Sports Phycologists

[Joesh]

I think a lot of issues regarding success or failure in life in general are purely physcological and football is no different. I wonder what effect really focusing on this side of the team would have. I know teams have these but I mean going further and assigning a whole department towards this as you have for medical injuries.

For example the Ade situation, most feel that eventually he'll go back to his old ways and end up in the same situation as with AVB. Take Lamela, a young player clearly struggling, who lets not forget cost 30m. I dont know what goes on behind the scenes but it seems to me that more could be done to help these guys to get the best out of them and our investment. We cant afford to just write off these like with Bentley.

Even in terms of the group, having a trained motivator to get the team focused and get really behind achieving our goals could really make the difference in terms of performances. You can clearly see in some games that one team "wants it more" and that often decides the game regardless of tactics. Perhaps, it would cross into the managers territory but like having a director of football maybe it would ease the workload or even compensate for managers who are poor communicators.

 

[Gutter Boy]

I actually work with some of the best in the world (involved with British Cycling, world cup final referees etc), and it's an incredibly powerful art that I wish I understood more of.

Just from my own playing I've woken up some mornings and known I was going to have a crap game because my focus wasn't sharp, yet been absolutely powerless to do anything about it.

 

[spurs' magna carter]

To learn how to be a winner you must lose.

I think Sports Psychology could have its positives but what I would fear is a reliance on it after all it's up to you, IMHO the best way to improve or recover is to learn from your own mistakes and harsh lessons on and off the field. I'm sure someone pumping in some positivity into you or taking your mind off things as well as assist in self observation could see improvement or recovery but people as a whole, let alone Athletes, need to be reflective, responsible and mature to deal with things not run to someone every time something goes wrong.

Also, it won't work for everyone. Different people have different ways of reacting to and dealing with mistakes/harsh lessons/confidence issues.

 

[Joesh]

I actually work with some of the best in the world (involved with British Cycling, world cup final referees etc), and it's an incredibly powerful art that I wish I understood more of.

Just from my own playing I've woken up some mornings and known I was going to have a crap game because my focus wasn't sharp, yet been absolutely powerless to do anything about it.

Same for me, I know people will say they are getting x amount per week and should always be motivated but they are also human. Like I say, we dont know what the clubs do behind the scenes but especially with Lamela,for me I'd stick a whole team on him to get his head right and intensively learning English as much as treating his injuries. From the outside, it looks like seems to be lets get him fit and see how it goes.

 

[Joesh]

To learn how to be a winner you must lose.

I think Sports Psychology could have its positives but what I would fear is a reliance on it after all it's up to you, IMHO the best way to improve or recover is to learn from your own mistakes and harsh lessons on and off the field. I'm sure someone pumping in some positivity into you or taking your mind off things as well as assist in self observation could see improvement or recovery but people as a whole, let alone Athletes, need to be reflective, responsible and mature to deal with things not run to someone every time something goes wrong.

Also, it won't work for everyone. Different people have different ways of reacting to and dealing with mistakes/harsh lessons/confidence issues.

I was watching a clip from RTE where Souness was a pundit and he argued that only the really top players look at themselves and that the majority just blame everyone/everything else bar themselves. Not the best source maybe but he has managed a lot of players in his time. Maybe its naive but what if you could turn one of these majority players that you have in your team in to a really top player by changing their mentality. It just seems to make sense to me.

 

[thfcsteff]

I actually work with some of the best in the world (involved with British Cycling, world cup final referees etc), and it's an incredibly powerful art that I wish I understood more of.

Just from my own playing I've woken up some mornings and known I was going to have a crap game because my focus wasn't sharp, yet been absolutely powerless to do anything about it.

It's huge, absolutely huge. I think it remains a wildly underrated part of the game.

 

[Modric THFC]

Who motivates the Psychologists?

But seriously didnt England have a team of them with them during the Ashes looking on as they fell apart game after game.

 

[Baleforce]

Who motivates the Psychologists?

But seriously didnt England have a team of them with them during the Ashes looking on as they fell apart game after game.

silk purse, sows ear etc etc

 

[Danishfurniturelover]

My own take on this is i believe it can give us an edge, my wife is a therapist working with addicts in the prison service so i have seen the good it can do, she does a lot of cbt therapy with the inmates.

I am now a believer in it more then ever after i managed to convince myself i had motor neuron disease after getting some twitches in my legs, after doing some google searches and finding what the other symptoms were i then started to get these symptoms. It just goes to show how strong the mind is when it can influence your body to such a degree.

Honestly believe our minds are the strongest tool we have available to us. The amount of times the top sides win even when playing badly or score in the last minute shows it can work. As someone who is a huge pro cycling fan it has done wonders for the British Cycling group.

We should be all over this and i do not think it has to come from the current head coach whoever he might be, Levy should be telling the players they all have to have sessions with a Phycologist. When you consider the small cost of this compared to how much we spend on the players transfer fees and wages it is odd that this is not already happening

 

[VermontSpur]

My own take on this is i believe it can give us an edge, my wife is a therapist working with addicts in the prison service so i have seen the good it can do, she does a lot of cbt therapy with the inmates.

