Psychological holiday gifts

First of all, I would like to say happy holidays and best wishes for the New Year to all readers of Performance Psychology and Tournament Fishing. Without your continued interest in this column, it would cease to be, and for your generous support, I am deeply thankful.

In the spirit of holiday giving, let’s take a look at a few “psychological presents” you might consider passing on to others or keeping and using yourself. As you will see, when it comes to performance psychology dimensions, you can have your cake and eat it too!

Certainly you know that most of the performance psychology ideas and techniques discussed here relative to tournament fishing have been developed in and used by other sports. This month different venues will be used to highlight the “psychological presents” concept; I’ll leave it to you to find the fishing application that best fits your situation.

The gift of persistence

The most insidious obstacle to improvement in any life or sport domain is lack of follow-through. How many times have we all started out with a Great New Idea (GNI), developed a plan to make the GNI work and then, after a short period of days or weeks, failed to stick with it? Our latest effort joined the ranks of its predecessors, those zillions upon zillions of GNIs that started strong and faded fast.

For 2008, you may already have another GNI or two in the works. This year, however, don’t just let things take their natural course. Make a commitment to be more persistent with your GNI. To do this, open the calendar on your computer, buy a fishing calendar from the FLWOutdoors.com Web site or Bass Pro Shops, or use the calendar at home that your insurance agent sends you every year. Then write yourself a reminder on the 15th of every month to review your progress with this year’s GNI. Telling your kids or your friends or your fishing colleagues about your 2008 GNI will also help you stick with it.

A golfing friend of mine did that this year. On the 15th of every month, he went to the range for an hour and hit only wedge shots. I asked him just last week if it made a difference in his swing, and what he told me was this: “You know, Doc, I’m not really sure if my wedge play was that much better, but I can tell you I’m absolutely thrilled that I finally followed through on a commitment to improve my game!”

The gift of teaching

You’ve heard this before, and you’ve read it here, but I’ll say it again: The best way to learn something is to teach it to someone else. In order to effectively explain a technique or demonstrate an application to someone else, you have to know the thing inside and out. So, if there is a particular fishing lure or method you’d like to improve for next year, set up a couple of trips with a friend, with a club member or with the brother-in-law your spouse continues to beg you to take fishing, and focus principally on teaching that person exactly how this technique works.

Your own expertise with that technique will likely improve, though seeing someone else develop a sense of mastery might be even more satisfying. Late in a hockey game not so long ago a coach told one of his players, “Carol, when you go to the net, stand right next to the goal crease. Don’t worry, your teammates will get the puck to you, and when they do, you won’t have far to shoot it.” Two shifts later she scored the game winner, standing as coached, right next to the goalmouth.

“Way to go!” yelled the coach. “I stood where you told me,” the player beamed. I’m not sure whose smile was bigger or who will remember that play the longest.

The gift of you

Since you’re reading this column, it’s very likely that you fish because you love to fish. And for the most part, you fish with those who also love to fish. So when you go fishing with different people, there is the fishing, of course, though there is also the camaraderie, the hanging out, the just being together, which in some cases is as important, or perhaps more important, than the fishing itself.

We can all think of fishing trips memorable not because of the number or size of fish caught, but because of the raucous thunderstorm, the spectacular sunset or the amazing wildlife exhibit Mother Nature provided. There are also those cherished moments of being in the boat or on the bank with people close to us.

So for 2008, consider going fishing with someone where you showing up is the most important thing. My best recent example of this relates to duck hunting, not fishing, so I will tell you that.

A guy with a long-distance relationship with his father decided to blow off some work engagements and go duck hunting with Dad. The swamp was filled with other hunters, and there weren’t many ducks in the air, yet just before sunset a few mallards came their way. The guy and his dad, both good callers, brought a few right into the decoys. What I heard later was not how many ducks they bagged, but how much it meant to both of them to be in the swamp and once again work some magic calling ducks together.

This holiday season, try giving a “psychological present” or two. They don’t cost much, and some of them will last a lifetime.



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Jay T. McNamara, Ph.D., L.P., also known as Dr. Fish, recently finished his book “The Psychology of Exceptional Fishing.” You can order it by contacting Jay via e-mail at this address: [email protected].

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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.