Latest / The Sean O'Connell Show / John Buck on his mental health advocacy, Mental health lessons he learned from his MLB career + more

Transcript

John Buck on his mental health advocacy, Mental health lessons he learned from his MLB career + more · The Sean O'Connell Show

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Another one bus the dust, another one as.
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  Speaker 2: You were listening to the Sean O'Connell Show from the
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  Speaker 2: Murdock Hunting Studio of ESPN seven hundred and ninety two
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  Speaker 2: one FF Shan O'Connell show here at ESPN seven hundred
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  Speaker 2: and ninety two one FM. It's a special day because
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  Speaker 2: we get to be part of the Huntsman Mental Health
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  Speaker 2: Foundation's radiothon. The Mental Health radiothon going on all day.
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: We've got plenty of ways to donate. The QR code
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: on your screen right now. If you're watching us on YouTube,
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: you can text Hope to three three nine eighty six
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: to donate. You can go to the website. Your brain
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: is Beautiful. I'm wearing the T shirt today and we'll
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: have people rolling in and rolling out of the studios
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  Speaker 2: all day long. This one I found out about a
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  Speaker 2: few days ago. I was excited about it because when
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  Speaker 2: you have local legends, you just have to take advantage
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  Speaker 2: of the opportunity to talk with local legends. John Buck
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  Speaker 2: right here in studio with his lovely life Brooke and
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: obviously Major League Baseball missed all everything at Taylorsville High
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  Speaker 2: back in the day and by the way miss all everything,
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  Speaker 2: way back in the day. I did not know this
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  Speaker 2: about the couple in studio right now, But Athlete of
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  Speaker 2: the Year Taylorsville High Male Athlete of the Year and
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  Speaker 2: Female Athlete of the Year been together since you were
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  Speaker 2: fifteen years old.
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  Speaker 1: Oh my goodness, welcome to the show. Thanks for having us,
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  Speaker 1: Thanks for having us. But can we start there please?
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  Speaker 2: The high school sweetheart story with three kids and a
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  Speaker 2: fully successful that is the coolest thing, you know what
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  Speaker 2: I mean. And I'm gonna look at you, Brooke, because
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  Speaker 2: because you're the one who holds it together.
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  Speaker 1: I don't know you well, but I know that that
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  Speaker 1: is how it is. That's funny and penned. I mean,
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  Speaker 1: that's just.
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  Speaker 2: You found you married up, you found the better half,
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  Speaker 2: and you happen to find it when you were fifteen
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  Speaker 2: years old.
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  Speaker 1: Just like the award.
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  Speaker 3: Like I told everybody when I was given that speech,
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  Speaker 3: she she got both of those awards.
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  Speaker 1: She earned both of those because she is.
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  Speaker 4: Don't you're just telling everybody that I'm a nerd.
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  Speaker 1: They already.
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  Speaker 4: That's right.
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  Speaker 2: Well, I'm supposed to stay on track here, So let's
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  Speaker 2: let's talk about why you're involved and how you decided
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  Speaker 2: to get involved with Huntsman Mental Health Foundation.
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  Speaker 3: Well, growing up, I had a brother and a mom
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  Speaker 3: who had mental health issues. Brother he was the first
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  Speaker 3: blue chip All American for Utah actually, and he committed suicide.
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  Speaker 3: At the time, I was kind of told not to
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  Speaker 3: talk about it. I was obviously out playing pro ball,
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  Speaker 3: just got drafted and came home ready to really want
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  Speaker 3: to share with his friends and family in my community
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  Speaker 3: the hurt and loss and how it was wrong and
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  Speaker 3: how I think, you know, the things, kind of share
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  Speaker 3: what was going on so that his friend would have
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  Speaker 3: some answers. I was told not to talk to him.
