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Flower Mound resident uses past experience to help others establish mental focus
By Chris Roark, Staff Writer
When athletes begin competing in the Olympics in August, one Flower Mound resident will be interested in what some of them are thinking about right before they perform.
Lanny Bassham has spent years teaching Olympians and a wide range of competitors how to mentally prepare for challenges. After all, he has experience in Olympic competition.
He also knows first-hand what can happen without proper mental preparation.
“I found that I needed to work hard to be successful,” Bassham said. “But, I never thought that I could be working too hard. As I was trying to beat my teammate, I was worried about the outcome. I didn’t shoot well … I should have scored 15 points higher.”
Bassham then spent the next two years talking with Olympic athletes about their mental game. Their input helped Bassham change his approach to thinking. That later resulted in a six-year dominance in rifle shooting, highlighted by winning a gold medal in the 1976 Olympics, as well as claiming 15 medals in world championship events in 1974.
It also spawned a company he has spent 31 years running. Mental Management Systems, also based in Flower Mound, teaches students various approaches to mental preparation. Some of this year’s Olympic qualifiers have been Bassham’s students.
“We have defined three mental issues,” Bassham said. “We identify what the person is thinking about when they’re doing well. We have a primary way of doing everything else, so why not have that thought when we’re under pressure? Then we help control that. And then, we build self image. If you think you can beat me, and I do, too, then it’s all over. If you make $200,000 a year, you have the self image that you can do that. It’s the same with singing, relationships, math … a lot of that is self image. People can do amazing things, but a lot of times, they don’t think they can.”
But, Bassham’s theories go beyond the “I think I can” approach. It often takes the “I think I can … to a point” approach.
“When I interviewed the medalists, I found that if you give 1 percent more effort, your performance drops,” he said. “I was over-trying all my career. Over-trying was an error.”
Bassham also encourages focus on execution, not outcome.
“I was outcome oriented,” he said. “I wasn’t thinking about the execution but what the shots would get me. I needed to be process oriented. I made so many mental mistakes that I didn’t know were mistakes.”
Bassham’s clients have ranged over the years. He said he has instructed Navy Seals, FBI agents, athletes and even Miss America contestants.
Shilah Phillips, the 2006 Miss Texas and the first runner up to Miss America in 2007, has been one of Bassham’s students. She credits her success to Mental Management Systems.
Phillips said one of the biggest things she learned from Bassham was how to handle pressure.
“I had a negative attitude about pressure, thinking it was bad,” Phillips said. “I had to overcome that and make pressure into a positive thing instead of a negative thing. He told me that when I get those butterflies in my stomach, use that as adrenaline. So I changed my thinking on that.”
Phillips said physical preparation is another key philosophy Bassham teaches, as well as positive affirmation throughout the challenge and simply envisioning a positive performance.
With those in mind, a national television audience during the Miss America pageant didn’t rattle Phillips.
“A lot of people said I looked calm at Miss America,” Phillips said. “And I said it was because I was. I felt like I was in control.”
Mental Management Systems offers help to those in a variety of sports, ranging from football to archery, as well as those in business sales and pageants, and even teachers and parents. The company uses seminars, camps, newsletters, individual instruction and CDs as methods of instruction.
Go to www.mentalmanagement.com for information.
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