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Dr. Robert J. Harmison: JMU Sport Psychology.

My interview with Dr. Harmison was a bit of a suprise, infiltrated as such from my end. Throughout the process of scheduling interviews, I have had several requests go unanswered. Dr. Harmison was among those who did not initially respond to my polite and formal email inquiry. Not to be deterred by lack of a reply, I took a new approach by visiting his office to see the man and request his participation in person. This was, admittedly, a smart choice on my part. The first lesson he taught me was that out of the numerous requests he had received in his inbox, he accepted my offer, and did not necessarily respond to the others, simply because I was willing to physically come see him. His belief in persistence was highlighted several times during our discussion.

Dr. Harmison serves both as a professor of Sport Psychology and a consultant for the university's athletic teams, helping specifically with the women's tennis and lacrosse players. With regard to academia, he is primarily concerned with the study of athlete confidence and optimized performance. An athlete himself, he fused his love of sport with his fascination of psychology to eventually complete his Ph.D. at the University of North Texas. He described how this connection became real after reading a study in which two groups of basketball players shot free-throws. The athletes who imagined shooting free-throws were more successful when it came to actually shooting than the ones who did not.

Through our discourse, Dr. Harmison conveyed his uniquely optimistic approach to anger. Student athletes that seek a consultation with him are often experiencing an impedance of some sort. He refers to anger as an umbrella term, covering a multitude of complex emotions. Contrary to popular belief, for Dr. Harmison, the entire spectrum of human emotion is neither inherently positive or negative. For many, the transition from frustration into motivation is simply a matter of talking things through.This was surprising to me considering I had assumed that psychologists were tasked with supressing students' anger. The reality was far from it.

For many students that are not associated with JMU's athletic programs, the sheer amount of stress that student athletes experience is somewhat intangible. Dr. Harmison clarified how individuals solely under academic stress are not in anyway minimized, merely that athletes are susceptible to the complex array of stress-inducing stimuli assoc. with athletics such as the infamous "fishbowl." Part of the difficulty with counseling students at the peak of competitive sport is negotiating how they approach their anxieties. He explained how when someone such as myself experiences a failure, the repercussions are contained to internal-criticism. Yet, for many athletes "in a fishbowl," when you miss a shot, or drop a pass, everyone sees it. Understanding what they "signed up for" and being able to "embrace" this, is key to aiding athletes toward achieving their ultimate goals. Unfortunately, the harsh reality of failure is the majority of what Dr. Harmison deals with.

His role, pushing athletes beyond their comfort zone, carries with it a bit of a burden to bare. He acts as a balancing force between success and failure, which often leaves him in a strange predicament. For many consultations with athletes, he strives to maintain professionalism while still coming across as a resource for personal disclosure. Dr. Harmison maintains the philosophy that one must control what is able to be controlled. While psychological theory can build a framework for consulting with students, every case provides discrepancies from what is considered "textbook." This, essentially, is what makes psychology so fascinating; you learn from them as much as they learn from you.

 


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