Spring Break
The Daily OrangeMind Games: Tom Clinton has given mental help for the past 17 years
By Tim Gorman
Posted: 3/8/05, 11:12 PM EST Section: Sports
 Media Credit: Rachel Fus |
The first real victory for Dr. Tom Clinton came in the fall of 1987. He was working as a graduate assistant at University College, organizing a course that taught life skills called Learning to Learn. One of the course's instructors, Dr. James Duah-Agyeman, had an engagement and needed Clinton to fill in for him one day during a class.
As Clinton stood at the front of the room explaining how Los Angeles Laker Byron Scott used Neuro-Linguistic Programming - a behavioral technology that gives you the ability to choose your mental state of well-being - to lead the NBA in 3-point shooting, a booming voice came from the back of the room.
"He didn't lead the league in anything," shouted Syracuse forward Derrick Coleman.
At the front, SU guard Earl Duncan concurred. Clinton calmly put the issue aside, saying he would get back to them later.
So he found an NBA statistics book, photocopied the 3-point leaders in the 1986-1987 season - proving he was right - and quietly placed them on Coleman and Duncan's desks before the next class.
Clinton insists it was a small confrontation, but it proved how sports psychology could be applicable at any level.
Knowing Clinton's background as a basketball coach, Duah-Agyeman recommended that he meet with SU head coach Jim Boeheim to help remedy SU's free-throw shooting. They met in summer of 1988 and Boeheim told him to come to practice. Clinton has been with the team's unofficial sports psychologist ever since.
"I tell players the night before a game, spend five or 10 minutes in visualization," Clinton said. "I have them talk to their position coach so they know what they need to work on, then I have them visualize a 35-second clip of being active and doing all the things they're supposed to do."
It's difficult to measure the intangible success of Clinton's help, but several NBA players have used Clinton's techniques. Jason Hart, of the NBA's Charlotte Bobcats, nicknamed Clinton "Doc" when he was with the team in the late 1990s after using his help.
Clinton's importance with the team is debated along with the usefulness of sports psychology in college athletics. On one hand, there are those with the old-school mentality that poor performance is simply bad execution on the playing field. On the other, a budding crop of sports psychologists is eagerly trying to prove the practice's worth with universities around the country.
"Some guys benefit from it, some guys don't," said Mike Hopkins, SU assistant coach and one of the first players Clinton worked with when he joined the team in 1988. "Some kids don't buy into it. They think he's crazy."
