Guys,

a lot of clubs and counties out there will be looking at getting in Sports Psychologists for the coming season. This is an entirely valuable thing to do, but you need to be careful as this is an unregulated profession at present and there are a lot of guys making big bucks who aren't qualified or educated to work at this. Hiring someone who isn't trained to the proper level could actually harm your team, cost a lot of money for no benefit, and could be harmful to a player since they will be modifying their behaviour in some way.

Make sure if you are going to hire someone, that you ask what their qualifications are. They should be educated to AT LEAST Masters level from a UNIVERSITY. They may also be a member of a professional body (for example PSI, BPS, etc). Those with a diploma, certificate or who have only attended an IT are not qualified to the same level and they would not be recognised by the Psychology Society of Ireland. Whether they claim to have been doing this for a long time or have worked with important athletes but this is irrelevant.

You wouldn't go to a doctor who wasn't properly educated. Sport Psychology is an excellent way to improve your teams performance. But if youre going to pay someone to come in to your club, hire someone who knows what theyre doing.

icehonesty (Wexford) - Posts: 2574 - 15/02/2010 19:19:04    562264

Have many of your clubs ever gotten in Sport Psychologists by the way?

icehonesty (Wexford) - Posts: 2574 - 16/02/2010 17:27:15    563358

If a club manager does want to go down this road, why not get a County Player to drop in and have a chat with the players, why not do a bit of research and put together a few pointers on how lads should think/react during a game and if someone from the club has picked up a few pointers on a evening course that he/she attended locally them let them share what they have learned.

I know county teams have worked with psychologists with mixed results and I am not sure if there is a place for this in clubs. Fundraising is not easy and I reckon that clubs have better things to spend their money on than highly qualified sports psychologists.

ogiemoran (Galway) - Posts: 14 - 17/02/2010 08:41:05    563778

I agree OgieMoran. However, its hard sometimes to get in top intercounty players or managers to talk to a club team without them charging quite a lot of money! In my experience getting in a proper Sport Psychologist for lets say 30 players would certainly cost less than €10 a man for a 3 hour seminar. I wouldn't have said that was excessive. I know several intercounty "celebrities" who'd ask a club for far more than that!!

icehonesty (Wexford) - Posts: 2574 - 17/02/2010 11:19:32    563929

My club had one a few years back but i thought it was a load of rubbish so didn't bother availing of his "services"!! For club GAA i don't think a sports Pyscologist is needed, when it gets to that it's way too serious! Clubs are finding the financial strain a bit much and this is another unnecessary luxury. As was mentioned before, a high profile inter-county player would do as good a job for a club team!

I always found with any team i've coached that if they have enough respect for you as a manager and a coach then you're wasting your time getting a Psycologist!

Bald Eagle (None) - Posts: 1009 - 17/02/2010 12:05:25    563997

I would say your experience is fairly common across the board BaldEagle. I would say though that they are very useful but you need to know what you want to get from it before you hire one. Also, there are at present lots and lots of guys out there working as Sports Psychologists who aren't nearly qualified enough, and this gives those of us (like me) who are very well qualified a bad rep.

icehonesty (Wexford) - Posts: 2574 - 17/02/2010 15:15:48    564378

I would agree with that ice, there are a few out there that are rubbish and give the decent ones a bad name.

The lads in our club that did use the Psycologist said they found it to be a beneficial experience, saying that it may have cleared their heads but it didn't help their performance on the pitch one bit.........we were still ****!!!

Bald Eagle (None) - Posts: 1009 - 17/02/2010 16:14:44    564506

icehonesty
County: Wexford
Posts: 556


Why do you ask?

dhorse (Laois) - Posts: 11374 - 17/02/2010 19:29:57    564820

My club got one the week before our last championship game although we lst and got knocked out I really enjoyed the session and feel that if we had got it earlier in the year it would have made a huge difference, any club that can afford it I would say do it

Meath4Life (Meath) - Posts: 21 - 17/02/2010 20:40:20    564947

Do's... Win big games

Dont's... Lose big games

jimbodub (Dublin) - Posts: 20763 - 18/02/2010 11:29:12    565242

One tried and tested method is to line up your players on one side of a skip, ask them all to enter the skip at one end and exit at the other, thus leaving all the negative thoughts in the skip. A bit like confessions without the bother of having to make up lies inside the confessional box. In my humble opinion its about as useful as the ice bath mythology.

