How I got into Sports Psychology.
By Paschal Baute.
There were several turning points. Fist fights were common in my grade school, anywhere and anytime. I was not very successful, either in these or other competitive games, even marbles.
There were no opportunities for team sports, no Little Leagues of any kind, and no swimming pools. I did not learn to swim until summer camp, Camp Fort Scott, near Cincinnati til I was 12 years old. I felt very much the outsider with other boys and gangs. And was bullied and terrorized by one large boy who used to surprise me with rock throwing on the way home f rom school.
In my sophomore high school year, I had a friend who introduced me to the joys and challenges of distance running. I was hooked and began running distances just for the sake of doing it. At home in Lebanon, I would run to the swimming hole (nearest place then to swim) and back just for the sake of running and doing it. I continued this practice for 20 years well into my thirties, and often averaged 20 miles per week. During some very difficult and stressful times in my monastic life, I feel my running is probably what kept me sane.
In boarding school my senior year, I went out for all the sports I could. I earned varsity letters in football, track, swimming and riflery. A high point of my life, at age 17, with that background, was being one of two seniors in my senior class who earned four varsity letters my senior year.
I had picked up boxing gloves in high school, and by that time, learned to use my fists, with a good left jab and right cross. In college I entered the Bengal Bouts, boxing tourney at University of Notre Dame, and won one or two. I had my choice of several schools in the U.S. Army in 1948 and chose Physical Training Instructor School at Fort Bragg, N.C. Graduating, I was sent to Guam, Mariana Islands. in the South Pacific.
There in that M.O.S, I worked in Special Services to organize, conduct and referral sports for all the Army units on Guam, of which there were many. I organized volleyball and Six man flag football with round robin tournaments. I refereed boxing matches for pocket money. I participated on the swimming, track and boxing teams. I went to Japan twice once on the Swimming team and once as track coach of the Track and Field team from Guam. I think it was also then that I became qualified as a Red Cross Life Saving and also First Aid Instructor.
I won the welterweight Far Eastern Command Boxing Championship while there. Have pictures.
Returning to college, I majored in Physical Education at University of Notre Dame, became #1 man on the USAFR rifle team, participating in swimming (high point man on the freshman team, gymnastics, wrestling and won the welterweight Bengal Bouts Boxing Championship.
I was hired by the University of Michigan Speech Improvement Camp, near Traverse City, Michigan as a camp counselor and athletic instructor. I learned first hand, how athletics and sports could increase the self-image and confidence of boys of all levels who were handicapped in their speech, sometimes terribly handicapped. The camp was a powerful experience not only for the boys but for the diverse staff of both speech language teachers but athletic coaches. It was such a powerful and rewarding experience that I later considered doing my graduate work in speech.
When I joined the Benedictine monastery at St. Leo in Florida, we had a first class College Preparatory school, (now it is St. Leo University). Soon I was organized physical education programs for the entire school, grades 7 through 12., intramural sports, (each boy played on six teams each year and regular sports skills classes. Soccer was not well known. We organized our first high school soccer team, spiced with Latin students from Cuba, Venezuela and other Latin countries. We competed against adult soccer clubs from the surrounding towns, Orlando, etc, in the absence of any high school competition, but soon found more competition because soccer was growing nationally. We had the first high school soccer team and one of the first college soccer teams in the state of Florida.. When I took over as Athletic Director of our Prep, that also involved helping coach our high school football team.
After a disastrous beginning of that first football season–we lost the first two games by large scores and did not score a single touchdown–I decided I needed to go psychological, that is, to undertake how to get this discouraged team “back in the game,” more specifically up for the third game of the season, which was scheduled across the state with a team that was undefeated in the last ten games, St. Ann’s of West Palm Beach.
I will report only the outcome. I worked for days to get these young men so up, so ready, so believing in themselves, that they would not be denied victory that Friday night in September. It was a massive defensible battle played almost entirely in mid field between the 20 yard lines. Our guys would not let their guys score. We could not move the ball consistently against them, except on one single play which caught them off guard. We won 6-0, against a team that had been undefeated ten straight, and it was the turning point of the season for our players . I think we lost only one other game that year. I used a variety of sports imagery and imagination to ‘psych” our guys, but also allowed each one to buy in or not.
Being a distance runner early in high school, I was always fascinated with TIME, and beating my previous times, stretching myself each time. I knew that I could push myself, set a slightly faster paces, and if the conditioning were sufficient keep it til the tape. The four minute mile fascinated me, as I was a miler in high school, and determined to reduce my time each match. The world record for the mile had hovered at 4:01 for decades, and I was sure that it was a psychological barrier, one that was sure to be broken soon. College came along, then miliary service, then college again, and I did not stay focused on the mile run. Roger Bannister, born the same year as myself, broke the four minute mile record in May of 1954. After that psychological barrier had been passed, it was repeatedly lowered again and again. So challenging oneself to go beyond what others think is possible has been a fascination with me.
From the age of 18 to 23, about five years, I climbed into the boxing ring some 29 times, in from of crowds from a few hundred to several thousand, in the U. S. Army and back at University of Notre Dame, winning 21 of the matches. As stated earlier, I won several championships in the welterweight (147) class. Most of those times, 28, I did not know the skill of the other boxer . Once I was beaten in a boxing match with an Air Force guy, but I knew I did not bring my A game that night, so I challenged him to a re-match, and decisively beat him. That is the only time I knew ahead of time the actual skill of my opponent. Several times, I took some lickings.
My wife and I loved water skiing and slalom. We were often at the lake when the kids were growing up. I did not consider the day at the lake a real success unless I had slallomed 4 or 5 times, each time as long and hard as I could. My wife got us into downhill skiing for her 50th birthday. It changed out lives. We have skied 6 countries, ten states and about 40 resorts, Midwest, West Virginia, Vermont, Colorado, Utah and Canada. We are still crazy about it, and go weekly from December to March. I have raced in the NASTAR downhill competition against by age group and won the silver and the bronze. Each time I went for the gold I wiped out and about ruined my ski season, so no longer compete. I did have some real crashes and broken ribs. We have introduced many persons both to water skiing and downhill skiing and both were family sports.
I know first hand that sports performance is about attitude. I have been able to ski on bad knees for about four years, ever since the VA was ready to give me total knee replacement. No, no5 like I used to, but I ski and still have some awesome days on the slopes. We love the outdoors, particularly in the winter time.
Perhaps the above can explain how sports psychology became not merely a professional interest, but a passion and intimate part of my life. I learned via the use of professional hypnosis to give athletes the imagery they needed to excel, also over many years.
I have been honored to share this enthusiasm and skill in programming attitudes with many others. . .
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