How do you psychologically prepare for a major tournament?
Ahead of the Euro 2024 kick off, a look at how psychologists have helped top teams from a range of sports perform on the biggest stage
Sarvatra Vijay
Misia Gervis, the first psychologist appointed by any of England’s national football teams, explains how an Indian Army motto informed her work with the country’s women’s squad, ahead of the 2009 European Championship final against Germany.
“The workshop that I did with the players before the Germany game was about bravery and it was about bravery because I knew these women's lives.
“It was under this mantra of ‘victory everywhere’: can we, on the pitch, have small wins and be brave?
“But the other thing about it was that because I knew everybody's stories, I knew that every single one of those women had had to have been brave in a much bigger, scarier way than playing a game of football.
“In a sense, I was trying to get them to harness that…what I wanted to do was get the women to draw on their inner journey, because I'd known their personal struggles, I knew it was difficult, and I just wanted to say, ‘Look who you are, just as amazing women.’”
Maintaining consistency in front of 90,000 fans
Kate Hays, Head of Women’s Psychology at England’s Football Association, reflects on the mental preparation key to the Lionesses historic Euro 2022 campaign - and keeping cool heads in front of a sold-out Wembley stadium.
“I think that in any team sport and any environment, what you're trying to do is create an environment which gives people the best opportunity for success.
“I think that comes from having real clarity over what you're trying to do and what your processes are to achieving that, and then maintaining that across the duration of a competition.
“So what I would say is that within our environment, behaviours were consistent regardless of proximity to the game. There was real clarity over what was expected of each other.
“When you've got real clarity on how you're going to play and what your role is within that, it simplifies things, so instead of being caught up in the winning and losing, you're caught up in what it is that you need to do and what your role is within that.
“Ultimately in high-performance sport, everybody wants to win: that's the dream. But you don't win by wanting to win. You win by having really good strategies for success and having real clarity around what you need to do and how you go about your business.
“It sounds boring, but it's about maintaining consistency in our approach. Playing in a sold-out Wembley in front of close to 90,000 people in a Euro's final is really, really exciting, but there actually wasn't any difference (in our approach).
“That consistency is what's important and that's no different from Olympic sport and from some of the other sports that I've worked in.
“It's about having a real understanding of what is needed, what the strategy is, how you go about your business, how you prepare, how you plan, how you review, how you debrief, how you set up, how you manage your time, what your schedule looks like, and keeping those things consistent through the duration of a tournament so that behaviours don't start to change with proximity to game, so emotions don't start to become uncontrollable and that people are able to self-regulate within an environment that's structured and safe.”
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Scenario planning and individual accountability
Rebecca Levett, Great Britain women’s hockey team psychologist, runs through steps she and the coaching team will take to ensure the squad is prepared for the Paris Olympics.
“We work a lot on our shuffles (penalty process) for any major tournament, whether it's a World Cup or Olympics, as well as on the pitch and off the pitch scenario planning.
“You want to make sure you've gone through the eventualities that could happen and plan how to deal with it.
“‘What happens if we concede early? What happens if we're winning with five minutes to go and it's tight?’…and then also some of the ones off the pitch that you might want to, kind of, preempt as well.
“You can't accommodate for everything that might possibly happen, but the idea is that we step into that space and go, ‘You know what, if this does happen, we've got a bit of a plan, so if we're at a major event and something happens, we're not completely thrown off course.’
“One of our other focus areas is receiving feedback and individual accountability. I think people talk a lot about giving feedback, but we wanted to focus more on how we receive feedback because that's the bit you're ultimately in control of as an individual.
“As part of that, we’re trying to help people take more individual accountability for what they're doing on the pitch and recognise that they’re a group that gets on really well and are really nice to each other, but equally in a performance environment, you need to have some robust conversations.
“If things aren't quite right, or someone's not doing what they need to be doing, you need to have the ability tohave those kinds of conversations and be able to give feedback and someone take feedback in the way it's intended, in terms of this is to help you improve, this is to help you get better.”
Managing key messages and the media spotlight
Jon Marzetti, England’s ‘Test’ cricket team lead psychologist, explains how he worked with the squad’s backroom staff to convey key messages and manage media scrutiny ahead of the 2023 Ashes series.
“With the head coach, captain and those that are in positions of leadership, we try to work with them on key messages that they want to translate to the broader team and the best ways of communicating those.
“We also try to provide spaces for them to think about some of the responses that we're seeing within the group and some of the dynamics that that might be playing out.
“The challenge with The Ashes is to keep a lot of what's happened in the last 12 months the same, because there’s the potential for it to feel different.
“So, the level of media scrutiny or general attention during an Ashes series might feel different to some of the other Test matches in the last 12 months, but the challenge from a psychology point of view is to remain consistent and retain clarity in the processes.”
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