mugsys_barber (Tyrone) - Posts: 2160 - 18/02/2010 12:39:42    565382

Its only rubbish, ya win the match by puttin the ball over the bar, psychology my elbow

mmmmmmmm (Galway) - Posts: 343 - 18/02/2010 12:43:30    565395

Lad's, I'd highly reccomend a lad called Kevin Clancy. He's a sports Psychologist who works for a company called Motiv-8.
This is a video presentation he compiled for my home club before our celebrity bainisteoir semi final last year link

StolenChainsaw (Leitrim) - Posts: 41 - 18/02/2010 12:58:25    565428

Don't do what Donny Don't does

Adler (Monaghan) - Posts: 754 - 18/02/2010 13:43:07    565510

I as a sports science student myself can tell you for a fact that almost every team i played for are not preparing properly for games.
Therefore the need for increases sports science has never been greater.

Sometimes its the little things like this that swing games. Therefore i will make myself available for offers here to talk to clubs interested.

joseff (Louth) - Posts: 964 - 18/02/2010 14:43:38    565615

icehonesty
County: Wexford
Posts: 556

Guys,

Make sure if you are going to hire someone, that you ask what their qualifications are. They should be educated to AT LEAST Masters level from a UNIVERSITY. They may also be a member of a professional body (for example PSI, BPS, etc). Those with a diploma, certificate or who have only attended an IT are not qualified to the same level and they would not be recognised by the Psychology Society of Ireland.

And who exactly are you to judge the quality of courses offered by I.T.'s?? In MY particular PROFESSION I know for a fact that I.T.'s offer a better curriculum and students are more sought after for employment than the majority of Universities in both Ireland and the U.K.!

sheepshooter (Meath) - Posts: 626 - 18/02/2010 15:16:37    565686

joseff, sports science is a doss of a course, its a joke, ya can either handle preassure on a sporting occasion or ya cant, simple as that. Your mental preperation is knowing that you physically did everything to get your body right. Once you know that and if your any sort of man which you need to be also, you go out and give your all, it may be enough or it may not be, atleast you have a clear concience about the effort you made.

mmmmmmmm (Galway) - Posts: 343 - 18/02/2010 16:14:49    565791

Adler
County: Monaghan
Posts: 243

565510 Don't do what Donny Don't does

Haha

jimbodub (Dublin) - Posts: 20763 - 18/02/2010 16:44:13    565838

The first question when considering a sport psychologist is whether they will have any benefit for your team.

How important is the mental component of the game? To answer this question, you need to ask yourself the question: do teams perform the exact same every time they go out week in week out..no matter what the game is? Does the team always play up to the maximum of their fitness/skill levels? If not, then surely the mental side of the game is the reason why teams dont always perform to their potential.

Therefore, the mental component is crucial in teams preparing for games. So do you need a sport psychologist?

Next step is to find someone who is qualified enough and has enough experience to help you improve the mental side of your game. With all due respect to inter county players, you wouldnt ask them to come in and draw up a fitness plan or nutrition plan for your team as they wouldnt be qualified to do this.

There are proven techniques that have been researched as proving succesful for athletes in many different sports. Only qualified people will have enough expertise to use these with teams.

I know in Ireland there are only a few who are qualified and recognised as sport psychology providers. These are the people you should use..therefore, you should find out what the individual's qualifications are. I have used two sport psychologists before who have done the masters in sport psychology in Waterford IT.

From my experience, they have been a great addition to the teams I have coached and I've certainly got the most out of my teams from using them. To me, they are the most important part of the backroom team and are well worth spending the money on just as much as physios and other professionals.

DMD (Dublin) - Posts: 1 - 18/02/2010 17:39:10    565910

There are currently no courses in sports psychology in Ireland, but it is possible to complete a postgraduate degree by research in an area of sports psychology and this can help you to develop a career in the area

Taken directly from the Psychological Society of Irelands' website, while I agree that the benefits such sessions can have significant benefits on teams performances I've always felt somewhat sceptical as an individual into the actual practice itself. While there are definitely some excellent professionals working in the area who have had great success with teams I would also be wary of the B.Ser's out there who would talk the talk but would have very little expert knowledge into motivational issues etc.

Obviously some here have had more insightful experiences of them than myself but sure if a club can give it a go then what have they got to lose?

Personnally however, I believe that if the difference for a team between winning and losing is a sports psychologist then it says more about the attitude of the team than the work of a sports psychologist...

wild_biffalo (Offaly) - Posts: 91 - 18/02/2010 19:04:46    566054