The Mental Side of Sports
Featured Speaker:
He is a member of the physician leadership team within the BayCare Health System providing input to the hospitals, medical group, accountable care organization, and insurance-based initiatives. He has the respect of national hospital, managed behavioral health, community mental health, and consumer advocacy groups, and sits on the Council of Healthcare Systems and Finance of the American Psychiatric Association. Dr. Dewan is also a member of the Board of the Positive Coaching Alliance of Tampa Bay. He is a graduate of the Medical College of Ohio, and completed his residency in psychiatry at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center and UCSD School of Medicine. He is a Diplomate of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology and the American Board of Addiction Medicine. He is also a board certified physician executive and a former collegiate tennis player and coach.
Learn more about Nick Dewan, MD
Nick Dewan, MD
Dr. Nick Dewan is a pioneer and an accomplished physician leader and sports psychiatrist with a nationally respected track record in health care value improvement and information technology. Currently, he serves as Chief Medical Officer for the Behavioral Health Division of the BayCare Health System. In 2015, he published his third book on information technology “Mental Health Practice in a Digital World: A Clinicians Guide”. His clinical experience includes work in emergency, hospital, outpatient, addiction medicine, and sports medicine settings. He is a sought after speaker and is interviewed by local and national media on behavioral health issues and sports performance topics. His work on clinical guidelines, performance bonuses for quality, efficient use of healthcare, best practice adoption, and patient empowerment and technology positions him as a leading expert in an era of accountable healthcare.He is a member of the physician leadership team within the BayCare Health System providing input to the hospitals, medical group, accountable care organization, and insurance-based initiatives. He has the respect of national hospital, managed behavioral health, community mental health, and consumer advocacy groups, and sits on the Council of Healthcare Systems and Finance of the American Psychiatric Association. Dr. Dewan is also a member of the Board of the Positive Coaching Alliance of Tampa Bay. He is a graduate of the Medical College of Ohio, and completed his residency in psychiatry at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center and UCSD School of Medicine. He is a Diplomate of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology and the American Board of Addiction Medicine. He is also a board certified physician executive and a former collegiate tennis player and coach.
Learn more about Nick Dewan, MD
Transcription:
The Mental Side of Sports
Introduction: This is BayCare HealthChat, another podcast from BayCare Health System. Here's Melanie Cole.
Melanie Cole: Welcome. This is BayCare HealthChat. I'm Melanie Cole and today we're discussing the mental side of sports. Joining me is Dr. Nick Dewan he’s the Chief Medical Officer in the Behavioral Health division of BayCare. Dr. Dewan, it's a pleasure to have you on, as always, people when they think of athletes and they see that physical aspect of the sport, how fast they can run, how high they can jump. They don't always think about that mental aspect. Is sports performance a mixture of physical and mental, is it more one or the other? Tell us a little bit about that.
Dr. Dewan: I get asked this question a lot and the bottom line is it's always both. If you don't have the physical capability, no matter how much mental capability you have, you're not going to succeed, and if you don't have the mental capability, all the best physical skills, you're still not going to get to be the best or near the best. So I always think of it as a, what we call physical skills are necessary but not sufficient and therefore the mental side really gives you the edge to perform at your utmost potential.
Host: So what makes a great athlete? Obviously the physical, you just said you've got to have the skill, the skill level, the speed, whatever it is. I've told you my son is a gymnast. You've got to have some level of skill. But what makes that mental strength for these athletes? What is it that they're doing that the rest of us are looking for?
Dr. Dewan: I think let's start with what's the attitude you have to approach sports performance. And I think there are three very, very important attitudinal approaches. You have to to say, I'm going to put my best effort forward every time, whether it's in practice or in the actual competitive arena. Number two, I'm going to have a focus on learning. And here's one thing. This whole area of learning, I've worked with people that are tops in the world at their sport and they today still think they have to learn. And then finally, they have to have an attitude of what I would call the long game or the long game approach is they're really looking to quote, master their sport. And I think this is an area where I see at least with youth sports, and I see coaches coaching young people.
