"Tiny building block in the system"

A text message from mental coach Thomas Baschab the evening before had a significant impact on biathlete Simon Schempp's (SZ Uhingen) world championship title in February in Hochfilzen. Baschab works with a number of top athletes but also for many industry leaders in the business world and will share his knowledge next Monday at 7:30 pm in the series "Knowledge Impulses" at the Sparkassen-Forum in Göppingen (information available at telephone 02561/69565-170). In the interview, Thomas Baschab provides deep insights into his work.

The Uhingen biathlon world champion Simon Schempp thanked you on television for the important text message before the race. What was in it?

Thomas Baschab: I can't say exactly, but I can describe it roughly. I could remind Simon of something important, an impulse that he could make good use of. Schempp was very focused on winning an individual medal at this World Championships, everyone was talking to him about it. Therefore, it was important to move away from that, to focus on the love for this sport, to concentrate on this passion.

What is your collaboration with Simon Schempp like?

I work very individually with each athlete. I have been in regular contact with Simon Schempp since last summer, we have met three or four times, otherwise we talk on the phone. But since we agreed not to call directly before the competitions, I sent him this text message. As he says, he read it many times to find his focus.

Shortly, the new 75-meter ski jump will be inaugurated in Degenfeld. Are ski jumpers mentally challenged when they look down from the top of the hill?

Looking down is the least of their problems. Ski jumpers, I worked with two last winter, don't have a second chance. Biathletes who miss a target can make up for the gap by running, footballers who are 0:2 down can still win. If a ski jumper ruins a jump due to a small mistake, the chance is gone. So they break down their jump into extremely small sections, and that is usually fatal. Instead, a young guy like Domen Prevc comes along, doesn't think and blows the rest away. And the more the athlete thinks, the worse it gets. The saying that thinking disturbs is justified, and it goes best when you are free and carefree. But then there are the previous successes, the great audience interest, and the questions from journalists - and the spiral goes downward.

Frisch Auf Göppingen had a disappointing season in the handball Bundesliga, finishing tenth, but surprisingly won the European Cup in May. Can the different performances in parallel competitions be explained?

That is not atypical, it also happens in the Bundesliga: the team is successful internationally, but in the league, they are fighting against relegation. On the one hand, due to international commitments, they play twice a week, so the workload is different, and on weekends they face rested opponents who fight for every point. Take the Dortmund team in the Champions League, and then they lose in Darmstadt because the opponents are as hot as a frying pan. It could have been the same in Göppingen. You have the highlights internationally, you put in three to five percent more effort, which in elite sports is a lot, and in everyday business, the energy is lost.

How do you establish collaborations with athletes?

In the past, athletes would reach out when they were in a crisis and needed help. Even then, there was the prejudice that these athletes were a bit crazy, which is nonsense. Nowadays, it is becoming more of a part of a complex competition preparation, because for example, Simon Schempp was not in a crisis, but he was trying to look at all areas where there is still potential. More and more very good people are practicing this today. Simon Schempp wants to give a hundred percent in all areas, and I am a tiny building block in this system, which makes the building more stable.

What is the difference in caring for individual athletes and teams?

With individual athletes, I can focus very specifically on that one athlete, while with teams, it is about optimizing group dynamics. It is optimal when you work on both together. In football, for example, you have 25 people, so 14 are not playing, are dissatisfied, and not interested in success, undermining the team spirit. As a coach, you have to work incredibly hard on this realization. That's why coaches in the Bundesliga are changing. The times of tough guys like Felix Magath, who didn't speak a word to a player in his squad for a year, are over. Coaches like Hoffenheim's Julian Nagelsmann, who dedicate themselves with empathy to each individual, are in demand. That's why Heiko Herrlich is now making the leap from the third league, where he radically promoted team orientation in Regensburg, to the first league in Leverkusen.

Is there a difference in working with women and men?

There is a huge difference. I rarely work with women, and it's not everyone's cup of tea. Theoretically, you could work the same way, but women are more complex and profound than men and approach the topics in the same way. Women think more intensively about everything and want to talk much more about it, want to engage with the problems. Men want to think about solutions, which is easier for coaches. So it works completely differently, and that's why the time spent caring for women is enormous.

In amateur sports, is the psychological aspect also important, or do athletes need to focus on building strength and endurance first?

Of course, endurance, strength, and technical skills need to be at a similar level. When I compete against Roger Federer in tennis, the mental aspect doesn't matter. But the more comparable the performance, the more important the mental aspect is on every level. That's why there is a tendency for athletes even in the district leagues to deal with this issue. Especially amateur athletes define themselves to some extent in an incredible way through their handicap or other goals and put themselves under pressure. In competitive sports, however, this question is existential.

Do athletes lie on the psycho-couch with you, or do you come to the competition venue?

Heaven forbid, nobody lies on the couch with me, I don't delve into emotional fields, and athletes don't like that either. I am a mental coach and use techniques; athletes want to work pragmatically and apply my advice. But I am rarely present at competitions.

What is ultimately the key to success?

The goal is not the way, but the goal often stands in the way. The athlete must, away from the goal, focus on the essentials, deal with the reason why he does it. Only then should he deal with the purpose, because goals create pressure.

What role does mental support play in success?

If it works at the crucial moment, it plays a significant role. There are many so-called training champions who cannot tap into their potential at the decisive moment. And there are athletes who can compensate for athletic deficiencies with mental strength. As a mental monster, always operating at the limit, the Austrian Thomas Muster even became the number one in the tennis world.

In what way can the average person benefit from mental coaching in their personal and professional life?

Normal life works the same way; everyone can benefit greatly, even if the focus of the public is not as huge and not as brutally sorted out as in sports. The demands in everyday life are dramatically increasing, as can be seen from the burnout figures. The pressure at the workplace is increasing and being passed down from top to bottom. My main