Dr. Michael Lardon has over 25 years of experience as a mental performance coach for elite athletes. His clients have won major championships, Olympic gold medals, Super Bowls, World Series titles, and world championships in dozens of other sports. In addition to his private psychiatric practice in San Diego, Dr. Lardon is an Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine at the University of California, San Diego, and a consultant to the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, California. Dr. Lardon is the author of Mastering Golf’s Mental Game and numerous peer-reviewed articles on human performance and psychopharmacology.
Today, mental performance coaching has become a standard part of any elite athlete’s framework. I speak to athletes multiple times a week in every sport from mixed martial arts to show jumping to golf, and one of the most common misconceptions about my work is that it’s primarily about helping athletes “think better” or block out distractions.
The reality is that mental performance work is mental. health Work. I feel a responsibility to my athlete clients as well as the patients in my San Diego psychiatric clinic. Sure, lowering scores and winning tournaments is important, but living free from anxiety, depression and other mental health risks is even more important. There’s no denying the facts: a quarter of the population will suffer from a mental illness at some point in their lives, whether it’s genetic, like bipolar disorder or obsessive-compulsive disorder, or trauma from environmental stressors. The PGA Tour environment is one of the most stressful in sports, where maintaining a career can become a yearly or even weekly responsibility.
That’s why it’s so important to speak out and act on the tragedy that happened to Grayson Murray. Professional tours and leagues like the NFL, MLB, and NBA have long embraced the idea that mental performance coaching is good business, so to speak. But there’s still an incredible stigma attached to mental illness, and they’ve been reluctant to build real programs and infrastructure to help athletes deal with the incredible pressure and attention they face. It’s not enough to have a mental coach on the team. It’s important to have resources where they can help, where they need it, without shame or hiding.
What would be ideal? The PGA Tour could lead the way by establishing mental health centers along the same pattern as the mobile Player Performance Physical Training Units that accompany the Tour at every stop. The centers would be staffed by trained professionals to teach breathing and other stress-reduction exercises and teach players how to deal with anxiety and the various issues they face. Staff would also be trained to recognize the signs that a player needs urgent medical attention, and a network of doctors like mine could collaborate to provide immediate remote medical assistance.
The units provide players and those who accompany them — their families, coaches, caddies and other support staff — with on-site, immediate resources for any mental health concerns, even if it’s just a quiet place to talk to someone for a few minutes; a “mind center” — a private, no-phones zone, free from the frenetic energy of the clubhouse or locker room, a designed environment for players to meditate or meet with a mental health coach. When a player is in crisis, as was evident with Grayson Murray in Texas, easily accessible, unashamed interaction with a trained clinician or facilitator is the most effective way to keep someone from the tragedy of suicide.
We’ve come a long way since the early 1990s, when I began my involvement with professional golf in a different role. I caddied for my brother Brad as he worked his way through Q School and onto the Tour, where, as a psychiatrist, I was something of a curiosity among the other players and caddies. I’ll never forget watching a player miss a short putt in Q School, a mistake that was the difference between earning a card or spending the next year in the then much less lucrative minor leagues, collapsing completely beside the final green.
There’s a lot more money involved in golf than ever before, and players have the opportunity to compete in events around the world. But the money, promotional opportunities and scrutiny that come with life as a professional athlete are much higher. And that scrutiny comes from many different sources: Every move a player makes is scrutinized, from the golf course to what they say on social media.
Is anyone really surprised that athletes – human beings – subjected to extreme stress and incredible scrutiny would suffer from mental health? With the resources at the professional game’s disposal, including direct investment from tours and sponsorship from the vast world of mental health commerce, we could help athletes regain their mental health in the same practical way we deal with a torn anterior cruciate ligament, stretched elbow ligament, or broken bone.