It doesn't matter if you're in the elementary school, middle school, high school, even collegiate, people at that level, at least from a coaching, and sometimes the athlete think they can be perfect or they expect perfection. And what they really should have is an attitude of lifelong or career based mastery. You can't hit a baseball perfectly at age 10, and yet there are little league coaches that will expect perfection. So really from an athlete perspective and a coaching perspective, having an attitude of learning, having an attitude of what I would call putting in the best effort and a long game perspective at mastery. And when you combine that with what I would call optimism and confidence, and if you don't mind, let me tell you the difference between what I would call say, optimism and confidence. Have you ever heard that childhood thing where they say, you know, I think I can, I think I can?
And then the train goes up the thing. And then I know I can. Well, optimism lets you even think you can. Belief is I think I can. And confidence is I know I can. And so that trifecta of optimism, belief, and confidence, and those three things are only developed in what I would call a positive environment. So if people who are listening are either a coach, a parent, or an athlete, everybody should have some degree of an optimism that they think they can. People don't try to win unless they think they can. And then they have to continually remind themselves and they have to go for what I call little tiny celebrations. And if you don't go for tiny celebrations, you can never build confidence. And so a progressive learning tiny celebration is the way I see most athletes get better and better and better.
And the athletes that put too many expectations too much early on tend to get miserable and burned out and they really don't succeed. And so when I see great physical potential combined with the mental attitude and a mental approach, that's what gets you to the next level. And then finally it's understanding the sport and that is a sort of a mental but more intellectual side of the sport. And I see this with, I've seen this with, you know, I've worked with collegiate coaches and professional coaches and collegiate athletes and professional athletes. And believe it or not, you can be the best athlete in college and not know much about how to really do the sport that well.
Can you believe that? People that are top of the game in college, when they go in the pros, the first thing the professional coach will say, boy, it looks like I've got a lot to teach here. That's just amazing to me when I hear things like that. So this whole perspective and attitude about, hey, you got to master not only the technical side of the sport, but you've got to master the intellectual side of the sport. So I think that's what creates the difference between world-class and just, you know, the good athlete. I know I gave a long answer but I thought it was important to go through these finer details with you.
Host: I completely agree. That was an amazing answer and it makes so much sense. And before I ask you how this applies to regular life, instead of just the athlete in sports life, while we're talking about sports for parents and coaches, when they're looking to help their athletes and specifically parents, you know, we scream on the sideline, we talk about the game afterwards. I myself am guilty of that with both my kids, going over it in my head and with them in the car, and I don't know that that's always a helpful thing to do. When that athlete is mentally focused and they've done their best, what do you want parents and coaches to know about not messing around with that?
Dr. Dewan: I think most importantly congratulate people on effort. Way to go. You worked hard. You might've won. You'd say congratulations on winning. You might've lost. Doesn't mean you congratulate them for losing. But you say, hey, it's something that we can learn. But most importantly, if an athlete's tired, they need rest. They need to sort of unwind, rejuvenate, get their, what I would call emotional tank and physical tank refilled. I mean, in the workplace these days, we talked about people that have careers and jobs and roles. We as adults will say, ah, I just need time to kind of rejuvenate. I just need time to decompress. Well, the meaningfulness of the competition for young people is greater than the meaningfulness of competition for older people because younger people's emotional wiring in the brain is very strong, and they're what I would call the modulating part of the brain.
The part of the brain that tempers emotions, and calms people now is not as well developed as an adults. And that's why adults need to be the calming force, the resilient force, the reenergizing force. They can't be, oh, that was terrible. Or that was bad because that part of the brain in the young person is already at warp speed. And then you're putting them in like super duper warp speed, which is the wrong thing to do. So you really need to be the calming, resilient, and you need to model that for the young person, so they can learn and they can appreciate that. Because even a little nonverbal sort of dismay means more to them than you think. And that's what I think is really important is encouraging optimism, positive, and recognize, look, things didn't go well. Maybe the effort wasn't there. That happens and say, next time, let's move forward and look forward to the next adventure or the next competition.
