Sporting Success Is Mainly A Mind Game

MY OLD mate, rugby writer Stuart Bathgate, came up with an absolute cracker for the Offside Line website, when he spoke to Glasgow Warriors' Assistant Coach, New Zealander Jason O'Halloran this week.

Stuart Bathgate - a cracking piece of work

One gets the impression the normally reticent O'Halloran went somewhat “off message” when he opined that Scottish rugby players and Scottish rugby were 20-years behind his native New Zealand in their attitude to the psychology of high-performance sport.

I can just see some of the Murrayfield “suits” squirming at the blunt-speaking from the Kiwi, as he revealed Warriors are seeking to recruit a sports psychologist to help the players' mental preparation for games.

Jason O'Halloran, a typically blunt-speaking Kiwi

O'Halloran told Stuart Bathgate and Offside Line:

“From my point of view, as a Kiwi having come over here two years ago now, that’s the biggest area for growth in Scottish rugby, the whole sports psych thing. I don’t think it’s done particularly well at all. It’s often just seen as a bit of voodoo and witch-doctor stuff, which is where we were at in New Zealand probably 20 years ago. It’s a crucial part of the game and I think it’s something we could do a lot better.

“I must admit when I came here, that was a real eye-opener for me, just how far behind New Zealand we are and how that affects our players as individuals – particularly around how they accept feedback. Sometimes Scottish boys can see any sort of constructive feedback as ‘You’re having a go at me’. That’s a big issue and dictates the way you coach and the way you give feedback or constructive criticism. That continues to be a balance for us as Kiwi coaches.

“With Kiwi boys, you just give it to them and they either take it, take it on board and do the things you asked them to do to improve, or there are four others waiting and the sheer competition means they will lose out. They’re probably a little more motivated at times.”

O'Halloran was of course, speaking about his football code but, it would be fair to say, his criticism of Scottish egg-chasers applies equally well to our footballers. We might laud Sir Alex Ferguson as the Master of mind games, yet for all the received wisdom the hardest part of an athlete in any discipline to train-up to peak efficiency is that six-inch area between their ears, that line about: “It’s often just seen as a bit of voodoo and witch-doctor stuff” has resonance in Scottish fitba.

In Scottish football, more-so than in Scottish rugby O'Halloran's final paragraph, above I reckon applies – particularly that bit about the sheer competitiveness.

In fact I have seen imported coaches left scratching their heads at some attitudes in Scotland. I remember an American basketball coach telling me: “You tell a kid back in the States – 'You have a weakness here, go and do this to cure it,' he generally will do this. But, I have seen boys in Scotland, when told to go and work on a weakness maybe do this for five minutes, then they go back to doing something they are good at.”

A football genius, but, a rapscallion 

Maybe it's a Scottish thing. We give icon status to guys like Jim Baxter, Jimmy Johnstone and Billy Bremner, who, for all their wonderful talent, were perhaps better-known for indiscipline and breaking the rules. Guys like John Collins, who try to set examples of real professionalism we tend to disparage, or label “strange” for trying too-hard to better themselves.

Sports psychologists are nothing new, they have been tried before in Scottish football, who knows, maybe if O'Halloran and his boss Dave Rennie, can find the right guy, put him in place and we see Glasgow performing even better than they already are, to the extent they start winning the big prizes, it might spark an explosion in their use across Scottish sport – including fitba.

Mind you, given the Warriors already work at least twice as hard on their game than some other full-time Glasgow sports clubs we could name it might take a wee while for this to catch on.

MEANWHILE, the fall-out from Sunday's brutally one-sided Old Firm match continues. Yesterday, Kenny Miller and Lee Wallace were suspended, pending an internal investigation into their full and frank exchange of views with interim Manager Graeme Murty, following the debacle.

OK, Miller, the club's “Senior Professional” and Club Captain Wallace were probably mightily pissed-off by not being selected and unable to play respectively, and by the paucity of the opposition provided against Celtic.

But, football's Omerta demands such fall-outs are kept behind firmly-closed dressing room doors. I remember, more than 20 years ago, a St Mirren player and his manager came to blows in the dressing room, we didn't hear about it for ten days, by which time all was again sweetness and light – that's the way well-run clubs do things.

Another time, fed-up with a run of poor results, Tony Fitzpatrick, then managing Saints, called his squad into the dressing room, locked the door and convened a no-holds-barred meeting. But, before he locked the door, he told the squad: “Anyone who doesn't want to play for me – leave now.”

Fitzie maybe got a shock when Jim Dick accepted his leave-now offer

I remember one of the players telling me later: “We were all sitting with our heads down, looking at the floor, and I remember seeing a pair of legs and feet walking past. I did not make eye contact with anyone, and it wasn't until after the meeting that I knew who had walked out.”

The dissident was midfielder Jim Dick, who had been transferred to Ayr United within the hour. Again, that's how well-run teams do things.

Still, there are things to enjoy about the current turmoil at Ibrox. The so-called Angry Bears have apparently taken a vow of silence and will refuse to vocalise their support for the club until things are sorted out.

So, no blood-soaked trouser legs for a wee while to come. Let's be thankful for small mercies.