Mind your own business

OPINION: THE GREAT baseball coach Yogi Berra was right when he once opined that sport was 90% mental.

The "other half", he reckoned, was physical. Whatever you might make of his maths, recent events only reinforce the general tenor of his remarks. Top athletes might not need to be meditative monks, but the importance of a balanced mind has seldom seemed so clear. Personal issues can become preoccupying and distracting. Worlds can tumble down.

Look at Tiger Woods. A year ago he was swaggering towards unprecedented greatness; an irresistible force in a sport not shy of legends. But since revelations of a seedy double-life and, not least, the scale of his deception, he's been but a shadow of his former self. It's true, he might blame everything else for the form slump but the reality seems obvious to most. The problem, once between his legs, is now between his ears. It's not that Woods feels in doubt about his game; the much more likely scenario is that he feels exposed. Stripped of his veneer of respectability, he's probably aware that the characteristic aloofness and pomposity now seem a bit pathetic; that estimations of him have dropped. He might insist that he's now back to feeling "normal" on the course but the evidence would suggest otherwise. Maybe he doesn't even recognise "normal" any more.

Then there's New Zealand champion canoeist Ben Fouhy, so hopelessly estranged from national coach Ian Ferguson and the rest of the squad that he stayed in separate accommodation during this month's world championships in Poland. Fouhy, who, like his team-mates failed to make the A finals at Poznan, had his own travel arrangements during the event and apparently hasn't spoken to Ferguson for months. You wonder how it might be affecting his performance.

Curiously, Canoe Racing New Zealand isn't alarmed; chief executive Paula Kearns describing the state of affairs in Poland as "amicable". It's hard to think of a word more unsuitable, suggesting, as it does friendship and goodwill. Fouhy, who traded words publicly with Ferguson earlier in the year, even elected to train separately from the other 11 team members before the worlds. The other question is how much the rift might be affecting the rest of the team.

Similarly, but in entirely different circumstances, recent revelations that New Zealand Olympic shot put champion, Valerie Vili is experiencing such serious marital difficulties she's changing her surname back to Adams, possibly explains her struggles this year. Since March, when she ditched her long-time coach Kirsten Hellier for Frenchman Didier Poppe, Adams has regularly been pipped by her Belarus arch rival, Nadezhda Ostapchuk.

It's not a scientific assessment, of course, but the more you see of these examples, the more you begin to suspect that Yogi had a point. When concentration is king, distraction is by definition the devil, whether it visits in training, in pre-competition build-up or in the heat of battle. It was the same with NBA basketballer Kobe Bryant, charged with rape near the end of the 2002-03 season. Although the case was dropped, it couldn't save him from an indifferent 2003-04 campaign.

Which, when you think about it, is another reason why Aussie cricketer Michael Clarke did so well last summer when he returned home briefly from the tour of New Zealand to sort out his relationship with girlfriend Lara Bingle. That he broke up with his partner was neither here nor there; the important aspect was that he took the time to resolve the situation. Maybe it was no coincidence that he returned to the tour and began playing some of his best cricket.

Needless to say, there are always exceptions to the rule and it's not hard to find them. Shane Warne never allowed his ongoing betrayal of wife Simone to affect his on-field performance, and the same might be said of former England star Ian Botham. Had Woods shared their thickness of skin he'd probably still be winning majors. But he clearly doesn't. It's as if he feels he's the emperor and everyone's just cottoned-on to the fact he's not wearing any clothes.

There are different types of exceptions, too, such as those folk who simply have extreme powers of concentration, no matter what. A story that sticks in the memory is of the late, great American sports writer, Red Smith who, shocked and shattered one day at the news of his wife Kay's diagnosis of terminal cancer, returned home that evening and still managed to write his column for the New York Times. His son Terry couldn't believe how good it was.

"I don't remember the subject," said Terry. "But I was amazed. It was a good column, a funny column; almost light-hearted. I asked him how he did it and he replied: `It's the only way I can deal with this. I just bury my head in it and don't think of anything else. I don't think about this news or what's about to happen. I just concentrate on the column'."

The majority of us, however, are probably more like former Chelsea and England goal-keeper Peter "The Cat" Bonetti who, after being informed of salacious rumours involving his wife during the 1970 World Cup in Mexico, went to pieces in the quarter-final against West Germany and conceded two soft goals during his side's 2-3 defeat. It might not be uncommon for one's private life and day job to overlap, but for most of us it doesn't happen in front of millions of viewers.

This is the stark reality for Woods, Adams, Fouhy and the like. When you live in a goldfish bowl, everyone can see your laundry.

rboock@xtra.co.nz

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