandon-marshall-becomes-unlikely-voice-for-mental-health.

 

You're a football player.

Another major theme that emerged in my study centered around the way others grouped football players together, for better or worse, and this theme was called deindividuation of football players. This social grouping, or deindividuation, was often mirrored within the culture and structure of American football, again, for better or worse.

Most of the participants noted the visibility of being an athlete and therefore the strong identification as a football player by others. For themselves, most participants described the importance of their athletic identity on a personal and social level. Their athletic identification was a positive source of pride and a social facilitator in most situations. Many shared that being a football player opened doors, both during and after college, to rare social and occupational opportunities. Within their team, all of the participants described a sense of family, brotherhood, and accountability to your teammates as a vital element within football. Additionally, many participants described the "put it on film" culture of football, and the opportunity to give and receive feedback as an equalizing force in which each person was responsible to their teammates and each player had the opportunity to provide valuable input to advance the team's success.

However, a majority of the participants described the limiting messages and stereotypes (i.e. “the dumb jock”) they received regarding their academic and emotional abilities as football players. Importantly, the participants who also identified as men of color were particularly aware of messages that spoke to their value, and some were given the message that football was their primary, if not only, avenue for success. Additionally, because of increased visibility, several participants described instances in which they were targeted as football players, usually at parties or local bars, and would get caught up in physical altercations. Within their team, a majority of the participants criticized the prevalent deindividualized values of sacrificing one's body and playing through pain within football culture. These values, coupled with the focus on individual statistics, often left participants feeling like "a piece of man meat"...a replaceable unit in a greater system.

Similarly, participants highlighted the glorification and vicarious experience of violence within football as part of broader American culture. More on that in the next post…

***Based on results from my dissertation: "No pain, no gain: American football players' attitudes towards help-seeking and barriers to mental health service utilization" (2015).

Football hierarchy--the importance of feedback and role clarity

Building upon my last blog post, regardless of how the team culture is established by coaches—all participants*** emphasized the hierarchical nature of football teams and organizations.The players indicated the hierarchical structure can be formal/explicit or informal/implicit; the value of the hierarchy also differs between teams depending on coaching values and the corresponding team values.

The participants all agreed that the hierarchy in a football organization is structured as follows: ownership and management/college athletic director is at top and is responsible for hiring coaches and personnel; next is the head coach and then other coordinators and position coaches who are responsible for setting team culture, determining style of play and playing time for players; next are the team captains and veteran players who are responsible for maintaining the team culture and partially responsible for modeling and enforcing expected behaviors; next are the exceptional players and the starters; next is the rest of the team who are either fighting for a starting spot or trying to solidify their roles as key role players; finally are the players on the scout teams and those on injured reserve. 

Importantly, all of the participants felt their value as a football player (and place within the team’s hierarchy) was determined week-by-week according to their performance on the field. Oftentimes participants (as many athletes do) used specific quantitative statistics to illustrate their value, and they shared the stress of becoming hyper-focused on their stats. Most of the participants described the constant pressure to maintain or improve their position within the team. As a result, most participants described the roller coaster of emotions week-to-week, and several participants described players’ increased focus on trying to control their environment, which led to some teammates using substances to cope with the ups-and-downs.

As a clinician, I find myself helping athletes cope with the stress of within-team competition just as often as external competition. In order to thrive and be successful, athletes must be able to strive for individual success while making the success of the team a priority. One of the most important lessons I can help an athlete learn is the importance of seeking feedback and role clarity. The unknown can be a paralyzing force. Seeking feedback from trainers, teammates, and coaches is a fundamental skill that can help reduce the worries associated with the unknown. Athletes can be hesitant to seek direct feedback about their performance or areas for growth, but doing so will help the athlete improve and will provide clarity about their role on their team. With that information, the athlete can then decide whether they are satisfied with their role or whether they would like their role to change. 

***Based on results from my dissertation: "No pain, no gain: American football players' attitudes towards help-seeking and barriers to mental health service utilization" (2015).

The importance of team values

My dissertation unearthed several perceived barriers to seeking mental health services. One of the major barriers identified by participants had to do with the culture of sport itself. Generally, participants identified the culture of football as the predominant barrier to seeking professional mental health services.

