About 30 percent of the U.S. rowers participated, claiming afterward that it really helped, said Kabat-Zinn. After this verbal encouragement, he and Beall tried this fall to prove scientifically that meditation increases the synchronic and speed of a boat, with a controlled test on the sophomores of the team.

Although no firm results were drawn because of a series of uncontrollable variables including problems with the testing equipment--electrodes and transgenetics receiver--and difficulties with scheduling, Kabat-Zinn says he hoped to try the experiment again, possibly later this year.

In the mean time, the oarsmen have one weekly group meditation session during practice and are asked to spend 15 minutes a day of their own time meditating to a tape produced by Kabat-Zinn.

Both swimmers and oarsmen are enthusiastic about their new regimen. Rower Geoffrey S. Gage '87 cites the new meditation program as "one of the reasons I wanted to row this year."

Members of the tennis team are similarly convinced about the visualization techniques: "It's helped me tremendously," said Palandjian. Squash team members who have just begun the training this year, remain doubtful. "We've laughed at it a bit," said one player who asked to remain unidentified.

Squash co-captain, David A. Boyum '85 disagrees; "It can be really useful," he says, but qualifies that the success of the techniques are hard to prove. "You can't figure out what would have happened if you had prepared differently," he adds.

According to Coach Fish, when used correctly, the techniques can have a "ripple effect," on the players' whole life, "shifting the way you see things."

The subject of sports psychology has a growing number of athletic believers, according to Douglas H. Powell, psychologist at U.H.S., yet mans Harvard training programs make no use of what Fish terms, "one of the keys to athletic success."

The men's basketball team outshot the national college foulshooting record by four percent last year, but Coach Frank McLaughlin says, "we don't have enough time with Harvard's academic pressures," to experiment with meditation. His coaching theories however, stress many similar point review strategy carefully before the games, reduce negative thoughts, "relax and just play."

As far as meditation's usefulness on other teams, McLaughlin says. "I think that they were going to be successful anyway...it doesn't hurt but the athletes were already strong."

Wrestling coach John Lee expresses another common reason for the lack of interest in the techniques, "I guess we feel we're doing O.K. the way it's been going."

Says Columbia crew coach Ted Bonnano, "(They) are always a threat whether they use meditation techniques or not."