Nick Saban became friends with a psychology professor while ate Michigan State.Here is his explanation:
“Motivation itself generally lasts about two plays— it’s highly overrated,” he said. “Give me a team that has a business-like attitude, a team that can deal with adversity when it comes.” He added: “The most destructive phenomenon in sports is relief. It’s typically followed by a decrease in performance.” This, of course, jibes exactly with Saban’s philosophies about football teams. Where Rosen has made his biggest impact on Saban, though, is in getting him to completely buy in to what’s known as “process thinking,” that is, the breaking down of things— like meetings, practices, games, and seasons— into smaller pieces that can be handled without anxiety. It provides a way of functioning without being overwhelmed by the bigger picture, a “momentary stay against confusion,” in Robert Frost’s words. The world is complex, Rosen told Saban. So is football, with twenty-two men on the field, the coaches, the fans, the referees, the pressure. Process thinking keeps players and coaches anchored to reality, allows them to make sensible choices, and helps induce more repeatable outcomes. This step-by-step thinking mechanism is nothing new— it’s a prominent part of cognitive behavioral thinking, stemming back to the famous psychiatrist Aaron Beck. It also happens to be a significant component of the Alcoholics Anonymous recovery program. However, it had never before been so systematically applied to a football program before Saban did it.