Host: That's really great advice. I hope parents heed what you're saying because it really does help our young athletes. As we wrap up, Dr. Dewan and such, great advice you give every time you're on. Are there really ways to get mentally better? You mentioned optimism, belief and confidence. Tell us how we can take these principles and make them motivational for not just sports, but for every day applying it to our daily lives.
Dr. Dewan: I think that the concept of you're always learning. You're always trying to master what you're trying to do. If you put in your life, life is a continuous improvement journey, however tiny and minute that improvement is, it's important to look at it. It's important to take time off. It's important to take time to take a deep breath once in a while to just allow things to happen, and if you do that in your regular work and your regular life, you're going to be happier and you're going to perform better. And if we do that in our day to day lives, we do that in our sports life, life is going to be a pretty happy place.
Host: Wow. What great, great advice. Thank you so much, Dr. Dewan, for coming on and sharing your incredible expertise with us today. And that concludes this episode of BayCare HealthChat. Please visit our website at BayCare.org for more information and to get connected with one of our providers. Please remember to subscribe, rate, and review this podcast and all the other BayCare podcasts. For more health tips, just as you heard today on this excellent episode of BayCare HealthChat, please follow us on your social channels. I'm Melanie Cole.
The Mental Side of Sports
Introduction: This is BayCare HealthChat, another podcast from BayCare Health System. Here's Melanie Cole.
Melanie Cole: Welcome. This is BayCare HealthChat. I'm Melanie Cole and today we're discussing the mental side of sports. Joining me is Dr. Nick Dewan he’s the Chief Medical Officer in the Behavioral Health division of BayCare. Dr. Dewan, it's a pleasure to have you on, as always, people when they think of athletes and they see that physical aspect of the sport, how fast they can run, how high they can jump. They don't always think about that mental aspect. Is sports performance a mixture of physical and mental, is it more one or the other? Tell us a little bit about that.
Dr. Dewan: I get asked this question a lot and the bottom line is it's always both. If you don't have the physical capability, no matter how much mental capability you have, you're not going to succeed, and if you don't have the mental capability, all the best physical skills, you're still not going to get to be the best or near the best. So I always think of it as a, what we call physical skills are necessary but not sufficient and therefore the mental side really gives you the edge to perform at your utmost potential.
Host: So what makes a great athlete? Obviously the physical, you just said you've got to have the skill, the skill level, the speed, whatever it is. I've told you my son is a gymnast. You've got to have some level of skill. But what makes that mental strength for these athletes? What is it that they're doing that the rest of us are looking for?
Dr. Dewan: I think let's start with what's the attitude you have to approach sports performance. And I think there are three very, very important attitudinal approaches. You have to to say, I'm going to put my best effort forward every time, whether it's in practice or in the actual competitive arena. Number two, I'm going to have a focus on learning. And here's one thing. This whole area of learning, I've worked with people that are tops in the world at their sport and they today still think they have to learn. And then finally, they have to have an attitude of what I would call the long game or the long game approach is they're really looking to quote, master their sport. And I think this is an area where I see at least with youth sports, and I see coaches coaching young people.
It doesn't matter if you're in the elementary school, middle school, high school, even collegiate, people at that level, at least from a coaching, and sometimes the athlete think they can be perfect or they expect perfection. And what they really should have is an attitude of lifelong or career based mastery. You can't hit a baseball perfectly at age 10, and yet there are little league coaches that will expect perfection. So really from an athlete perspective and a coaching perspective, having an attitude of learning, having an attitude of what I would call putting in the best effort and a long game perspective at mastery. And when you combine that with what I would call optimism and confidence, and if you don't mind, let me tell you the difference between what I would call say, optimism and confidence. Have you ever heard that childhood thing where they say, you know, I think I can, I think I can?
And then the train goes up the thing. And then I know I can. Well, optimism lets you even think you can. Belief is I think I can. And confidence is I know I can. And so that trifecta of optimism, belief, and confidence, and those three things are only developed in what I would call a positive environment. So if people who are listening are either a coach, a parent, or an athlete, everybody should have some degree of an optimism that they think they can. People don't try to win unless they think they can. And then they have to continually remind themselves and they have to go for what I call little tiny celebrations. And if you don't go for tiny celebrations, you can never build confidence. And so a progressive learning tiny celebration is the way I see most athletes get better and better and better.
