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With sports psychology and mental skills training, Cubs looking for an edge

In the not-too-distant past, a professional athlete struggling with the mental side of his or her game would have been told to suck it up or tough it out.

"Or other kinds of descriptions," said Cubs manager Joe Maddon, his voice trailing off.

Those "other kinds of descriptions" might have included a nasty epithet questioning a player's personhood.

Things are not perfect these days - those attitudes still exist - but progressive thinking has made enough inroads in sports to take much of the stigma away from players seeking help or an edge mentally over an opponent.

Under team president Theo Epstein, the Cubs have become one of the more progressive organizations in baseball, and this spring they announced a mental skills program at both the major- and minor-league levels.

"Look, as an organization, we do so much for our players to get them physically ready, to get them physically sharp, to get them fundamentally ready, fundamentally sharp, it would really be sort of a blatant act of omission and ignorance to just ignore the mental side," Epstein said during the early days of spring training. "So why not be as systematic and sophisticated about it as we possibly can?

"I say this admitting I don't have a degree in it so I really understand it, but I do feel we've found people who are really trained, legitimate, have worked with athletes at the highest level and have proven themselves."

Among those people are Josh Lifrak, who directs the Cubs' program. Lifrak spent the last 10 years as the senior mental conditioning consultant at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida, where the Cubs say he developed and implemented mental skills training programs for hundreds of athletes in a multitude of sports.

Dr. Ken Ravizza is a consultant to the program. He has worked with Maddon for years and is a professor of applied sport psychology at Cal-State Fullerton and has served as a consultant to the U.S. Olympics team for more than 20 years, as well as other organizations, including the Tampa Bay Rays under Maddon.

Rounding out the staff are former major-leaguer Darnell McDonald, the program coordinator, and Rey Fuentes, the Latino coordinator. McDonald finished his playing days in 2013 with the Cubs.

Epstein admits this large-scale undertaking on mental skills and sports psychology may not have been widely accepted a few decades ago.

"It would have been a little bolder," he said. "I don't think it's that bold of a move right now. It's just trying to keep up with the Joneses and trying to get an edge. Yeah, 24 years ago or whatever, when I started, it was seen as a real stigma if you approached a player about maybe talking to someone about working on his mental game. His response was, 'You think I'm nuts.'

"You still see that now and then, but it's the exception, not the rule, I think. More and more players are being proactive, acknowledging that's an area where they can get an edge."

Some Cubs players are taking advantage of what's available. Third baseman Mike Olt, who has struggled at the plate at times in his young career, worked with Lifrak this winter.

"That was kind of a big thing for me, getting over a lot of negative thoughts," Olt said. "It's just the way they word things and can talk about and reiterate, 'You did do some good things last year and you've got to try to focus on those' and go from there."

Another third baseman, top prospect Kris Bryant, took advantage of what sports psychologists offered in college at San Diego.

"We had a (psychologist) who would come down once a month and talk to us, not just about baseball but schooling and life in general," Bryant said. "It's good to have someone."

If a team wants to make this kind of program work, it needs strong backing in the clubhouse from the manager.

The Cubs needn't worry about that. In Maddon, they have one of the strongest proponents of the benefits of using mental skills coaches and sports psychologists.

"If the manager is not on board, then the player will not go talk to this guy because he does not want to be seen talking to this guy by the manager," said Maddon, who describes himself as both old school and new school. "When you have everybody on board regarding what you're trying to get done and there's greater acceptance, then all of a sudden all of this stuff works. Everything's interconnected. Everything."

As Maddon puts it, seeking help is a sign of strength.

"It really comes down to the present tense, staying in the moment, understanding that it's not always going to be perfect, but you can still do well," he said. "The fact that you're not going to be at your best level, but you can still pitch well and pitch enough to win.

"A lot of times you get hitters, they come out of (batting practice) and they've had a bad BP. And they think, automatically, "I'm going to (stink) tonight.' That's really tough because you have to have guys understand that you cannot necessarily feel great but still perform well. That's what he's trying to do, to give them some skills or tools or thoughts to permit them to work through those moments when things aren't perfect."

Josh Lifrak, the director of the Cubs' mental skills program, joined them after working as the senior mental conditioning consultant at IMG Academy the last 10 years.
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