Every business success book or self-help book that I have ever read talks about the advantage an individual or a company has when they have a positive mental attitude.

There is no doubt that, as we go through life, our chances of being all that we can be is much greater if we look at things in a positive light. This philosophy could not be more true than when it comes to sports.

Week in and week out, we watch college football teams who are more mentally prepared, beat teams that are obviously more physically talented. Teams that are smaller will beat teams that are physically larger. Teams that are slower will beat teams with speed.

It happens every week.

We like to call these events “upsets.” A team that was not suppose to win did so simply because they wanted it more and had a more positive mental attitude. They worked together. Individually they could not accomplish this task, but together, they found a way to do it.

Actually, I like to call it Positive Mental Synergy – or PMS for short.

No really. Teams that have PMS are more likely to beat teams that don’t. (Unless you are talking about girls softball) One of my favorite books is Success Is A Choice by Rick Pitino, a giant in the world of basketball.

As coach of the Kentucky Wildcats during the 90s, Pitino took a team that was coming off of NCAA probation, to four Final Four appearances. He won the championship in 1996. He returned to the finals in 1997.

He won 70 percent of his games while guiding the Wildcats, and he didn’t do it just because he had great players, but because he took good basketball players and taught them the art of PMS.

In Pitino’s book, he talks about things like thriving under pressure, making winning seem inevitable, and how to achieve things that don’t seem possible.

Wow, what a great philosophy. PMS!

Synergy is a word that describes a group of entities corporately

working together for a specific purpose to achieve a positive outcome.

How else can I explain it?

Ah, I know. You remember Mr. Spock on Star Trek? In the Star Trek movie “Star Trek, The Wrath of Khan” the Enterprise must be repaired so that it can reach Warp Speed and overcome the effects from the Genesis Torpedo that was detonated by Khan. If the ship is not repaired in time, everyone dies. So Mr. Spock sacrifices his own life to make the repairs, but is overcome with severe radiation. As he is dying, he makes this earth shattering statement to his friend, Captain Kirk – “The needs of the many must outweigh the needs of the few or the one.”

THAT, my friend, is positive mental synergy at it’s best. No better way to say it.

So, with this thought in mind, I want to warn you about the Gulf

Shores Dolphins.

Watching them practice earlier this week, what I saw was a team with PMS. Coaches working hard with their groups. Coaching hard. Insisting that the players give 100 percent effort during even the simplest of drills. No players standing around watching.

Everyone with a helmet and a jersey on is involved. Running. Throwing. Catching. Blocking. Tackling.

The attitude of this team oozes PMS. Parents along the fence have a glimmer in their eye. They have never witnessed a practice session quite like this in Gulf Shores before.

School administrators are impressed with the “control” that the coaches have with these student athletes. College scouts are keeping an eye on guys like Swiger, Arrington and Gottfried, just to name a few.

Why? Because these guys have PMS.

The coaches have it. The players have it. Soon it will be making its way throughout the entire town. I wouldn’t be surprised if very soon, they don’t put up a sign that says “Welcome to Gulf Shores where everybody has PMS!”

So to those teams headed to Paradise Island this fall to tangle with the Dolphins.

Beware! This is a team with a serious case of PMS. Things could get ugly.

-Hit ‘em straight.

Dale Jones is a staff writer for The Islander.