I am now a believer in it more then ever after i managed to convince myself i had motor neuron disease after getting some twitches in my legs, after doing some google searches and finding what the other symptoms were i then started to get these symptoms. It just goes to show how strong the mind is when it can influence your body to such a degree.

Honestly believe our minds are the strongest tool we have available to us. The amount of times the top sides win even when playing badly or score in the last minute shows it can work. As someone who is a huge pro cycling fan it has done wonders for the British Cycling group.

We should be all over this and i do not think it has to come from the current head coach whoever he might be, Levy should be telling the players they all have to have sessions with a Phycologist. When you consider the small cost of this compared to how much we spend on the players transfer fees and wages it is odd that this is not already happening

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is absolutely great in treating many different kinds of psychological disorders. I worked as a residential treatment counselor for three years with physically and sexually abused 6 to 13-year olds, and many were able to make significant progress towards stabilizing their behaviors through the use of Trauma-Focused CBT. The idea is so simple: that there is a triad of Thoughts-Feelings-Actions, and that a glitch in one of the three (either faulty cognitions, irrational feelings, or inappropriate responses) can throw someone very out of whack. By focusing on finding the "glitch," which is generally a faulty cognition, the responses to thoughts can be normalized and better regulated.

In the area of sports, if an athlete can defeat a faulty cognition (such as, "I play for Spurs, so I'm clearly going to miss this penalty."), they can expect better outcomes. Changing the thought to, "I may play for Spurs, but I'm German and we win shootouts so I will make this penalty!" is the goal. (Now, if you are a German who played for Bayern in a recent CL final, you may not be able to change your faulty cognition because it is backed up by too much negative experience, but I digress...) Regardless of the situation, I absolutely agree that taking ownership of one's thoughts and being able to defeat damaging cognitions getting in the way of peak performance can only help!

 

[mudshark]

Knowing Spurs, it wouldn't surprise me if they actually recruited a phycologist [sic]. Six months later, Levy would be wondering why the performances were no better, but there was a comprehensive report on his desk about the slime on the bottom of the pool at the training ground.

 

[Seedy Ron]

:lol: I had to Google it, Mudshark.

 

[Craig_J]

:lol: I had to Google it, Mudshark.

So did I otherwise I'd of had no idea. :lol:

 

[Joesh]

Knowing Spurs, it wouldn't surprise me if they actually recruited a phycologist [sic]. Six months later, Levy would be wondering why the performances were no better, but there was a comprehensive report on his desk about the slime on the bottom of the pool at the training ground.

I only saw it just after I posted and couldnt edit the title

When something hasnt been tried fully, how do you know it will not work. Even on an individual level, if we had Ade performing like this last year, what could we have achieved. There is so much money at stake and often such thin line between success and failure that you can't ignore the possiblity of something like this working just because it has not been done yet.

 

[Joesh]

So did I otherwise I'd of had no idea. :lol:

In fairness, google did not exist a lot of us would be in serious trouble.

 

[Roland Beurre]

Knowing Spurs, it wouldn't surprise me if they actually recruited a phycologist [sic]. Six months later, Levy would be wondering why the performances were no better, but there was a comprehensive report on his desk about the slime on the bottom of the pool at the training ground.

LOL.

Trick cyclists? Whatever next? Faith healers?

 

[Roland Beurre]

In fairness, google did not exist a lot of us would be in serious trouble.

But the tax man might be happier!

Try www.duckduckgo.com or www.blekko.com.

 

[braineclipse]

To learn how to be a winner you must lose.

I think Sports Psychology could have its positives but what I would fear is a reliance on it after all it's up to you, IMHO the best way to improve or recover is to learn from your own mistakes and harsh lessons on and off the field. I'm sure someone pumping in some positivity into you or taking your mind off things as well as assist in self observation could see improvement or recovery but people as a whole, let alone Athletes, need to be reflective, responsible and mature to deal with things not run to someone every time something goes wrong.

Also, it won't work for everyone. Different people have different ways of reacting to and dealing with mistakes/harsh lessons/confidence issues.

I disagree.

First off a good (sports) psychologist wouldn't be looking to be a constant crutch for the players to lean on, the focus would/should be on learning techniques and strategies to deal with the mental issues of the game better on your own.

Secondly, not everyone deals mistakes and harsh lessons in a positive way.

Finally it's pretty obvious that the same strategy won't work for everyone, if it's not broken don't fix it. I'm guessing most sports psychologists would agree and wouldn't try to make everyone fit into the same mold.

----------------------------------

I think a big reason why sports psychologists aren't more common in football in general and in English football more specifically is the traditional strong and powerful role held by most managers. Handing over a large portion of the mental work to "an outsider" would mean relinquishing some of the power that comes with being the head honcho on all things football within a club.

In many other sports, like cycling mentioned earlier in the thread, the focus seems to be to build a support team around the athletes.