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  Speaker 3: I think our education about mental health and realizing how
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  Speaker 3: we've normalized it till we really it affects everybody, not
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  Speaker 3: just people with hard jobs going through hard things. Mental
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  Speaker 3: health is something for everyone. So being able to get
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  Speaker 3: that message out and then like share that where I
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  Speaker 3: wasn't able to fifteen twenty years ago, I feel very
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  Speaker 3: grateful to be able to be here be a part
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  Speaker 3: of this telethon to like they are providing what my
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  Speaker 3: brother didn't have. Like I just goosebump saying that, yeah,
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  Speaker 3: a phone call like this would have saved my brother
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  Speaker 3: and my mom's life.
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  Speaker 2: Well, the other thing about this is your parents, right, yes,
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  Speaker 2: and you're raising three boys, which I just found out,
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  Speaker 2: and to have these resources available as a parent. I'm
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  Speaker 2: a parent of young girls right now, and I'm grateful
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  Speaker 2: for that, for the fact that our kids now have
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  Speaker 2: these resources, Like you said that we didn't potentially growing up.
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  Speaker 2: And I imagine broke especially being so close to you know,
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  Speaker 2: a family tragedy that was a big news story back
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  Speaker 2: in the day. Also, like I imagine it's important to
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  Speaker 2: you that your boys have these resources if.
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  Speaker 4: They need them, that's right, and kind of destigmatizing it
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  Speaker 4: and kind of normalizing like normalizing therapy, normalizing needing help,
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  Speaker 4: normalizing even the ask and even having apps out there,
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  Speaker 4: having counselors, like just normalizing needing help and asking for
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  Speaker 4: it when you need it type thing.
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  Speaker 1: I also think it's great.
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  Speaker 2: I know, Look, it's important when you know, any mom,
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  Speaker 2: any dad, any person in any walk of life is
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  Speaker 2: willing to have these conversations. But your local legend, you're
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  Speaker 2: a professional athlete, You're a guy that traditionally a lot
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  Speaker 2: of kids are going to look up to, a lot
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  Speaker 2: of kids are going to look to say well, that's
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  Speaker 2: I mean, you look like you can still play. This
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  Speaker 2: is a big, strong guy. And for you to be
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  Speaker 2: willing to say no, let's talk about the things that
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  Speaker 2: actually matter.
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  Speaker 1: I think that's also important.
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  Speaker 2: It's something that the Huntsman Mental Health Foundation has been encouraging.
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  Speaker 1: We're a sports talk radio station.
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  Speaker 2: They've been encouraging, you know, athletes in our community, coaches
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  Speaker 2: in our community, to make sure that they're on board
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  Speaker 2: with this.
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  Speaker 3: Ye And as funny is, it's actually a little more
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  Speaker 3: in your face than people realize. If you check the
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  Speaker 3: rosters coaching staffs on major leagues, just in particular, you
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  Speaker 3: see two or three pitching coaches, two or three hitting coaches.
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  Speaker 3: One of them will be called the quality control coach.
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  Speaker 3: That's just a fancy way of saying mental strength coach. Interesting,
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  Speaker 3: that's a Tony Robbins, Jim Fannon. Go look at their credentials.
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  Speaker 3: They've probably either played, they have lived experience, and then
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  Speaker 3: they have the credentials, they have the knowledge and the
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  Speaker 3: know how of how to process this stress.
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  Speaker 1: We're feeling we're operating a meat locker.
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  Speaker 3: Like the conversations I'm having with first responders and ballplayers,
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  Speaker 3: we're able to relate because we're operators.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, they go through some really weird stress.
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  Speaker 3: And if all they're doing is flight or flight and
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  Speaker 3: they don't reregulate, we're also when we're able to table.
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  Speaker 1: Steph Curry, what he does is.
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  Speaker 3: Throwing that basketball through and seeing those He's doing mental
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  Speaker 3: health work.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, doing that me rehearsing.
