Chapter 4 – The Fear Factor
Skip Bertman has produced more than 20 Major League players during his tenure at LSU. His players know how to play under pressure because one of Bertman’s techniques is designed to help players overcome a powerful but distracting emotion — fear.

DEFINITION AND EFFECTS OF FEAR
There’s a saying that you might want to teach to your team. It goes like this: Weak teams avoid challenges. Champions rise up and meet them. Anybody who runs from a challenge often is running simply because of plain old fear. It’s the doubt, the anxiety, the nervousness from knowing that you’re about to be put to the test — and you might not make it.
Well, here’s an example of how you can get your team to put fear on their side. You and your team should know that fear is natural. It’s the appropriate response in challenging situations. At its worst, fear sends bad messages that start with physical responses like a faster heartbeat or a dry throat. Then, the imagination runs wild and players imagine exaggerated consequences. Suddenly, everything seems more difficult than it really is, causing people to underreact or overreact. To help your team handle fear, you must get them to acknowledge it. Don’t ignore it or shrug it off.

THE TITANIC— DANGERS OF BEING TOO COOL
I don’t like it when players become too cool; I believe it’s the wrong attitude. The crew on the deck of the Titanic— they were too cool. Initially, they thought that their ship couldn’t be sunk by an iceberg. Obviously, that wasn’t the appropriate response.
The first thing you need to do is acknowledge fear. The good news is that we have plenty of company. Everybody fears failure — even the great ones. Here are a couple of examples:

BILL RUSSELL
Bill Russell, one of the greatest and winningest NBA players ever, would get nauseous before big games.

EDWIN MOSES
Edwin Moses, the greatest 400-meter hurdler ever who ran 102 races spanning years without ever losing, said, “Before a race, I feel like I’m being led to my execution.”

ANALOGY FOR FEAR
The best competitors understand that there is no choice but to confront fear and turn anxiety into excitement and action. Here’s an analogy: Fear is like fire. When under control, it can provide the energy and the warmth that you need. When it’s out of control, it can burn up everything around it. When fear is controlled, it can be your friend. Fear can be your ally.

ACRONYM FOR FEAR
Here’s an acronym that we’ve used for years: F-E-A-R — False Evidence Appearing Real. FEAR tells lies. It distorts and exaggerates, making it hard to tell what is real and what is imagined. What is real is the point I want to make to my players again and again. Their coaches and teammates will love and support them no matter what happens. And that goes a long way toward turning fear into a tool for excellence.

DEAN SMITH
Dean Smith, the former great North Carolina basketball coach, had this to say about fear and its imaginary consequences: “If all the situations we describe as matters of life and death really were, there would be an awful lot more dead people around.

THE IMAGINARY TRIP AROUND THE BASES
Here’s a good mental and emotional exercise. Learn it and use it often in those moments of fear. I tell our players to take an imaginary trip around the bases.
Starting at first base, acknowledge that fear is real. Then take a deep breath, relax, and go for second.
At second base, look around and imagine the worst thing that could happen at that moment. Then decide what you would do, and do it. Then run to third and get there safely. At this point, your players have already visualized success in tight spots.
At third base, I tell our players to visualize what they want to happen — all the good things that the player and his teammates are going to do.
Then mentally get to home plate and put those things into action.
Tell your players to find the “can do” things and make them happen.

REHEARSING FEARFUL SITUATIONS
The best way to keep fear in its appropriate place, as a tool, is to get your team to practice fearful situations and to focus on those things they can control — not on those things they cannot. For example: In the bullpen, set the pitcher up with a
winning run at third base. All he can do is deliver the pitch; That’s all he can control in a batting practice situation. Make sure that the hitter is up with the winning run at third base and that he tries to get the ball into the outfield.
You must focus on those things that you can do — not on those things that you can’t control. The reason fighter pilots can enter very real life-and-death situations and still take appropriate action is that they have rehearsed the situation literally thousands of times and they are confident. Remind your players as they confront fear that they have rehearsed many times and they, too, can act with confidence.

TECHNIQUES IN USING STORIES
Here’s a technique I’ve used for years: Capitalize on the energy that fear creates and help your team turn it into a tool at just the right moment. There are a few minutes right before the game that can provide you with a wonderful teaching opportunity. That’s when real readiness on the players’ part exists.
If the players were to have problems with fear and self-doubt, this would be the time. Many think, “What if I’m the one who makes the error? What if we lose tonight? What If I play poorly?” And so on. That’s never said out loud, but it’s often thought of at this time. It’s right after infield. It’s just minutes before the game begins. I always take my team to right or left field, depending upon which dugout we are using, and go over the signals, repeating the game plan information that I think is necessary. Then I wait for eye contact and I tell a story – a true story about a person or people who have performed best when it counted. At just the right time, my players can hear about and even feel the fear that others before them have felt and overcome. Then they can take the field and do well in spite of their own anxiety.

DENNIS KRIMBLE STORY
Here are parts of a story that you could use about fear: Dennis Krimble, a Navy pilot, takes off in the Kitty Hawk in the Persian Gulf. And he’s on a combat mission. He describes in vivid detail the anxiety and how hard your heart beats. And at 40 miles, his radar picks up other aircraft. As a flight leader, he has to decide very quickly whether they’re friend or foe, whether to engage or withdraw, and assign to each of his planes who to go after. When he’s within 15 miles, the decision must be made. At 15 miles, there are only 75 seconds left. The reason those fighter pilots can do that is that for every combat mission they’re in, they have been in a simulator — a similar situation – hundreds and hundreds of times. They are prepared. They have chemistry of confidence. They believe that they can.

What you have to remember is that pressure will make you better because you, too, are prepared. You’ve been prepared for this game for weeks and months and, in essence, for years. So today, when you go out, use fear. Talk to it. Make it your ally. There is no real pressure. You’re going to be supported and loved by your teammates and coaches no matter what happens because you represent your school, you represent your family and you represent your Maker. Today, play like champions and have fun, too.