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It’s not that the Australian Wallabies do not have a sport psychologist on board; it’s the bewilderment and uncertainty that is generated by the array of mind-munchers that step in to fill the gap.
The vulnerability chasm is opened up by the tortuous thinking, words and actions that come from the galaxy of managers and assistants who seem to have little else to do but sprout popular psychology about everything from motivation and the necessary attitudes, to player’s personalities, to crisis management.
Bestowing fancy job titles (e.g. “General Manager High Performance”, or suchlike), and paying hefty salaries, all too often, produces ‘experts’ in areas about which they really know nothing about. Indeed, management school, finance or marketing backgrounds, for example, would seem to imply a working knowledge in applied psychology.
How often do we hear that “the pressure is on them (not “us”!)”, “what the jersey means”. “how to ‘brave’ the haka”, “what history does or does not show”, “partially managed risk”, “a missed kick (4 minutes into the game against Ireland) was “the turning point”, “you gotta revert to your skills”, “they’ll be better for the experience”, “you (need to) look at performance over time” or, “just make the right decisions at the right time”, “We need a special mentality”, “Young players don’t worry about things such as hoodoos”, “Having points scored against you often settles the nerves”, etc.
When you add the media’s shortage of good stories, the banal (meaningless and often misleading) views articulated, are often more ludicrous than those recurring comical Monty Python scripts. We are regularly being enlightened by scripted clichés such as “That’s not (or is) the start they’re looking for”, or, “They saw him coming”, or, “He can’t find a way through”, or, “that’s try-time awareness”, and so on.
If the truth is indeed tell-able, hire a sport psychologist.
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.