Yes, the infamous crowd participating cheer, "The Wave," turned 25 on October 15. The debated (but we believe likely) creation of drum pounding Krazy George Henderson (AKA The World's Most Famous Cheerleader) during an Oakland Athletics / Yankees game back in 1981. The Washington Huskies are known to have popularized the cheer.

Check out Henderson's Web site at www.krazygeorge.com.

http://active.typepad.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/golf_1.jpgTen years ago the Golf Channel was launched despite many in the TV sports industry saying it had no chance. People said it was too specialized and you couldn't possibly devote one channel to a single sport. But a decade later it now grosses 100 million dollars of ad revenue-- trailing just behind ESPN and FSN in that category. (Sports Biz has an interesting post on this.)

http://active.typepad.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/dr_jac_blog_photo.jpgDr. Andrew Jacobs has been a sport psychologist for 25 years and has worked with all levels of competitive athletes from youth sports to the professional and Olympic level. He has graciously contributed an article he recently wrote about mental toughness. He also will be leading a teleseminar with Fred Engh about "How to avoid and overcome the issues that can ruin your child's youth sports experience." Information can be found at winnersunlimited.com--click on 'Seminars' to sign up.

How do we get psyched up, motivated or aroused to compete? You have to be ready, focused and mentally hungry if you want to give yourself the best chance to come out on top of an athletic competition.

Two of the most common questions I am asked as a sport psychologist are: "What do I need to do to become mentally tougher? How can I get a better attitude than my opponent and mentally
beat them?"
These are not easy questions to answer. However, the answers have a lot to do with your "mental makeup" and the way you were taught as a youngster to handle winning and losing, success and failure.

As a sport psychologist, I have had clients bring in all kinds of issues to discuss. Whether it is something related to concentration, an issue with performance anxiety or excessive nervousness before competition, or how to deal with demanding coaches or teammates, there always is a commonality with the issue of being mentally strong enough to weather
the storm.

Mental toughness relates to your ability to handle adversity, to perform when the pressure is on and to be focused enough that you are able to block out all of the negativity and adversity you may face in the heat of competition. In today's constantly growing world of youth sports,
we all too often hear stories about kid's coaches who scream, yell and get out of control at practices and at games.

Often, the rationale these coaches use when describing their behavior is that their team needed discipline, guidance and sometimes, "the fear of God placed on them." I have heard many youth coaches explain their kids were weak and needed to understand what hard work was because it would make them stronger as they get older and that they needed to know who was in charge. Their explanations often end with the comment that their demands would make these kids mentally tougher as they grew up.

Mental toughness does not develop from fear. I believe it develops from one's ability to understand their own personal motivations to succeed. "Mentally tough" athletes usually are the ones who don't flinch when the pressure is on. They look forward to coming up with the bases loaded and their team down by three runs in the bottom of the ninth. They want to have the ball in their hands with five seconds left and their team down by two.

They are also the ones who will step up and volunteer to hit the 10-foot putt to win the tournament for the team. Some may argue that mentally tough athletes are born. Although, some are, I believe we can learn to develop mental strengths by experience and growth as young athletes. When a young athlete fails, a coach has two choices. The coach can degrade the athlete and tell him about how bad he was. Or he can use this as a "teachable moment" and help the athlete understand how this failure can be overcome.

By "teaching" the athlete in this situation, rather than scolding them, I believe you can help them build up their confidence and in turn, help the athlete become hungrier to go back out on the athletic field and compete again. The more you "teach" and "coach" the athlete that failures are inevitable in athletic competition, and that they are not situations to be afraid of, but rather situations that can make us stronger and in turn, more successful, I believe the athlete will learn and be hungrier to be placed in these situations as they get older.

Consequently, they will be developing the mental toughness to handle adversity and eventually, want to be up to bat when the game is on the line, because they will want to take the challenge and see if they can beat it, rather than have it beat them.

Beginning next year pitchers in the Little League World Series will be regulated by pitch counts organized by age. It's the same rule as applies to the regulars season but now they will be enforced during the series. (This issue was a big topic of discussion at the series. Baltimore Oriole pitcher LaTroy Hawkins was asked about it and he said "I don't want to touch that one!"

The breakdown by age is as follows:

11-12....85 pitches
9-10....75 pitches
13-16...95 pitches

For many years the medical community have been calling for pitch counts because of the increases of arm injuries among young pitchers. But others have said it's the kind of pitch--not the amount that really determines injury. There also is the fact that just some young kids are built to throw alot and some aren't.

What do you think? Should Little League institute these pitch counts? Or should this be left at the discretion of the individual managers? Tell uswhat you think!

A high school in Oscoda, Michigan has been informed by its school district that because of its inability to win a game???or even a single point???that the team???s remaining games will be cancelled.

The move had been opposed by players and parents but coach Kyle Tobin decided to make the move when he realized that his players were being physically dominated to such an extent to make injury a very real possibility. ESPN has the story.

But is it okay to ever quit? Does this send the wrong message to the players about competing? Or is it okay since football is such a physical sport. Tell us what you think!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/53034700@N00/326081908/
  Waiting to Play 
  Originally uploaded by Active.com Team Sports.

The latest eteamz Snapshotz winner: Waiting patiently while the field is being cleared.