Performance Psychologist Interview

While the integration of sport psychology services within football has traditionally lagged behind a focus on tactical, technical, and physical aspects, in recent years we could observe an increasing recognition and acceptance. Indeed, a greater number of clubs started to employ sport psychologists at an academy and firstteam level. Also, a significant group of players seeks additional support outside of their club setting. Despite such an increased presence of sport psychology within football, however, it remains unclear what sport psychologists do and how they utilise their skills to support the players. While uniform content or standard of delivery is difficult to achieve, the objective of the present article is to outline to the readers some of the key aspects of sport psychology support. To achieve this I spoke with Adam Bracey who is a British Psychological Society (BPS) accredited sport psychologist. In the last ten years of his career, Adam worked at several clubs within the Premier League and Championship.

Coaches as the key source of support

A coach is often the first person that players look to for advice, guidance, and support when they are experiencing difficulty. Indeed, coaches are still considered a key source of support, who are often the “first line of defense” in dealing with psychological concerns. Also, due to their extensive experience, coaches are often well placed to provide unique insights into the psychological characteristics required for a player to succeed. Therefore, coaches often play a key role in supporting players to enhance their performance and well-being. However, while coaches should play an important role in enhancing players' psychological capabilities, Adam Bracey recognised some of the challenges and key differences between a coach and sport psychologists:

“There are coaches that are very good at building strong and positive relationships with players, but we need to remember about these different power dynamics that are within that. So, they are “the selector” and someone who is ultimately holding players careers in their hands. The coach holds so much responsibility for selecting the team and making sure that this team is winning football matches. Because of this power dynamics, the player might not be able to be completely open and be vulnerable about different aspects of their career.”

Therefore, while acknowledging the positive impact that coaches may have on players' psychological development, we also need to be aware of the power dynamics within the coach-player relationships. Also, due to the nature of the game and challenges within it, we cannot expect coaches to constantly assess situations through a psychological lens. As such, while striving to understand the role of sport psychologists in football, we can assume that they are best positioned to provide support for both players and coaches, helping them overcome the demands of the professional game. Also, accordingly to Adam “a sport psychologist is best placed to provide a safe and secure space for people to express their emotions and how they perceive certain situations.”

“When we look at football, there are a lot of emotions involved in the game. So again, coaches often might have that emotional attachment to the results and match situations, which are then affecting their communication and behaviours.”

How do different things impact you and your ability to perform at your best?

Considering the financial implications of promotion, relegation, and winning trophies, players are under increased pressure to sustain team performance to maximise club profitability and status. While staying in the team and winning football matches is one of the biggest challenges faced by players, there is a wide range of obstacles that players might face on their journey.

“As we all know in football, and in life in general, any journey is complex, it is not easy. So, you will be deselected; you will have games where you will not start and be on the bench; you are going to have injuries, you will have bereavements; you will have agents that will make it difficult; you are going to have difficult conversations around contracts and money and you will feel undervalued at times; you will feel like people favour other over you; you are going to fall out with other players and coaches. There are so many things that can happen and that occur in football. So, if we know that all of these challenges are around the corner, how can we prepare for them and make sure that they will not have a negative effect on performance?”

“So, how can you perform at your best if your contract is up in two months and you are playing for your livelihood? If you are in this situation and you are making a mistake it is very easy for your mind to go “aww no they are watching I cannot be making mistakes like that if I want to get a new contract, this is not looking great for me, I am not going to get a new contract at the back of that, I am going to lose all my money, what clubs are going to want me, I will need to go down the leagues.” If all of these thoughts come into your mind then how can you perform at your best and demonstrate your ability? How can you do your job specific to your position? How can you achieve your goals if your thought, attention, and decisions making are not focused on the task in 100%?”

Sport psychologists can bring security, trust, and openness.

While discussing some of the challenges that players might experience as well as the unique approach that a sport psychologist can provide, Adam suggested: “The sport psychologist should have only one motivation and that is to help people and there should not be any other alternative or any other driver for their personal gain. For me, this is something really valuable when you are trying to be open and honest in the relationship with a player.”

Such motivation for supporting people, therefore, highlights the caring and people-oriented characteristics of sport psychology. Therefore, the readers of the present article are encouraged to see sport psychology provision as a space to express their weaknesses, doubts, and fears. Also, while striving to improve their performances on the pitch, players should start by enhancing their professional self-understanding. This may include understanding their mentality as well as their position within their team or environment. Accordingly, to Adam one of the biggest parts of his job is to help people “think about themselves in a different way, to increase their self-awareness and their ability to regulate their own behaviours in different situations.”

When reflecting on the impact of sport psychology support, Adam reflected:

“I think that when you are embedded within the environment all the time you can get caught up in a certain way of thinking and the biases of these environments and the narrow-minded thinking. So, I think that it is very important, not only for a sport psychologist but also for other members of the staff (e.g., physiotherapists, sport scientists, assistant coaches) to step back and think about the environment and the situation differently. So yeah, you see that managers often take people with them when they move clubs, like a scout or a head of recruitment that always come with them, and this is because they challenge them and allow them to think about things differently. They can communicate that in a helpful way and the manager will listen to it - even when they do not agree with it, they will still listen.”

“I think that when I work with individuals, so players or individual coaches - I think that I can help them think about themselves differently. It is not all about building people up and making them feel ten feet tall but also helping them to think critically and be a bit more negative to help them identify what they are doing wrong and how they could improve. So, asking good questions, listening to people, and understanding how they view the world through their eyes. Then helping them view situations differently and help them identify what they can do to achieve their objectives and career aspirations. Helping people understand what is motivating them. At the same time, when things do get difficult, helping them understand why they are finding certain situations difficult and what they could do to overcome encountered challenges. So yeah, helping people understand that it is not easy, that it is a complex journey, and if they are going to achieve their goals they need to make sure that they are working on their mentality to give themselves the best chance of getting to the highest level.”

See what works to get the best out of yourself.

While being a big advocate for sport psychology within football, Adam acknowledged that not all players may enjoy or benefit from working with sport psychologists. In Adam’s own words:

“I am not saying that sport psychology is for everyone! Some people might know exactly how to get the best out of themselves and they might have their routines in place, that is fine. Some players might have their routines set early on in their career and they might get a lot of success from them. However, as their career progresses, certain things might change and they might need to adapt to different things. Also, if someone wants to stretch themselves and improve they should look at different ways of doing things, not only from the mental point of view but from all aspects related to their performance. So, make changes to your diet or find different ways to warm up. Also, speaking to different people and seeking different types of advice. So, always trying to find different variables that can push performance and help someone to get the best out of themselves.”

“You see it all the time, the top one percent or the marginal gains. These are just words and I can say them to anyone. However, I would encourage players to engage with all the support available to them to see what works for them and what they can get out of it. I think it is very important for the players to listen to different things to see and watch different things, to try different modes to see what works and what does not.”

While some players might be able to perform at their best despite the complexities related to football, this is something that can be very very hard at times.

The objective of the present article is not to suggest that all players should be working with a sport psychologist. I need to highlight that everyone is different and everyone reacts differently to certain situations. Therefore, while faced with some of the challenges outlined here, some players may be better equipped than others to overcome them themselves. Also, some players may have outstanding coaches around them that can provide a great level of support. I hope, however, that this article will spark some interest in sport psychology, not only as a means of dealing with the nature of professional football but also as a tool to enhance professional self-understanding. An ability to understand oneself can be a vital component in enhancing one’s performance and I hope that this article will stimulate some level of self-reflection and encourage the readers to better understand one’s sense-making.