june-2012

PSYCHOLOGY GO!
success. Pepping studied 151 penalty shoot-outs to discover
that teams who celebrated raucously aft er a goal were more likely
to win than those who didn’t.
“Not many dare, because of the stress of the situation, but
those who punch the air ensure that 80% of their next
opponent’s shot will miss,” he says.
His colleague Jan Norel works with local football team
Heerenveen, passing on fi ndings about ‘group cohesion’. “Th e
footballers were confused to start off with, because they didn’t
see what we could off er,” says Norel. “But now they understand
how an individual can improve the team, and vice versa.”
One factor in successful teams recently identifi ed at the
University of Califonia, Berkeley, is touch. In a study of the NBA
championship, researchers Michael Kraus and Dacher Keltner
found that the teams who touched the most, won the most.
Th e psychological benefi ts of team sports are behind the work
of the Positive Coaching Alliance, a movement established in the
USA by Jim Th ompson to ensure that sport teaches young
athletes life lessons beyond ruthless competition.
“Th e prevailing model of coaching today is what I would call
a win-at-all-cost mentality,” says Th ompson. In contrast, his
method is based on individual improvement, emotional
fulfi lment, respect for rules, teammates, opponents and offi cials.
Th omson insists that teams so trained are more likely to be
winners. “When coaches focus primarily on winning, rather
than mastery, they instill anxiety in their players and undercut
their confi dence,” he says. “Getting the psychology right is
crucial for coaches who want to succeed both on the scoreboard
and at life lessons.”
“ Success is about
not letting the mind
get in the way ”
For some, current models don’t go far enough. Sports
scientist Wolfgang Schöllhorn believes that cognitive techniques
like visualization interfere with physical abilities.
His own methods utilise the unconscious mind, by focussing
on variety and diff erence rather than the repetition and
correction of traditional training.
His techniques have gained some acceptance. “In 2001, I
visited Barcelona FC to discuss my method,” says Schöllhorn.
“Actually, they were already doing it, but I encouraged them to
go further.”
Th e Mainz University professor is now researching
40 Holland Herald
meditation and other practices as performance enhancers in
sport. Th e results are encouraging. “Aft er four weeks, athletes
improve by between 30 and 100%,” says Schöllhorn.
Once again, Barcelona is apparently ahead of the pack: “I
recently heard that Pep Guardiola meditates before every game,”
he adds. “You have to realise that lots of teams use these
strategies already, but they won’t talk about them. It’s a secret of
their success that they don’t want to share.”
But nowhere is the success of sports psychology more
apparent than in its crossover to the mainstream. Companies
such as the UK’s Lane4 consultancy, which works with Deutsche
Bank, Honda and 3M and was founded in 1995 by sports
psychologist Professor Graham Jones and Olympic gold medalwinning
swimmer Adrian Moorhouse, have popularised the
idea that business leaders can learn from elite athletes.
Th ey too need to perform consistently, and so can benefi t
from athletic qualities such as the kind of resilience that sports
psychologists call ‘mental toughness’.
“Th e lessons of sport can be easily translated into business,”
says Martin Perry, who believes sport’s importance in society
makes it a natural source of learning: “Sport engages us more
than any other spectator event.”
Ian Maynard agrees that sports psychology, far from being
just the preserve of top athletes, can benefi t us all. “It can teach us
how to lead, how to be a team player, how to motivate ourselves
and others, and how to deal with anxiety, pressure and defeat,” he
says. “Th ese are vital life skills that are just as relevant to a sixyear-old
kid in school as to an Olympic gold medallist.” v