What You Can Learn From Olympic Trainers

Shortly before the 100-meter backstroke finals, Barbara "B.J." Bedford was mentally falling apart. Once again, she was replaying the last three Olympic trials in her head, and the picture wasn't pretty: Each time Bedford had tried to make the U.S. swim team, she had failed.

Unnerved by her past, Bedford made a quick call to the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo. She reached Sean McCann, a sports psychologist. Although he was not the one she usually works with, she was so nervous, it didn't matter. McCann helped her relax, and Bedford's panic attack lifted. Minutes later, she beat a very competitive field to win the backstroke final, earning a place on the team that will go to Sydney.

"I can't tell you how happy I am," she said afterward. "Words fail me. But I am going to call back that guy at the training center and tell him thanks."

Says McCann: "The USSR was a leader in applications of sports psychology, and many of their ideas had an impact on the field in this country." For the Summer Games, the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) will be bringing four sports psychologists who will focus on reminding athletes "what they already know, rather than introducing any new skills or strategies," he adds.

For the Summer Games, the U.S. Olympic Committee will be bringing four sports psychologists who will focus on reminding athletes "what they already know...."

Nearly 25 years ago, the USOC established a branch to study visualization, meditation, and biofeedback in order to help athletes like Bedford when they need it most. While their methods have been tailored to world-class athletes, weekend warriors can benefit by how the Olympians do it, too.

One simple exercise is to take a moment and focus on something that you're trying to accomplish. Close your eyes and clearly detail the current situation. Now imagine how you would like things to turn out. Visualize it as well as you can. Try to use as many of your senses as you can. What do you see? How does your body feel? Are there any smells or sounds associated with the scene? Now see how far you need to go from your current reality to your goal.

Visualizations, like the one above, have proved to be a powerful tool in performance enhancement as well as in healing. In researching transcendent experiences in sports, Esalen founder and author Michael Murphy discovered that coaches in the former Soviet Union told their athletes to visualize their body recovering after a hard workout or race. They were told to picture their muscles and organs in their mind. The U.S. team has adopted the same techniques.

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