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  Speaker 3: If I get buckled by Vertilander's break and ball and
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  Speaker 3: I go to bed playing that over and over and over,
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  Speaker 3: that's that's that will go into that will be we
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  Speaker 3: think in pictures, that'll go into my RIM sleep and
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  Speaker 3: think that's how mental health works. I intentionally have that
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  Speaker 3: buckle in my mind knows no difference between reality or
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  Speaker 3: non reality when I'm downplaying that in my brain. So
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  Speaker 3: if I play it and I rehearse it as I
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  Speaker 3: I'm hitting this ball to right center, even though I
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  Speaker 3: struck out when I downregulate that when I go into
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  Speaker 3: RIM the next for four hour increments, those half hour
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  Speaker 3: increments for the next four hours will be rehearsing what
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  Speaker 3: I thought or felt when I went to bed, whether
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  Speaker 3: it was reality or not reality. We're intentionally hacking into
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  Speaker 3: that as athletes. Now, if we can address that with
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  Speaker 3: first responders or anybody quality control coach. Sure, and as
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  Speaker 3: we fail, we learn how to fail and fell forward.
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  Speaker 3: You get a lot better routine and rituals in one
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  Speaker 3: hundred and sixty two games in one hundred and eighty
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  Speaker 3: days where you have to rest and recover, you have
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  Speaker 3: to be able to recover from the next day. So
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  Speaker 3: those principles and foundation what we're doing. It tables the
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  Speaker 3: conversation us as athletes. We're doing this mental health stuff
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  Speaker 3: and our regular day activities. We're just really good one
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  Speaker 3: percent performing humans with this meat lock or body, we
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  Speaker 3: know how to make it perform. Sometimes I was able
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  Speaker 3: to make this move. And the unhealthy part is that
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  Speaker 3: the first responders do is we're protectors. We're not supposed
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  Speaker 3: to hurt or feel We're supposed to perform. So a
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  Speaker 3: lot of that post game not recognizing that and not
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  Speaker 3: doing that correct way is some of our yips or
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  Speaker 3: the things and the stuff that happens in the game
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  Speaker 3: that'll downregulate. And we're starting to understand.
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  Speaker 2: That at what point in your baseball career did you
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  Speaker 2: become aware of these tools and the things that can
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  Speaker 2: help you, Because that's a lot of what the Huntsman
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  Speaker 2: Mental Health Foundation is doing is you're equipping people with tools. Right,
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  Speaker 2: all of us have negative thought patterns, all of us
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  Speaker 2: have you know, good days, bad days, up days, down days.
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  Speaker 1: Obviously for some people it's more profound.
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  Speaker 2: For people with mental health issues, it can be a
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  Speaker 2: lot more significant and a lot more serious.
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  Speaker 1: But having the tools to know how.
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  Speaker 2: To interrupt those patterns, how to just pull yourself out,
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  Speaker 2: or to talk to someone who can help you pull
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  Speaker 2: it out. At what point in your career or your
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  Speaker 2: life did you become aware of those tools?
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  Speaker 1: I was, I was. It was weird.
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  Speaker 3: I was very fortunate, and like you had an uncle,
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  Speaker 3: David Burke, who was went late in high school, went
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  Speaker 3: to Nebraska, who was Irving Friar and all that when
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  Speaker 3: they're they're an orange bowl and all that.
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  Speaker 1: So he was he was. I thought he walked on water.
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  Speaker 1: At Nebraska.
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  Speaker 3: They made him take this class called psycho cybernetics. So
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  Speaker 3: how do you train your to be able to do
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  Speaker 3: patterns and move your body part?
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  Speaker 1: And how you train?
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  Speaker 3: Okay, I was also at they made them take ballet.
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  Speaker 3: So my mom asked my uncle, well what should I do?
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  Speaker 3: She put me in gymnastics. Wow, so learning how to
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  Speaker 3: rehearse and play that routine in my head, that became
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  Speaker 3: very natural to me. So I learned to kind of
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  Speaker 3: do that right. And then so in that when I
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  Speaker 3: started doing that and learned how to rehearse, it was
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  Speaker 3: like this skill set. I think that's what made me
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  Speaker 3: good at sports. But then when I was able to
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  Speaker 3: apply that because I started, I was good until I
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  Speaker 3: wasn't right, and then you get into Pro Bowl, everybody's good. Yeah, right,
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  Speaker 3: So then that mental thing becomes really relevant. It's like,
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  Speaker 3: all right, Alex Gordon and they're acting different. They don't waiver,
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  Speaker 3: and the whole world was looking for him to be
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  Speaker 3: the next George Brett. He didn't waiver, he didn't panic,
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  Speaker 3: He stayed steady, right, And I could see how his
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  Speaker 3: mental stayed steady, stayed confident, didn't go too high or
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  Speaker 3: too low. There's a skill set.