And the athletes that put too many expectations too much early on tend to get miserable and burned out and they really don't succeed. And so when I see great physical potential combined with the mental attitude and a mental approach, that's what gets you to the next level. And then finally it's understanding the sport and that is a sort of a mental but more intellectual side of the sport. And I see this with, I've seen this with, you know, I've worked with collegiate coaches and professional coaches and collegiate athletes and professional athletes. And believe it or not, you can be the best athlete in college and not know much about how to really do the sport that well.
Can you believe that? People that are top of the game in college, when they go in the pros, the first thing the professional coach will say, boy, it looks like I've got a lot to teach here. That's just amazing to me when I hear things like that. So this whole perspective and attitude about, hey, you got to master not only the technical side of the sport, but you've got to master the intellectual side of the sport. So I think that's what creates the difference between world-class and just, you know, the good athlete. I know I gave a long answer but I thought it was important to go through these finer details with you.
Host: I completely agree. That was an amazing answer and it makes so much sense. And before I ask you how this applies to regular life, instead of just the athlete in sports life, while we're talking about sports for parents and coaches, when they're looking to help their athletes and specifically parents, you know, we scream on the sideline, we talk about the game afterwards. I myself am guilty of that with both my kids, going over it in my head and with them in the car, and I don't know that that's always a helpful thing to do. When that athlete is mentally focused and they've done their best, what do you want parents and coaches to know about not messing around with that?
Dr. Dewan: I think most importantly congratulate people on effort. Way to go. You worked hard. You might've won. You'd say congratulations on winning. You might've lost. Doesn't mean you congratulate them for losing. But you say, hey, it's something that we can learn. But most importantly, if an athlete's tired, they need rest. They need to sort of unwind, rejuvenate, get their, what I would call emotional tank and physical tank refilled. I mean, in the workplace these days, we talked about people that have careers and jobs and roles. We as adults will say, ah, I just need time to kind of rejuvenate. I just need time to decompress. Well, the meaningfulness of the competition for young people is greater than the meaningfulness of competition for older people because younger people's emotional wiring in the brain is very strong, and they're what I would call the modulating part of the brain.
The part of the brain that tempers emotions, and calms people now is not as well developed as an adults. And that's why adults need to be the calming force, the resilient force, the reenergizing force. They can't be, oh, that was terrible. Or that was bad because that part of the brain in the young person is already at warp speed. And then you're putting them in like super duper warp speed, which is the wrong thing to do. So you really need to be the calming, resilient, and you need to model that for the young person, so they can learn and they can appreciate that. Because even a little nonverbal sort of dismay means more to them than you think. And that's what I think is really important is encouraging optimism, positive, and recognize, look, things didn't go well. Maybe the effort wasn't there. That happens and say, next time, let's move forward and look forward to the next adventure or the next competition.
Host: That's really great advice. I hope parents heed what you're saying because it really does help our young athletes. As we wrap up, Dr. Dewan and such, great advice you give every time you're on. Are there really ways to get mentally better? You mentioned optimism, belief and confidence. Tell us how we can take these principles and make them motivational for not just sports, but for every day applying it to our daily lives.
Dr. Dewan: I think that the concept of you're always learning. You're always trying to master what you're trying to do. If you put in your life, life is a continuous improvement journey, however tiny and minute that improvement is, it's important to look at it. It's important to take time off. It's important to take time to take a deep breath once in a while to just allow things to happen, and if you do that in your regular work and your regular life, you're going to be happier and you're going to perform better. And if we do that in our day to day lives, we do that in our sports life, life is going to be a pretty happy place.
Host: Wow. What great, great advice. Thank you so much, Dr. Dewan, for coming on and sharing your incredible expertise with us today. And that concludes this episode of BayCare HealthChat. Please visit our website at BayCare.org for more information and to get connected with one of our providers. Please remember to subscribe, rate, and review this podcast and all the other BayCare podcasts. For more health tips, just as you heard today on this excellent episode of BayCare HealthChat, please follow us on your social channels. I'm Melanie Cole.