As discussed in the previous post, sports play an important role in developing our sense of self—who we are and what we believe in—and most athletes will integrate lessons they learn from their coaches, teammates and sports participation into their personal values. Many of the participants stressed the importance of picking a school/football program that fit their individual strengths, and where they felt they would have a competitive advantage as a football player. Importantly, however, participants reported the best experiences when the team culture created by their coach mirrored their own personal values. Similarly, participants described the frustration and confusion, both as an athlete and as an individual, when it became clear that there was a mismatch between an athlete’s personal values and team culture.

Participants all felt that it was the coach who set the team culture, either explicitly or implicitly, and that the captains played a unique role in enforcing the culture in the locker room and on the field. They indicated some coaches are more intentional in setting the team culture and expectations for players through team meetings and setting team mottos for the upcoming season, while other coaches set the team culture implicitly by their recruiting and hiring decisions, their preferred style of play, playing time decisions, and punishment for various behaviors.

When players felt they were playing for a coach who shared their personal values and athletic values, they felt more supported, more confident, more trusting of the coach's decisions, and generally reported feeling a positive playing experience. However, when there was a mismatch between the player's values and those of the coach, they felt more insecure, more isolated, had worries about their success on the team, and were less likely to trust the intentions of their coaches. It seemed, in talking with the players, that transparency was a highly sought after value in coaches--players wanted to play for someone who was open and honest in their communication and decision making. In other words, they wanted to play for someone who they understood and who was consistent. 

When working with younger athletes, I often try to help them think through and identify what values are important to them so they can then identify which coaches and programs would be a good match. The process of identifying important values can help the athlete set their own goals and mindset regardless of whether they have the luxury of choosing a team/program. When working with coaches or teams, I often start with a hypothetical --imagine it's the end of the season and a sports writer was writing an article about your team and the season...what do you hope they will write? What would you want them to notice was different about your team? This way of thinking helps folks start brainstorming what is at the core of their organization, team and their players. Once you can identify your values, how to set meaningful goals and standards for the season becomes much more clear and allows players to compete with intention. 

 

***Based on results from my dissertation: "No pain, no gain: American football players' attitudes towards help-seeking and barriers to mental health service utilization" (2015).

"No pain, no gain" and other mantras

***During graduate school, my dissertation focused on unearthing the barriers to seeking mental health services in a small group of male collegiate football players. Over the next few blogs, I'll share snippets of the research and results from my study, as well as entries that are inspired by the participants.***

 

As a clinician, I am always interested in intersectionality--how an individual's various identities intersect and influence one another. Athletic identity tends to be particularly salient for many folks for many reasons, a few of which include: early engagement in sport, identification with coaches as role models, tendency for sport to be a shared family activity, time invested playing, etc. The particular salience of athletic identity for any one person is unique and informed by a large number of social and individual factors. The following excerpt is from my study.

"Athletics provide one context for the socialization of many young boys. Sports play a pivotal role in teaching values and gender norms for many young boys who are learning not only what it means to be an athlete, but correspondingly what it means to be a man competing for value in American society (Whannel (2007) as cited in Steinfeldt, 2009, pg. 261). In this way, “boys learn cultural values and behaviors, such as competition, toughness, and winning at all costs, that are culturally valued aspects of masculinity” (Messner, 1989, pg. 74). Research examining the degree to which a person identifies with their athletic role, using the Athlete Identification Measurement Scale (AIMS; Brewer, Van Raalte, & Linder, 1993) has suggested sports provide an especially powerful arena for the socialization of young boys that may translate into a stronger identification with their athletic role and the values within sport: "As a result, the athlete’s emerging self-image often reflects an identity associated with the glorified athletic self (Messner, 1992).  This athletic identity is formed by a combination of cognitive, affective, behavioral, and social aspects that are related to the role of being an athlete" (Brewer & Cornelius, 2001; Murphy, Petitpas, & Brewer, 1996). This identity development process, facilitated through sport socialization experiences, encourages many young men to adopt a win-at-all-costs mentality that subjugates personal needs in order to meet the team’s goal of winning (Watson, 2006)” (Steinfeldt, 2009, pg. 262). Sports provide an influential context for young men to internalize the values of sport which reinforce traditional masculine norms of American society."

