An Ounce of Prevention

Here's yet another article on major league baseball players going on the DL for a variety for stress related disorders. No doubt performing at the highest levels of professional sport  is stressful... and, it's also part of the job.  The long season, the cross country travel, the huge financial rewards, the continuous press scrutiny, and the sense that you are only as good as your last game,  all add to the pressure to perform. Contrary to the psychologist in the article, I believe there's a lot more that a psychologist can do than merely listen to a stressed out athlete. In addition to physical strength training, we can and should be training elite athletes in techniques that help them to focus, reduce tension, tune out distractions, and exercise more emotional control. I've been doing this type of training for a quarter of a century with some of the world's top performers and it is key to improving both health and performance. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Dr. Saul Miller is the author of Hockey Tough and Why Teams Win. His up coming book, Performing Under Pressure, is scheduled to be published by Wiley in the fall.

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