England hires a mental coach!?

[chrisd]

recently england rugby has announced the arrival of a mentor for the mental side of the game.

Brian ashton believes that this type of coaching can be an asset, to the overall build up to the world cup in france.

So what does everybody else think? - is there time for such a coach to make an impact?

Is this an admission that mentally the english team need toughening up?

or is it that England need a different approach after the tour of SA?

 

[Hazey]

I think you'll find that most proffessional teams, which ever sport they play, have some kind of coach or psychiatrist, whether it be in team training sessions or on an individual basis. I think this has only made a small piece of news because it has now become an official position with the ECB set-up.

 

[QKXV]

I think you'll find that most proffessional teams, which ever sport they play, have some kind of coach or psychiatrist, whether it be in team training sessions or on an individual basis. I think this has only made a small piece of news because it has now become an official position with the ECB set-up. [/b]

Welcome to the forum chris

That's right Hazey, most squads employ a sports psychologist , a couple of years ago there was a lot of talk about SA's visual coach for instance. These guys use several techniques to get the best performance out of athletes when it's most need, one of the most famous examples of this is anchors.

Wilko uses standard visualisation techniques when he goes for goal and uses his "preying hand thing" to fire an "anchor". Many sportstars (and normal people alike) use "anchors" without even being aware of it - like tennis players, holding the ball in a specific way before serving, twirling their racket in a specific way after playing a good shot etc. Some even use smells, the smell anchor is often the strongest, personally if I smell chicken mayo toasts I am mentally transported back in time to the pub my dad owned when I was a kid.

It works on the principle that nuerons which fire together wire together. Basically it's a pavlovian response, ( where the guy rings the bell and the dogs salivate because they associate the bell with food) that effectively puts the person in a different frame of mind or change their body state, like Wilko's anchor might take him mentally away from the noise of the crowd and so on.

Having some experience in the field, I'm a bit surpised they only appoint one now but believe that over the available time such a coach/psycholigist can make a huge impact to the team and their mentality, that's not to say they're now favourites for the cup, they need all the help they can get at the moment.

 

[Juggernaut]

Good post QKXV. :cheers:

 

[diom]

I used to bounce the ball in a certain sequence before taking free kicks/throws in soccor/basketball.

Anyways I know a kicker who has a cloth soaked in girls perfume with him in every game. When he scores a penalty he smells it, but doesn't if he misses. He says that after a while he'll smell it before the kick and he hopes that this will get him to kick it the same as when he scores!

I dunno if that will work but I suppose that the same idea, of a Pavlovian response.

 

[O'Rothlain]

<div class='quotemain'> I think you'll find that most proffessional teams, which ever sport they play, have some kind of coach or psychiatrist, whether it be in team training sessions or on an individual basis. I think this has only made a small piece of news because it has now become an official position with the ECB set-up. [/b]

Welcome to the forum chris

That's right Hazey, most squads employ a sports psychologist , a couple of years ago there was a lot of talk about SA's visual coach for instance. These guys use several techniques to get the best performance out of athletes when it's most need, one of the most famous examples of this is anchors.

Wilko uses standard visualisation techniques when he goes for goal and uses his "preying hand thing" to fire an "anchor". Many sportstars (and normal people alike) use "anchors" without even being aware of it - like tennis players, holding the ball in a specific way before serving, twirling their racket in a specific way after playing a good shot etc. Some even use smells, the smell anchor is often the strongest, personally if I smell chicken mayo toasts I am mentally transported back in time to the pub my dad owned when I was a kid.

It works on the principle that nuerons which fire together wire together. Basically it's a pavlovian response, ( where the guy rings the bell and the dogs salivate because they associate the bell with food) that effectively puts the person in a different frame of mind or change their body state, like Wilko's anchor might take him mentally away from the noise of the crowd and so on.

Having some experience in the field, I'm a bit surpised they only appoint one now but believe that over the available time such a coach/psycholigist can make a huge impact to the team and their mentality, that's not to say they're now favourites for the cup, they need all the help they can get at the moment.
[/b][/quote]
<div align="center">Works everytime, no fail. Now that's Psychology!

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