Another sign that the sport of professional fishing has grown up can be seen in the number of accomplished pros who happily admit to being head cases. And we mean that in a positive way.
Recognizing the critical importance that the mental portion plays in competitive fishing, a growing number of top pros have resorted to visiting with a sport psychologist for help in sharpening their mental game.
You’ve read about professional athletes like baseball, football, basketball and golf stars who consult with a specially trained sports psychologist on a regular basis. Well, you can put bass pros in that same smart category.
Dr. Julie Ness is a Tulsa-based sports psychologist on retainer with the Zebco Corp. Her regular clientele includes athletes in baseball, football, basketball, hockey, soccer, gymnastics and tennis, as well as corporate executives.
For the past three years, her clients have included some top fishermen, including Dion and Guido Hibdon, Ken Cook, Jeff Fletcher, O.T. Fears, Kenyon Hill and Joe Thomas. All credit her with helping them either revive or further their careers.
FLW Tour veteran Dion Hibdon won the 1997 BASS Masters Classic just weeks after first consulting with Dr. Ness, and says he could not have won the Classic without the new mental approach she installed in him. Former Classic champion and FLW finalist Ken Cook credits her with reviving his sagging career. Fellow Oklahoman Hill won his first national tournaments after several consultations with the good doctor.
Former Red Man All-American champion Joe Thomas is Dr. Ness’ latest pro patient, and he credits her work with getting his career back on track. The Ohio pro consulted with her after not cashing a tournament check for an entire season; since then, Thomas has finished in the money in 50 percent of the events he’s fished.
Dr. Ness’ introduction to the fishing world came through the enthusiastic involvement of Gary Giudice, a past BASSMASTER Top-10 finisher and CEO of Blue Heron Communications, a Norman, Okla., public relations firm specializing in outdoor recreation. From his former career with the National Rifle Association, Giudice was familiar with the importance that competitive shooters place on sports psychologists.
“It just made sense to me that a sports psychologist might be of some help to these guys,” Giudice says. “Competitive shooters really believe in them, and I could see some potential for professional fishermen.”
Although it is difficult to pin down precisely how it has helped them put more tournament bass in their livewells, this is obviously no hocus-pocus. The pros who have worked with Dr. Ness have undoubtedly seen significant benefit, psychologically, from their discussions.
“I think this is just part of the evolution of the sport,” says Hill, who was mired in a lengthy slump before his sessions began. “We’ve kind of been in the background of professional sports for a while, and the sport is just now really coming into its own.
“And we’re starting to realize that as the competition gets tougher, we need every edge we can get. To do that, we’re starting to use some of the same techniques and tactics that some of the other professional athletes use. We’re no different from golfers or baseball players or shooters.”
It was Hill who convinced his buddy Dion Hibdon to speak with Dr. Ness.
“The Hibdons have been two of the most bull-headed people in the whole world, but, needless to say, we decided to try it,” Dion says. “I was in a rut. I wasn’t fishing particularly well, but it seemed like I was just this close from getting over the hump.
“I had nothing to lose. I mean, I had just squeaked into the Classic. I just barely made the dang thing. It just seemed like something was missing, but I didn’t know what. I was just struggling. It wasn’t like three or four years ago when everything seemed to be coming a lot easier for me in these tournaments. I didn’t have an explanation for it, you know, because, mechanically, I felt like in the last two years I was 10 times the fisherman I was three or four years ago. Something was missing…”
Despite the obvious differences between fishing and other professional sports, Dr. Ness has no problem applying the proven principles of her profession to the guys who catch bass for a living. In fact, she found some surprising similarities.
“I speak to them about the same things I speak to CEOs and other athletes – primarily using your focus, being mentally tough, having confidence, taking risks,” Dr. Ness explains. “I talk about the mental side of performance. I can have the same conversation with a 10-year-old gymnast or a 40-year-old fisherman.”
“There are a lot of variables that go into a performance in any sport. A golfer would say `Well, I can’t control the wind and the rain.’ And a tennis player could say the same. But those things aren’t important. What is important is the mental side of the performance – whether you choose to set yourself up for success or you choose to set yourself up for failure.”
“Confidence is such a major part of anybody’s game in any sport. When you’re doing a great job and having success, it’s very easy to be confident. And then you trust what a basketball player would call talent and a fisherman would call instinct.”
“But it’s the exact same thing. Your instinct is a talent developed over several years, and when you’re performing well and you notice something – it’s not all completely in your awareness but you make a decision based on instinct – you have success because you’re very confident in what you’re doing. When you’re not very confident and you’re not performing well, you don’t trust that talent or that instinct. You second-guess yourself, and you perform at less than a 100-percent level – even in the execution of your skill.”