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  Speaker 1: Why is he like that?
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  Speaker 3: He has a routine in rituals of what he's feeding himself.
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  Speaker 3: And I started seeing this, started having conversations with guys
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  Speaker 3: like zach Or or Alex or Jeter. I have a
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  Speaker 3: picture in my room of Jeter talking about how where
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  Speaker 3: how he tricks his mind to be back in Battle Creek, Michigan,
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  Speaker 3: hitting the ball to right field as he blows a
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  Speaker 3: bubble because the neighbors are jerking left field and won't
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  Speaker 3: give him the ball back. So that helps him reduce
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  Speaker 3: thoughts and his most pressured moments. He told me this,
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  Speaker 3: have this picture. Go look at all his big home runs,
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  Speaker 3: all his big hits. He's blowing a bubble. Wow, he's
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  Speaker 3: doing one of those tools, the best in the game,
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  Speaker 3: a tool. Because he's feeling this, I asked him, And
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  Speaker 3: why I have the picture? I want to said, Derek,
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  Speaker 3: why did you say I felt really nervous. We had
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  Speaker 3: this at bat and it was in the paper. Here
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  Speaker 3: I single handedly beat the Yankees whatever in the ninth
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  Speaker 3: inning he had a chance to beat us, got second
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  Speaker 3: and third or whatever. Looks down at me. Two things happened,
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  Speaker 3: looked at me and winked and says John, and we
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  Speaker 3: haven't fun yet. Derek knew my first name, that was
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  Speaker 3: dope second right. I was like, he's not nervous. He's
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  Speaker 3: winking at me, blowing me bubbles, asking if we had fun.
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  Speaker 3: I went and asked him, why did you do that?
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  Speaker 3: He told me, I'm blowing the bubble? What I told
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  Speaker 3: you putting myself back in Battle Creek because you had
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  Speaker 3: me because I was squatting looking up at him, thinking
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  Speaker 3: I think now's the time to go in. I'm gonna
• 11:10
  Speaker 3: go hard in and come. And then he told me
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  Speaker 3: he was thinking, I think I'm gonna try going in.
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  Speaker 3: I had him thinking I bought him off of his approach.
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  Speaker 3: I was making him think of thoughts off of his approach.
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  Speaker 2: So then his response to that was to pull himself
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  Speaker 2: back into that routine.
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  Speaker 1: He pulled out that.
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  Speaker 3: He pulled out a mental skills tool to reduce his
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  Speaker 3: thoughts for what he wants now what he does want.
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  Speaker 3: I was getting him, pulling him towards avoiding what he
• 11:35
  Speaker 3: doesn't want.
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  Speaker 1: See the brain trick. That's awesome.
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  Speaker 3: He was fixing himself into a spot where he is
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  Speaker 3: in the zone where he's only thinking about what he wants,
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  Speaker 3: and he needs to go back to Battle Creek blowing
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  Speaker 3: a buffle for his trick.
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  Speaker 2: I love that story because it points out that a
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  Speaker 2: lot of this is just having a tool, having a skill.
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  Speaker 2: The Mental Health Foundation, part of the work that they
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  Speaker 2: do is to provide people with those tools, with those
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: skills to help overcome mental health challenges, mental health crises,
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: all of these things. If you want to help, get
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: on board with the Huntsman Mental Health Foundation in today's
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: radiothon nineteen dollars a month. You could become a champion
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: of Hope donations. The website has them. Your brain is
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: beautiful dot org. You can text Hope to three three
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: nine eighty six. We have a QR code you can
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: scan on our YouTube stream right now. It's going all
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  Speaker 2: day long, so donate if you can.