18 | it ain't your money 'till you make it

The first chordinnate album club featured Mac Miller’s SWIMMING. While listening to track 9 (i.e., CONVERSATION PT. 1), a particular lyric hit me as the perfect encapsulation of what it means to work as a performance consultant in professional sport:

My head up in the clouds
But my feet be on the pavement, yeah
It ain't your money till you make it
Otherwise, it's just a conversation

mac miller CONVERSATION PT. 1

The lyric transported me back to 2008 and a pre-conference workshop at the annual meeting of the Association for Applied Sport Psychology (AASP). I ditched work that morning to attend a workshop from Ken Ravizza and Angie Fifer. Ravizza delivered many memorable quotes on that day, but one in particular has stood the test of time: They don’t want you until they sign the check.

In my experience, Ravizza was spot-on. I have yet to meet someone in sport who doesn’t agree that mental performance is important. When it comes to paying for mental game support, however, those same individuals often “don’t have a budget for that.” Or demand to see evidence of your work on a volunteer basis before they agree to pay for continued support. It is odd. If I told my plumber, “I need to see what you do with my first bathroom and then I may consider paying you to work on my second,” he would reply, “Then you aren’t getting me for either!” Sport doesn’t seem to work like that. The people with the most money are often the least willing to spend it. The professionals with the fewest resources are expected to work for nothing. Far too often, what feels like a negotiation reveals itself to simply have been a conversation. And talk, rather than being cheap, is extremely costly for those who most need it pay off!

I may not have fully grasped the truth in Ravizza’s words when I first him them. Part of me must have understood it, however. When I got my first NBA check, I framed it. But only after I had it blown up to 2 feet by 6 feet. In the time since, I could fill a mansion’s walls with conversation. But I have yet to need another frame!

Borin Kim. 2016. An examination of the differences between music therapy and talk therapy on intimacy in a family-patient relationship at the end-of-life. Submitted to the graduate degree program in Music Education and Music Therapy and the Graduate Faculty of the University of Kansas in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Music Education.

summary: In this study, 10 family-patient dyads were provided both talk therapy and music therapy as part of a hospice experience. Each patient received both forms of therapy, but the order varied according to the study design (i.e., half of the patients received talk therapy and then music therapy, and the other half received music therapy and then talk therapy). Sessions were videotaped and researchers rated family caregivers’ intimacy acts to assess the effects of each form of therapy. Intimacy acts were defined as verbal intimacy, affective intimacy, and physical intimacy. Analysis revealed no differences in overall verbal intimacy between therapy approaches, but did find a significant effect in the singular behavior of “verbally letting go of patient” in favor of music therapy. Music therapy also produced statistically significant increases in affective and physical intimacy compared to talk therapy, with large effect sizes for both. According to the researcher, the results suggest that music-based interventions may provide family caregivers with important coping strategies that allow them to more effectively support loved ones in hospice care.

potential translations to sport: The biggest takeaways for me relate to points made by the researcher in the discussion section:

1. “By responding musically, family caregivers may express their complex feelings more readily than words.”

2. ”Looking beyond the hospice setting, music is a therapeutic modality that families can use among themselves to promote intimacy among loved ones.”

Music can promote connection and communication in ways that words often can’t. In sport, there is an often an emphasis on team-building and a desire to enhance both connection and communication. A study like this, which deploys music in a trying circumstance, highlights how powerful the modality may be in achieving these ends!

On a more general note, it was interesting to look at thesis research given the focus of this issue. There is a lot of good evidence that never sees publication, just as there is a lot of good work being done that never sees a signed check!

Damian Lillard previously spoke about his collaborations with Lil’ Wayne while a guest on Jeff Teague’s 520 podcast. Lillard is yet another example of an athlete who pursues music seriously while still maintaining All-Star caliber performance on the court. It may be tempting to push athletes to reduce distractions (i.e., addition by subtraction), but, when it comes to artistic endeavors, there may be a case for addition by addition!

Rhymefest provides a reminder that innovation isn’t always rewarded, at least monetarily!

I'm fightin’ for strength
In the street grindin' for cents
I know I'm ahead of my time
But I'm behind on my rent

rhymefest DEVIL’S PIE