Regular readers of Performance Psychology and Tournament Fishing know that the focus of this column over the last four years has been on presenting standard performance-psychology concepts and techniques in language that competitive anglers can use. Mental rehearsal, for example, is a peak-performance technique used by athletes at all levels in many sports. Little League baseball players and hockey Squirts, as well as Olympic Decathletes and NBA All-Stars, can and do mentally practice fundamental drills. In these and other sports, mental rehearsal has been shown to enhance learning, help competitors correct mistakes and fine-tune existing skills.
Part of the reason we know mental rehearsal is so universally effective is because performance psychologists associated with sports teams or academic departments at major universities have done extensive research on this technique. In controlled experiments, with athletes carefully assigned to different treatment situations, research scientists have shown a strong positive correlation between mental rehearsal and improved performance.
However, another way in which we know mental rehearsal works is that athletes in several sports tell us it does. That might seem obvious, but scientists and performance psychologists tend to be skeptical of drawing conclusions on the basis of what one person or a small group of people might say. You’ve no doubt seen for yourself why they think this way. You’re at a tournament weigh-in, and the top three competitors confidently state that the lure they were using was the only one they could get the fish to eat. One guy holds up a jig, one displays a rattling bait, and the third guy is waving a drop-shot. It would be hard to draw conclusions about the “best bait” for that lake under those conditions if you listened to what those individuals had to say.
Psychologists call this kind of information anecdotal, or subjective, report data, and as the example above indicates, it’s not always easy to use such information to form general conclusions. However, using a different scenario, if the top 10 finishers in a tournament say they caught their fish at 20 feet on a chartreuse-colored crankbait, you could probably feel pretty confident fishing that lake tomorrow with a fire-tiger Norman DD-22, eh?
Extending that analogy, this month’s column will focus on two of the main performance psychology topics I have heard discussed by competitive anglers at club, semipro and professional levels. These anglers often refer to me as The Fishing Doctor, The Fishing Shrink or just Dr. Fish. Hence this column will report what “Dr. Fish” has learned from other anglers about Performance Psychology and Tournament Fishing.
Overestimating what they’ve got
When asked to describe the most common mental mistake tournament anglers make, top competitors speak with one voice: “They overestimate what they’ve got.” This mistake seems to cut across different content areas. So for example, some tournament anglers make the mistake of overestimating the size or the number of fish they have located in pretournament practice. Other tournament anglers overestimate their ability to find an obscure spot in the middle of a complex piece of structure, while still others overestimate their capacity to hook and land the fish they have located. “It really comes down to being honest with yourself and with your tournament partners,” one angler told me. “Maybe you like to exaggerate with guys in your club about how good you are. Do that in real tournaments, and you will not only damage your reputation, you’ll fall flat on your face and embarrass yourself at the weigh-in.”
Performance psychology research documents a common tendency for people to overestimate their skills and talents. When it comes to accurately assessing your fishing skills, however, other people are likely to be more objective and ultimately more accurate than you are. In fishing, as in life, if you try to fool yourself, you’ll pay for it in the long run.
Failing to pay close enough attention
Top competitors and amateur anglers alike tell me that one of the easiest skills to master is also one of the most difficult to sustain: paying close attention. Professional anglers are among the best athletes anywhere, when it comes to sustained attention and concentration. On a typical tournament day, competitors will flip, pitch, skip or cast somewhere between 1,200 and 2,500 times. And each presentation can easily influence the final outcome.
Last month at the Wal-Mart FLW Tour event on Lake Travis, 1 ounce separated 50th and 51st places. I doubt David Fritts, who came in 51st, had any lapses in attention or concentration that contributed to that single-ounce difference. If he did, however, he has a $7,500 nightmare to mull over. Or how about Clark Wendlandt, who came in fourth and admitted to breaking off several fish that could have won the tournament for him? Did he make attention and concentration mistakes that ended up being a $95,000 difference? Let’s hope not.
You can find similar examples in nearly every tournament. A single good fish can make a huge difference, and that fish might bite on your next cast. So pay attention to this cast, and then pay even closer attention to the next one. And at the end of the day, when it comes to describing what you did, don’t mislead your friends or yourself.
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Dr. Fish, also known as Jay T. McNamara, Ph.D., L.P., has just finished his book, “The Psychology of Exceptional Fishing.” You can order it by contacting Jay via e-mail at this address: jay.DrFish@gmail.com.
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Jay T. McNamara, Ph.D., L.P., is a psychologist, who is also an avid bass and walleye angler. With more than 26 years of professional experience complemented by participation in competitive fishing at local and national levels, he is uniquely qualified to illustrate how performance psychology principles apply to tournament fishing.
