IT’S NOT A landmark that received any fanfare, but it’s been over 30 years now since a team in Gaelic Games were prepared to acknowledge that they had recruited a sports psychologist to help them realise their potential.
In 1993, Derry’s breakthrough All-Ireland triumph was being shared around the houses. The players were standing on the shoulders of giants, architects of a certain footballing culture that carried through the Jim McKeevers, the Adrian McGuckins and right through to the Tony Scullions and Henry Downeys.
Within the squad however, the late manager Eamonn Coleman had taken a bold move in bringing in a Professor from Queen’s University.
Craig Mahoney – now Chancellor of the University of West of Scotland – had already worked with the Irish Olympic Sailing team and applied his work to members of the Derry side.
Naturally enough, some players were sceptical. Others embraced it. Whatever about the impact, Derry won their sole All-Ireland title in 1993.
A few years later, Wexford hurling manager Liam Griffin put a question, then a vote, to his senior squad: would they agree with a sports psychologist coming on board?
They voted yes, unanimously. Psychologist Niamh Fitzpatrick came on board. Wexford were All-Ireland hurling champions in 1996.
From that point to now, there has been an arms race to bring in individuals who can help a team reach their potential.
A lot of the time, the aspirations have been unrealistic, or there has been a lack of understanding of what any of it can bring. Some names become fashionable for a time, while others are mocked and derided for the failings of the players on the pitch.
Take a figure such as Caroline Currid. She might be the best-known practitioner in the field because of the success of Tyrone football in 2008, Tipperary hurling in 2010, and the latter-day domination of Limerick hurling.
The industry, however, has a Gold Rush feel to it. Some of those working with teams have irrelevant and, in some cases, no qualifications whatsoever.
In particular, there have been many examples of former players being labelled or presented as ‘performance coach’ with a team. What do they coach? How do they measure performance?
It’s an area that has received very little scrutiny, right up to this point. Two studies, led by researchers in the School for Sport and Exercise Science at the University of Lincoln have been collaborating with colleagues in Ireland to formalise ideas and guidelines for best policy and practice in Gaelic Games.
The research is led by former Waterford camogie player Dr Patricia Jackman and her colleague in Lincoln, Dr Matthew Bird. They were assisted by renowned Sports Psychologist Dr Ciarán Kearney of St Mary’s University Belfast and Dr Aoife Lane of TUS Limerick.
It has produced two articles. The first was published in the International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology and was a review on the literature around psychology in Gaelic Games, drawing from 42 studies and 4963 participants.
The vast majority of those were players, but referees, coaches, parents, some sports science personnel and a few administrators were involved.
The second article, published in The Sports Psychologist, produced findings from two studies. The first profiled the field of practicioners offering support for mental aspects of Gaelic Games; the second was a deeper look, interviewing sports psychologists about their experience in delivering service in Gaelic Games.
All of this feeds into the work already being done since last May and the establishment of a Gaelic Games Sports Science Framework, which Dr Kearney heads up.
The exercise has been extremely useful, according to Dr Jackman, for putting some structure on the body of people working in Sports Psychology.
“There was no evidence base there to know what is going on,” she explains, “No pathway for people coming through universities.
“It was about people in this very unique sporting culture and how to work with them.
You don’t have the chance to sit down for a few hours in the day when they have rest or recovery. They are coming in, getting to training an hour before, get the dinner and then off.”
In an amateur setting, this naturally posed a number of questions.
“How do you work as a practitioner in that context? How do you work with coaches? How do coaches work best with you? So much of the environment around the team is built by the coach. So the coach needs buy-in,” Jackman says.
The second paper, containing in-depth interviews with people working in team environments, revealed some alarming figures.
69% of participants said they were unsatisfied or very unsatisfied with regulations of sports psychology, while 82% had to refer clients who were presenting with mental ill-health.
What the research showed beyond raw figures, Dr Jackman says, is “a lack of clarity about the role, the boundaries and what that might entail. The competencies that people have as well.
“When you are regulated, there are ethical and legal obligations you have to conform to. So there is real clarity there as to the people who you are, what you do and why you do it.
“And the welfare of the people involved. That they have the training, the education and that they are not going to do any harm, which is integral in that.”
How do we relate this back to the general public however, who have little understanding of what sports Ppychology is?
An example.
Everyone familiar with Gaelic Games can relate to a story when a manager sets the tone and establishes a ‘siege’ mentality.
Even those that have no obvious cause, can still get inventive. But for most managers, the ‘youse writ us off’ line is still the low-hanging fruit they cannot resist.
Dr Bird comes from a golf background, having played for Eastern Illinois University and has worked in various team and individual sports as well as his role with the University and has definite views on such an approach.
“It probably goes against one of our major principles, which is to do no harm,” he says.
“Where it sounds like that could cause some serious psychological harm in the long and short term.
“It goes back to the person you are working with; are we doing our best to give them our best services, and are we doing no harm to them?
“The other danger in deregulation is it’s a danger to the field itself.
“We are both in sports psychology roles. Day-to-day we are teaching, we are researching, we are practising and thinking a lot about it. So we are pretty passionate about the field, and if the field doesn’t do a better job of that, then there might not be a field there or a space for it.
“People will have a false impression of what sports psychology is. They will feel there is no need for them because they are not adding much. It has a knock-on effect to the field.
“Having that understanding of that evidence base, taking those theories of what we might have learned about during my training and applying it in different sports is perhaps the art of psychology. That’s what separates us from the likes of a motivational speaker or something who is going to stand on the table or else bang it.”
Another example. Coming from a different angle.
In 2000, Kildare were in their Mick O’Dwyer era. They were five points up against Offaly heading into the final quarter of a Leinster semi-final.
Offaly duly began to reel them in to the noisy delight of their crowd. While goalkeeper Padraig Kelly missed a long-range free at the very end to win it, ‘Dwyer mistakenly thought Kildare had lost and had to be informed before he joined the players in the dressing room after.
When he walked in, the players’ heads were in their kitbags. Confidence had never been lower.
The story was told by the late team statistician Gerry McDermott that ‘Dwyer sized up the situation instantly and bounced on his heels into a dejected dressing room, proclaiming that, “Jesus lads, we get to play that all over again next week! In Croke Park! Another great game of football, how could ye not be excited?”
Was that psychology?
“The way I would put it is,” explains Jackman, “the coach doesn’t need to be a psychologist. That isn’t their role. But they can be psychologically informed in what they do and embed psychological principles in the design of their sessions and the actions they take.
“Just like having a technical and tactical appreciation, a psychological principle is being able to make a more cohesive team. As a coach, the drills and activities you do are opportunities to do that. By maybe having a sports psychological practitioner or getting education around this yourself, you can create an environment to help support or shape that.”
In team preparation, it’s not the final piece of the jigsaw, but it is another piece that is embraced by managers and coaches to varying degrees.
From deep scepticism to acceptance, the field is only partly through its journey.
