sports
Chris Voelz is positive about PM A
Oregon s spikers
use coach’s attitude
through tough year
By MIKE RIPLINGER
Of ttM Emerald
When the subject comes up, the re
sponse is nearly fanatical Believers treat
it almost like a religion, expounding in
passionate terms about its benefits
Reports abound on how it has
changed lives The faith radiates from
those possessed with this inspiration,
making it sound too good to be true
Is this the Hare Krishna, the Moonies
or some other group that's always hang
ing around airports selling their idea of
THE way to live7
No, this is Positive Mental Attitude
(PMA), a concept of believing totally in
yourself and what you are capable of
doing It is a self-belief attitude where
you can achieve anything you want to
"The only limits to your success are
those you impose on yourself, and with
PMA. there are none said Chris Voelz
Oregon's volleyball coach and PMA's
chief advocate on campus
"It's an attitude that allows you to be
the best that you can be whether you re
talking about individual self-growth or
volleyball You take in all the information
you can. positive and negative and use it
constructively to make yourself better "
PMA involves taking an affirmation, or
motto that is constructively applied to
provide direction for self-improvement
Goals are then set to judge the im
provement and to keep it in perspective
"It is a way to improve yourself to £ny
level you desire By working hard, you
can accomplish anything you want, but it
takes the hard work to do it." Voelz said
"You can't be unrealistic and say you
are going to beat the best team in the
nation when you have nowhere the skill
or the talent of the other team But it does
allow you to set goals to improve each
time you play and maybe score a few
more points against them than you did
last time
"Improvement is the key And if you do
have a chance to beat the top team or
land the best job around, PMA allows you
to have the self-confidence to do it ”
It becomes difficult to separate Voelz
from PMA They seem to go together like
beer and pretzels — one is not the same
without the other To understand PMA
and its affect on the Oregon volleyball
team you must first understand Voelz
She has written a book on the subject
entitled Motivation in Coaching a Team
r
" ~ ' E"w#« Photo
“It is a way to improve yourself to any level that you desire.
By working hard, you can accomplish anything you want.’’
Chris Voelz
Sport", is a frequent lecturer and has
given numerous workshops
Brought up from an early age with a
positive self-outlook. PM A went haod m
hand with Voelz's attitude before she
had even heard about it She began
coaching this attitude out of neccessity,
and found that it worked so well, it
became integrated into her coaching
style
"I was coaching at a school in Chicago
where I was forced to coach not only
women's basketball and volleyball, but
archery,' said Voelz with a grimace,
recalling her start
“Now I didn't know anything about
archery, and since I couldn't coach the
sport itself, I had to find some way to help
the athletes I began to look at their
outlook on the sport and decided the
best way to help them was to manange
their minds and their attitudes
concerning the sport "
This started Voelz to study what ac
tually were the athletes' mental thoughts
on the sports they played, and what
different type of coaching methods got
With a season record of 8-21-2, PM A helps Oregon's club keep going through a
down season "It helps us through the hard times," said Cathy Hill.
the best results She decided the secret
to a team's success lay in the way that
the athlete was addressed. For some it is
bettor to be very demanding, while for
others, velvet gloves worked best But
the important point was to convey the
instructions to a player the right way.
"The criticism you give a player must
be constructive, meant to help a player,
instead of just tearing her down,” said
Voelz. “We don't yell at people on our
team, we care at them ” Some of this
caring can get quite vocal though, Voelz
was quick to admit
"If everything you tell a player is in a
positive train of thought, then they will be
much more receptive and able to use it to
make themselves better But you must be
realistic You can’t be dishonest to your
self and say that you did well, when you
actually got creamed You must set goals
before entering any competition and
work to meet those goals That is how
you tell how you are doing, not by the
win-loss column, but by how many goals
you’ve accomplished ”
PMA is especially important for the
Oregon volleyball team this year Coming
off a successful 41-16-1 record last year,
and with a bright outlook for this season,
the Ducks have met with nothing but
disapointment
Injuries to front-liners Karen Beamer,
Ronda Dalthrop and freshman sensation
Sue Harbour, have forced the Ducks to
play with a makeshift lineup throughout
the season This, compounded by the
fact the Ducks are playing their toughest
season ever, with repeated trips to
California to play the top teams in the
nation, have left the Ducks with a dismal
8-21-2 record.
“This season is the proof of PMA. Sure
it is easy to do something when you are
winning and things are going well, but
how about when you're getting
trounced,” said Voelz.
“PMA enables us to endure a season
like this one," said Cathy Hill, a junior
and a Region 9 all-star last year. “It helps
us through the hard times and really lets
us enjoy the good times, because no
matter how far we are ahead, we are
always working to improve.”
“PMA has helped me to become a
better player and a better person,” said
Therese Cooper, a senior setter on the
team “I feel better about my own self
concept The growing that I’ve gone
through has allowed me to accept peo
ple the way they really are."
“When I hear negative comments, I try
to take them with other positive ones and
try to use them to make myself.grow and
improve. When I first came here I would
let the little things get to me and then I'd
get down on myself. But thru PMA I've
learned to grow and accept things for the
way they are, and then by working hard,
try to improve myself.”
“It helps you when you go in to take a
test," said Hill “No matter what you do, if
you’re positive about it, you’re going to
do better on it."
Most of the players were very skeptical
of PMA when they first started out, but
were convinced after the method actual
ly began to work for them
“When I first came here my initial
reaction was to reject it,” said Beamer, a
senior, “But now I really believe in it, it
has really helped me
“It overwhelms you at first,” agreed
newcomer Harbour, “But it seems to
work for everyone else, so it looks like it’s
worth trying "
Once a player gets over the shock of
trying something different, PMA definite
ly seems to help them The players not
only improve their game, but more im
portant, they improve on their own per
sonal qualities. It doesn’t seem to be a
concept that they use for a while and
then forget, but something that sticks
with them
“We don't try to sell PMA," said Voelz
"We let it creep up on them We want
people to grow not only as volleyball
players, but as individuals We want them
to graduate with it and use it the rest of
their lives. College is a growing exper
ience, and with PMA I feel it has really
helped them grow.”
Rain delays 6th game of Series
NEW YORK (AP) — The sixth game of
the 1981 World Series was postponed by
rain Tuesday with the Los Angeles
Dodgers leading the New York Yankees
3-2 in the best-of-seven set
Game Six will be played Wednesday
night at Yankee Stadium with a seventh
game, if necessary, on Thursday night
The last World Series game postponed
by rain was Game One of the 1979 clas
sic between the Baltimore Orioles and
Pittsburgh Pirates That Series opened in
Baltimore
It began to rain in New York Sunday
evening and rained most of the night and
into Monday Showers were intermittent
all day Monday, and the National
Weather Service said a storm front would
move through the New York area in full
force Tuesday night x
Wednesday s forecast called for
clouds and a 20 percent chance of rain
Tuesday night's game would have
been played on the latest date of the year
ever for a World Series The 1911 World
Series, won in six games by the
Philadelphia Athletics over the New York
Giants, ended on Oct 26 after a week of
rain
If the 1981 World Series is completed
without further rain, it will end on Oct. 28
or 29
The front line for baseball’s Fall War of
1981 moved about 3,000 miles east after
three Los Angeles victories at Dodger
Stadium The wounded included
Ron Cey, the Dodgers third baseman.
Cey, was expected to start Game Six
after being hit on the helmet with a pitch
from Yankees reliever Rich Gossage in
the eighth inning of Sunday's fifth game,
a 2-1 Dodgers victory
Pma 5 Sartinn A