{"id":105066,"date":"2021-04-22T09:07:07","date_gmt":"2021-04-22T13:07:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/?p=105066"},"modified":"2021-04-22T09:07:07","modified_gmt":"2021-04-22T13:07:07","slug":"going-for-the-gold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2021\/04\/22\/going-for-the-gold\/","title":{"rendered":"Going for the Gold"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

School of Professional Psychology graduate Cody Commander will serve as a mental health officer for U.S. Olympic and Paralympic athletes in Tokyo. (Photo courtesy of University of Oklahoma Athletics)<\/p><\/div>\n

C<\/span>ody Commander has always loved sports.<\/p>\n

\u201cI played everything growing up,\u201d said Commander, a 2010 graduate of Wright State University\u2019s School of Professional Psychology<\/a>. \u201cIf you can compete in it, I\u2019ll probably enjoy watching it or participating in it.\u201d<\/p>\n

This summer, Commander will experience firsthand the ultimate display of athleticism when he serves as a mental health officer for the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC).<\/p>\n

Commander first learned of the opportunity when he was presenting at a conference at UCLA in early 2020. A sport psychologist approached him afterwards and asked if he would be interested in applying for the USOPC\u2019s new position.<\/p>\n

\u201cWho wouldn\u2019t be excited at an opportunity like that?\u201d Commander recalled.<\/p>\n

When Commander first expressed interest, he thought he would be heading to Tokyo in the summer of 2020 for the Olympic Games. But the COVID-19 pandemic quickly upended those plans, delaying the competition to 2021.<\/p>\n

Since the postponement of the 2020 Olympics, Commander has been serving as a consultant to the USOPC and helping the organization develop a strategic mental health plan. As part of that plan, the USOPC will train everyone involved\u2014from athletic trainers to coaches\u2014in the appropriate mental health care of the athletes.<\/p>\n

In addition to the strategic mental health plan, Commander has created a directory of sport psychologists who are available to work with athletes in every state. That directory includes an online map where athletes can easily see the providers nearby.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just makes it easier for them and their coaches, and everyone involved in their care, to help find appropriate resources for their mental health,\u201d Commander explained.<\/p>\n

Once he\u2019s in Tokyo, Commander will be responsible for overseeing the mental health care of Team USA athletes. He will ensure that their psychological and mental health needs are being met, and be on hand for any emergencies or crises.<\/p>\n

Commander is one of three mental health officers hired by the USOPC. While Commander will focus on the Olympic Games, the other two mental health officers will work at the Paralympic Games. The USOPC has also hired a director of mental health services to develop and implement mental health services and programming for Team USA.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere have not been positions like this before at the USOPC. It\u2019s kind of groundbreaking,\u201d Commander explained. \u201cTo the USOPC\u2019s credit, they have really prioritized mental health. It highlights the importance of mental health services for the athletes and ensures that all athletes have access to mental health care.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the pressure cooker environment of Olympic competition, Commander said, the mental health of athletes is just as important as their physical conditioning and training.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhenever an athlete is training for the Olympics or Paralympics, the amount of stress they experience will inevitably lead to some mental health challenges,\u201d Commander said.<\/p>\n

In a world where one injury could permanently impact the trajectory of an Olympic and post-Olympic career, athletes experience stressors at every turn. They struggle with financial burdens due to the high cost of training. They endure loneliness and isolation from traveling and being away from family. And there is the constant nagging worry about what the future holds when the days of Olympic glory are but a mere distant memory.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s definitely not easy to be an Olympian or Paralympian,\u201d said Commander.<\/p>\n

That high level of stress has only been compounded by the postponement of the 2020 Games.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve been working hard toward a goal that has a strict deadline on it. All of their training is focused on the date they\u2019re competing,\u201d Commander explained. \u201cWhen that gets shifted, it throws off all of their training, which then affects how well they can mentally adjust to all of the changes.\u201d<\/p>\n

That delay has been especially difficult for athletes at the peak of their careers and staring at their last shot at Olympic gold.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou add another year and you may have some athletes who are now questioning whether it\u2019s worth training for another year. They may have already postponed starting a family or launching a second career,\u201d said Commander. \u201cFor athletes, this can be difficult, as almost every minute of their life is structured. They know exactly what they\u2019re doing, how they\u2019re going to do it, and when they\u2019re going to do it. When you add a level of ambiguity to that, it can definitely be a challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Commander, there is one upside to having the games postponed\u2014it gives him another year to learn some Japanese.<\/p>\n

