Haskell, Nebraska Sport Psychology Department, Staying Ahead Of Curve

Sometimes, they're student-athletes who suddenly have the yips while shooting or throwing. Or maybe they can't translate what they're accomplishing in practice to a competition in a pressure-filled environment.
 
Other times, they're battling more severe issues, including mental health, anywhere from anxiety to severe depression to eating disorders.
 
And even with everyone scattered across the globe and isolating during the current pandemic, Dr. Brett Haskell and her team of sport psychologists in the Nebraska athletics department are helping a strong number of student-athletes they'd normally be seeing in person.
 
It's what makes Nebraska's sport psychology department among the top five in the country in terms of number of in-house providers, accessibility and utilization. Last year, Nebraska's four sport psychologists visited with more than 400 Husker student-athletes, or more than 60 percent. October and November are the busiest months; February, March and April are also busy.
 
"You're under a microscope all the time, and these are young, young people who are trying to figure out who they are and what they're about," said Haskell, Nebraska Director of Sport Psychology. "They're going to make mistakes. It's a natural part of this developmental stage. They're doing so in front of a million people."
 
In addition to Haskell, Nebraska's staff includes Brett Woods, PhD., Assistant Director of Sport Psychology; Kate Higgins, PsyD, Athletic Neuropsychologist; and Chad Doerr, PsyD, Athletic Psychologist. Each is double-trained in mental health provision and sport science/sport psychology.
 
"It's really rewarding for us," Haskell said. "Our goal is to help this be an environment that they thrive in, that they can recall as a really wonderful part of their lives, where they sorted out their identity and became their best self."
 
Haskell said Nebraska is hiring two more sport psychologists, which would put it on par with Michigan, which has seven, as tops in the Big Ten Conference and the country. Ohio State currently has four on its staff, with the rest of the Big Ten institutions employing one or two sport psychologists.
 
Haskell and Woods are representing Nebraska on the Big Ten Mental Health and Wellness Cabinet, which includes representatives from all 14 Big Ten institutions. In conjunction with Mental Health Awareness Month, the Big Ten on Monday announced mental health initiatives as the league, under new commissioner Kevin Warren, is taking a comprehensive, holistic approach to mental health.
 
Haskell commended Warren for making mental health one of his top three initiatives for his administration.
 
"When I was hired as the commissioner of the Big Ten Conference, a core pillar of my vision was to make sure that we educate, embrace, engage and empower our more than 9,500 student-athletes," Warren said in a news release. "This is a complex and stressful time in our society and the mental health and wellness of our Big Ten family is a critical component of our focus."
 
While important during these times, these initiatives are not in response to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. Warren formed this cabinet beginning last fall.
 
"We started collaborating and examining best practices, examining how to work together, how to make sure there was integrity in the exchanges, how to build trust and go beyond the competitive rituals of being in sports," said Michigan Executive Associate Athletic Director and cabinet member Greg Harden.
 
The Big Ten's most notable initial implementation is allowing all of its student-athletes, coaches, full-time members of university athletic departments and conference staff members free access to a mental health and meditation app called Calm. It's the No. 1 mental fitness app for helping individuals experience lower stress, less anxiety, improved focus and more restful sleep.
 
Nebraska had been ahead of the curve in terms of offering student-athletes access to such an app. For the past two years, Nebraska has been using Headspace, which has very similar platforms that Calm uses, Haskell said. Nebraska will now switch to Calm, an app that NBA star LeBron James uses.
 
Calm has more than 100 hours of original audio content, and one of its most popular settings is Daily Calm, new daily 10-minute mediations. Haskell explains it as teaching to be more aware where your mind is focused, and redirect your mind to the present.
 
"There is really strong evidence to support doing that even for 10 minutes, four or five times a week, for a period of six to eight weeks can actually change the structure and function of your brain to make it healthier," Haskell said.
 
"From a performance standpoint, it allows athletes to learn how to quiet the thinking part of their brain down so they can trust their bodies better. It also allows them to shift their focus more quickly and easily, which is a really important part of performing at a high level in really fast-paced sporting environments."
 
What makes Nebraska unique to most collegiate sport psychology departments is its ability to embed in-house sport psychologists with most of its athletic programs. Haskell, for instance, works with football and volleyball; Woods works with men's and women's basketball, and often bowling and rifle; Doerr works with wrestling, tennis and soccer, and Higgins with women's gymnastics.
 
Those providers embedded with a team will work with each particular coach. Some coaches want mental skills training around individual performance – teaching thought management, activation management, confidence, composure. Others prefer a focus on building team cohesion, team dynamics, improved communication and conflict resolution skills.
 
Only a few schools have the staff large enough to implement this type of program.
 
"Nationally, we've been regarded very highly with the way we've been able to achieve that level of integration," Haskell said. "That's something people have looked to Nebraska for in terms of our sport psychology. It's a pretty unique system. Hiring two more will allow us to provide that same depth to those other teams that haven't been able to access that yet."
 
Haskell stressed that all athletic teams have sport psychology services. Every student-athlete is getting the same level of mental health service, and everybody has access to individual sport psychology.
 
Haskell and her staff use either Zoom or telephones to provide individual services because of social distancing guidelines during the current pandemic. The number is roughly half of what they would normally see this time of year; many student-athletes are home with families, and not dealing with the same or as many stressors they may encounter on campus. That includes no athletic competitions.
 
"Some of them are relieved," Haskell said. "Others have new and different stressors, concerns with family or maybe finances and health and those types of things, social isolation."
 
Among their biggest concerns, she said, is uncertainty beginning to set in about when they can return to practice. Also, when they can resume competitions on time, and if so, when.
 
In response to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, Haskell and her staff made a four-part video series, focusing on going from surviving to thriving in a crisis. The videos cover topics such as basic wellness and psychological prevention; the benefits of focusing your mind and quieting your thoughts; how to shift attention and focus; and emotion control, hopefulness and positive emotions.
 
The videos, released to Nebraska student-athletes in late March, now have shorter versions on Twitter @Huskerpsych.
 
Nebraska's sport psychology department has also begun a podcast, available on its Twitter account, with its first guest volleyball coach John Cook. He will have four seven-minute podcasts each week over the next month, as he discusses concepts from the book "Chop Wood, Carry Water" that he and his team have read. He will also address how he's used sport psychology in his coaching philosophy and how it's helped him evolve as a coach.

Haskell said the podcast series will continue with a new guest after Cook's four-part series on each Thursday.
 
Nebraska has no mandatory provisions for student-athletes in terms of mental health services. Anybody who visits with a sport psychologist does so voluntarily.
 
"Most of them enjoy it," Haskell said. "I think they like having a space that's about their identified needs and their concerns. They are so goal-oriented and achievement-oriented, they want to come in and make changes in their lives to feel better, to have a deeper sense of passion and connection to what they're working for here at Nebraska."
 
Reach Brian at brosenthal@huskers.com or follow him on Twitter @GBRosenthal.