“It’s a lot like caffeine. People have coffee in the morning for a jolt, then drink it in the evening to wind down. Nicotine also can do both,” Etscorn says. “Users can control the arousal effect of the drug.” Suppiah relates it to golf: “Some of my players who use nicotine regularly put in a pouch when they get agitated because they’re dragging or feeling slow. It’ll give them a physical boost, but more importantly, they feel the agitation going away. They’ve developed a conditioned response: pouch equals feeling good.” It’s Not One Size Fits All TOM HOUSE IS A RENOWNED PITCHING coach who has worked with hundreds of Major League Baseball players from Nolan Ryan to Randy Johnson and NFL quarterbacks including Tom Brady and Drew Brees. For five decades, House has seen baseball players use tobacco in calculated ways. “Elite athletes are geniuses at self-modulating, using tools they have to enhance or support whatever they’re being asked to do, whether that’s going to the plate or sitting in the bullpen,” House says. “Tobacco is a tool, and they wouldn’t do it if it wasn’t worth it. “Relief pitchers spend the whole game fighting boredom, and then the call comes. Many of them have figured out how to satisfy a need state – stimulation or relaxation – in part by chewing tobacco. When they get the call to come in, some spit it out, some put more in. They know what works for them in that moment.” Suppiah agrees that any potential benefits from nicotine are highly individual – and learned. “If a player is a type-A who competes better when fired up, nicotine can help him maintain arousal,” he says. “Some players are better when they’re very calm, so the stimulation would work against them. It’s personality-based.” “You see nicotine more in sports that are longer in duration, like golf and baseball,” says one prominent swing coach who works with several tour players. “Golf is four or five hours, then you add in warm-ups and practice after a round. It’s a long day. It helps some guys manage things, but it doesn’t help everybody who does it.” Tim Herron takes an even broader view. “We’re looking for a routine when we’re on the road because everything is so inconsistent – flights, hotels, car rental,” he says. “We’re always looking for something that keeps us even-keeled, and this kind of chills it out.” Dosing – both the timing of doses and the strength – is also a big part of the equation. Again, caffeine provides a good comparison. “One espresso makes you feel energetic, but two or three might make you feel terrible. Nicotine is just like that,” Suppiah says. “The right amount for a person who tolerates it well will be a plus, but there’s a tipping point.” As Ryder told us, “If I put in (a pouch) on the wrong day, like when I’m feeling anxious or didn’t get a good night’s sleep, I’ll get jittery, or my mind will start racing. I just ditch it because I know it’s going to make things worse.”
While less is understood about the risks of nicotine alone, experts say it is a powerful substance and far from harmless. Neal Benowitz, former head of clinical pharmacology at University of California San Francisco, has been studying the drug’s effects for more than 40 years. “Nicotine augments the release of chemicals in the brain called neurotransmitters,” he says. “Chemicals like dopamine, which causes feelings of pleasure; adrenaline, for physical stimulation; and serotonin and endorphins, which bring on relaxation.” With pouches, peak nicotine concentration in the body occurs in about 30 minutes. A second dose at 60 to 90 minutes after initiation prevents the nicotine level from dropping to the point of little effect. “People learn to modulate the ups and downs,” Benowitz says. “Smokers manage their mood by choosing when to have a cigarette. When they’re stressed, they smoke to feel less stress; when they feel lethargic, they get an energy boost. All nicotine works like that.” Transdermal and oral forms deliver the chemical into the bloodstream very quickly, so the effects are instantaneous. “If someone wants a quick nicotine bump, a pouch is an effective way to get it,” Etscorn says. Rees makes the connection to sports. “Nicotine can help you focus your mind on a task and tune out extraneous noise, so you settle into a better state of performance. It can help with what athletes call ‘getting in the zone.’” The sneaky benefits “I DON’T KNOW IF IT HELPED ME FOCUS,” says Marco Dawson, a PGA Tour Champions player who switched from “dipping” to a no-tobacco pouch that doesn’t even contain nicotine. “A dip made me feel calm. It was something to do, a way to change the circumstances around me.” With its power to stimulate, nicotine would seem to be useful only for accelerating the user’s mind and body, but that’s not always the case. Some tour players we interviewed mentioned feeling a sense of comfort or relaxation. This apparent contradiction can be explained by looking at consumption patterns. “You have strategic users and dependent users,” says Ara Suppiah, an ER physician and performance coach who advises athletes including Brooks Koepka, Xander Schauffele and Phil Mickelson. “The strategic user turns to nicotine for a pick-me-up, and the dependent user relies on it to just feel normal. “The strategic guy is feeling more of the stimulant effect of the drug, and the dependent guy is getting comfort from the familiarity and the routine.” This is what’s called a conditioned response, where a certain response is linked to a certain behaviour. Pavlov’s dogs learned to associate feeding with the sound of a bell and eventually would salivate just on hearing the bell. If someone is comforted by the routine of tobacco or nicotine, the process of putting in a pouch, even the sight or smell of one, might be enough to relax him or her. In effect, the anticipation of feeling good outweighs the physical stimulation.
GOLF DIGEST SOUTH AFRICA 95
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2025
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