When we discussed the values of football, the players described self-sacrifice and playing through pain as dominant cultural values. They spoke of early locker room mantras including the ubiquitous "No pain, no gain", "man-up", "never back down", and the especially problematic "boys don't cry". These mantras are just a small sample of the powerful messages potentially received by young boys which serve to reinforce traditional masculine norms.

These norms are not necessarily always problematic or damaging, nor are they universal, but the players indicated that these cultural norms influenced their perceptions of seeking help. Generally, the players described their perception that seeking help was a sign of weakness. That men, as a rule, should try to address their problems on their own and would only seek help from those they know, for sure, have gone through something similar. They similarly described an unspoken rule that men should not offer help to another teammate, who they know to is going through a hard time, unless they have explicitly asked for advice. 

Coaches, in particular, play an important role in the socialization of young male athletes. They set the cultural norms for the team, and serve as powerful male role models, often at a time of identity formation. As a clinician, I make sure to have an open conversation around the messages being sent to young athletes and the ways in which coaches, and athletic departments, can create a culture which values help seeking and offering help to others as an act of strength and growth. We work to create a T.E.A.M culture, which stands for: Talk More, Educate the Team, Advocate, and redefines Man Up.  "Talk More" involves increasing role clarity and expectations, increase communication between team and coaches, and create supportive team values and norms. "Educate the team" involves providing psychoeducational workshops about signs and symptoms of common mental health concerns. "Advocate" involves encouraging players to talk to each other and reach out to others for help, and provide information about campus/community resources. Finally, "Man Up" redefines what it means to be a man--that there's strength in reaching out and seeking help. 

 

Brewer, B. W., Van Raalte, J. L., & Linder, D. E. (1993). Athletic identity: Hercules' muscles or Achilles heel?. International Journal Of Sport Psychology, 24(2), 237-254.

Messner, M.A. (1989). Masculinities and athletic careers. Gender & Society March 1989 vol. 3 no. 1, 71-88. doi: 10.1177/089124389003001005.

Steinfeldt, J. A., Steinfeldt, M. C., England, B., & Speight, Q. L. (2009). Gender role conflict and stigma toward help-seeking among college football players. Psychology of Men & Masculinity, 10, 261–272.

The problem with 'mental toughness'

Vince Lombardi once said, “Mental toughness is many things and rather difficult to explain.  Its qualities are sacrifice and self-denial.  Also, most importantly, it is combined with a perfectly disciplined will that refuses to give in. It’s a state of mind – you could call it ‘character in action’” (Family of Vince Lombardi, 2010, Famous Quotes).  

Mental toughness, or more recently 'grit', is a term tossed around within the sports world as if everyone knows what it means and who has 'it'. There doesn't seem to be a consensus on what mental toughness is, what it looks like, or how to develop it. When asked what mental toughness means, most people begin to falter, trying to grab onto a definition that eludes them. On one end of the spectrum many people fall back on the you know it when you see it description, and on the other end other folks say mental toughness is akin to not giving up.

People talk of mental toughness as if it is a mental state you will yourself into on the field. The goal is for athletes to compartmentalize their struggles and push all of their fears/doubts/worries aside. The ability to compartmentalize is glorified and pervasive in sports culture with such idioms coming to mind: leave the last play behind you; leave it all on the field; shut out the rest and just play; shake it off; don't think about it, etc. But the truth of the matter is our brains do not work this way--there isn't a separate brain structure for competing athletically that shuts down other areas of the brain. We are a collection of our experiences and we can no more tune out the rest of our life during competition than we can breathe underwater. It's just physically not possible. In this way, we're setting athletes up to fail by glorifying an impossible way of being and performing.

Instead, perhaps we should be taking a step back and helping athletes develop resilient mental health, which must be developed and continually supported. More on that another time.

 

Family of Vince Lombardi (2010). Famous Quotes. Retrieved on October 5, 2012 from: http://www.vincelombardi.com/quotes.html.

Welcome

Welcome to my blog, a space in which I plan on sharing my personal and professional opinions about various topics relevant to high performing individuals and groups. At times I may focus on one group or another--whether it be athletes, students or professionals--but hopefully the information will be of use to all. 

Thanks, and I hope you enjoy!