This will be Commander\u2019s first trip to Japan. He plans to arrive in Tokyo two weeks before the games begin and will spend four to five weeks there.<\/p>\n

Most of all, he is looking forward to being part of a team that supports the mental health of Team USA athletes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m excited to participate and be available when needed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

For Commander, sport psychology has been the perfect career fit as it combines his passions for athletics and psychology.<\/p>\n

Commander grew up watching tennis on television with his grandmother, who won a high school state championship in tennis. A native of Sherman, Texas, Commander played on his high school\u2019s tennis team and earned a scholarship to play NCAA Division II tennis at Southeastern Oklahoma State University, where he majored in psychology.<\/p>\n

In his spare time, he also coached tennis. During those coaching sessions, Commander couldn\u2019t help but notice how the players\u2019 personal lives were affecting their performances on the court.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really liked helping people, not just how well they could play tennis, but how well they could be prepared for life,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

After seeing how mental health can impact every facet of an individual\u2019s life, Commander was inspired to earn a master\u2019s degree in counseling at Southeastern Oklahoma State. While working with a neuropsychologist on psychological testing, Commander was encouraged to get his doctoral degree. He enrolled in Wright State University\u2019s School of Professional Psychology.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was able to get training in different areas\u2014neuropsychology, health psychology, general practice,\u201d said Commander. \u201cThat really helped me in my training with athletes, because they come in with a myriad of stressors that I feel more prepared for.\u201d<\/p>\n

Commander was impressed with Wright State\u2019s top-notch faculty and he especially enjoyed diversity-related coursework.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery program needs to have that commitment to diversity and multiculturalism,\u201d Commander said. \u201cI\u2019m forever grateful for my experiences with those professors in those classes.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his third year at Wright State, Commander met a sport psychologist and decided that was the career path he wanted to pursue. While interning at Ball State University\u2019s counseling center, Commander did a rotation in the athletics department. When a post-doctoral fellowship opened at the University of Oklahoma\u2019s athletics office, Commander jumped at the opportunity.<\/p>\n

Eleven years later, Commander is still at the University of Oklahoma (OU), where he serves as director of sport psychology and oversees all of the psychological resources for OU\u2019s student-athletes.<\/p>\n

Commander and his team of four sport psychologists and two doctoral interns are committed to being on the cutting edge of sport psychology and providing mental health care to all of the university\u2019s student-athletes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re commonly at practices and competitions,\u201d he said. \u201cWe do a lot of close work with the athletic training staff, the strength and conditioning staff, the registered dieticians, and the academic advisors. We really provide a holistic approach to treatment and health care.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Commander, student-athletes can face an array of mental health disruptions including depression, anxiety, or a history of trauma. They may also seek assistance because they\u2019re not happy with how they\u2019re performing and they need help with confidence, focus, or managing their emotions.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of it is teaching them how to look at things differently. We call that reframes,\u201d Commander explained. Reframes help athletes develop a consistent confidence regardless of their performance.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile most athletes base their confidence on their performance, the best athletes don\u2019t. The best athletes base their confidence on their abilities,\u201d said Commander, who teaches athletes how to maintain confidence throughout the entirety of a competition, regardless of whether they\u2019re on a hot streak.<\/p>\n

As the pandemic continues, Commander remains concerned about the impact of COVID-19 restrictions on mental health. He said he worries about people in contentious relationships who are stuck at home, individuals who cannot find work, and limited access to places like gyms, parks, and movie theaters where people could normally go to decompress.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had an increase in stress but a decrease in resources to curb that stress,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

One coping tip that Commander has offered throughout the pandemic is to be mentally prepared for the worst-case scenario.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we can have plans for all of the scenarios, that is going to decrease our stress. The stress comes from the ambiguity of not knowing what\u2019s going to happen,\u201d he explained. \u201cIf we can decrease that ambiguity, it\u2019s going to alleviate that stress and anxiety. We don\u2019t know what\u2019s going to happen, but we know we have a plan regardless of what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more information on Team USA and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, visit teamusa.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

School of Professional Psychology graduate Cody Commander will serve as a mental health officer for the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee in Tokyo. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":105214,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[722,733,4309,725,4827,715,2407],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-105066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academics","category-alumni","category-alumni-association","category-home-news-sidebar","category-magazine","category-news","category-professional-psychology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105066"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105066\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":105226,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105066\/revisions\/105226"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}