More and more athletes are using sport psychologists to help them use mind over body to realise their winning ambitions. Anna King reports
In the past few years, sport psychology has become extremely popular, with individuals, teams and clubs now employing sport psychologists on a regular basis.
Aidan Moran, professor of psychology at University College, Dublin, believes that sport and exercise psychology emerges from a need to understand how psychological factors affect athletic success.
Psychology is, he says, particularly relevant at the elite grade of sport performance "because there are minimal differences between competitors in technical ability and/or physical fitness".
Moran has years of experience working with elite athletes. "Many prominent athletes and coaches believe that although sport is played with the body, it is won in the mind," he explains.
"Almost every week, we hear about athletes who make uncharacteristic mistakes: for example, missing a penalty kick in football, or short putt in golf, due to the temporary influence of psychological factors, such as anxiety," he says.
Moran has served as a psychology consultant to many of Ireland's leading sports professionals, such as top golfer Padraig Harrington; former world snooker champion Ken Doherty; and various sports teams, including the Irish rugby team and the Irish Olympic squad.
Mayo football manager John Maughan attributes his team's win over Roscommon in the Connacht Championship finals in part to employing Moran to work with the team.
"Most certainly the team's performance has improved. I have seen a distinct improvement in their concentration, focus and determination.
"What is amazing is that the players themselves are wholeheartedly dedicated to developing the techniques that Moran introduced. The team has benefited tremendously," Maughan says.
Moran explains that understanding the mental side of athletes' "competitive experiences" is a complex task.
As a result, he says, "increasing numbers of sports performers such as Tiger Woods, the world's number one golfer, are turning to psychologists for practical advice on how to do their best when it matters most".
In his book, Sport and Exercise Psychology, Moran points out that the mental challenges posed by any given sport vary considerably.
"Consider some differences between soccer and snooker. Whereas soccer is a timed, physical contact, team game, snooker is an un-timed, non-contact, individual sport.
"These structural differences have important psychological implications.
"Whereas motivation, communication skills and an ability to anticipate opponents' moves are vital for soccer players, snooker performers depend more on cognitive skills like concentration, decision-making and the ability to recover mentally from errors."
Helping athletes learn techniques to deal with the kind of psychological pressures they face is an important part of sport psychology.
It appears, however, there are some athletes who still do not believe that success is influenced by psychology.
To illustrate the point, Moran cites the example of current world snooker champion, Ronnie O'Sullivan, who revealed that he had "tried a sport psychologist once and never got much out of it... If you're on, you're on, if you're off, you're off and there's nothing you can do about it".
Sport psychologist Niamh Flynn says O'Sullivan's attitude is down to a person's experience of individual psychologists.
She argues: "Just as in all professional fields, the standard and expertise of different psychologists varies considerably.
"There are no guarantees in any professional discipline. There is, however, enormous evidence to suggest that generally the techniques that sport psychologists use help athletes both achieve and sustain their full potential."
It's not just external factors, such as the standard of the opponent, that creates stress and anxiety for sports performers.
Confidence and self-esteem, which are essential qualities for any successful athlete, can be destroyed by perceptions and fears.
"Many athletes' identities are fundamentally caught up with their performance," says Flynn.
"If something happens that leads them to regard themselves as a failure, then their confidence and self-esteem is often challenged.
"A sport psychologist will help to redefine these experiences," he adds.
Joe Tierney, from Dublin, went to Flynn following the failure of repeated attempts to return to training after taking a study break.
Tierney had been involved in competitive sport at a high level nearly all his life and had also taught aerobics at an advanced level.
After his study break, his attempts to return to training left him feeling emotionally and physically exhausted.
The level of frustration and guilt was exasperating.
Tierney says: "I had been an extremely professional, successful sports person and I was devastated by my consistent failure to return to a reasonable level of training. The sessions with Niamh really helped. I had an extremely positive attitude and she encouraged me to redefine my expectations."
Tierney says part of the problem arose from his expectation that psychologically he would be able to pick up his sport exactly where he had left off, but through sports psychology he was able to set more realistic goals and targets.
"Niamh also helped me to be more positive at acknowledging my achievements, instead of concentrating all the time on what I hadn't done.
"As a result, my confidence levels began to increase and at last I was able to break through the pain and train again," Tierney says.
An important breakthrough, he says, was the realisation that he did not have to win or be the best all the time.
"Understanding and accepting this gave me more energy and increased my motivation and concentration," he says.
Tierney says because training is now a choice for him, rather than a compulsion: "My form has improved tremendously."
Australian Olympic gold medal-winning swimmer Kieren Perkin shares Tierney's new, positive attitude to competition: "I always race against myself to improve my own performances. The fact that I sometimes set world records in the process is a bonus," Perkin says.