Professor Aidan Moran of UCD, author of Pure Sport, Practical Sports Psychology,  looks at practical ways of preparing for the big day. Colm Ó Riagáin talks to Prof of Psychology Aidan Moran about the application of sports psychology in Gaelic games and discovers that success comes in ‘cans’ and not ‘can’ts’.

Q. Applying sport psychology in a group context is a difficult concept. How does it work?

Working with teams is definitely different from working ‘one-to-one’ with players but the basic psycholgical principles remain the same. I’ve advised lots of GAA teams, including Mayo in 2004, and the main message I try to get across to them is that the purpose of psychological training is to help players to do their best when it matters most.

Here’s an example. Anyone can kick a ball over the bar from 20 metres in training. But can they do it in Croke Park in front of 70,000 people when their heart is pounding and their team is a point behind with seconds to go?

More generally, if you ask players how important the mental side of the game is, they’ll tell you it’s extremely important – especially at the top level of the game. But if you ask them how much time they actually spend on this part of the game every week (for example, kicking frees under simulated pressure situations), they’ll say “no time at all!” So that’s the paradox we have to address – the mental side of the game is famlliar, yet mysterious.

Unfortunately, most players and coaches don’t really know where to start with psychological preparation. Of course, one obvious starting point between the physical and mental is stretching exercises. Here, players can learn the difference between feeling tense and relaxed. Knowing how to flap out the tension from your shoulders and arms (like doing gentle kneck rolling exercises when there’s a break in play) can make a huge difference to skills like free-taking.

Going back to working with teams, the main goal of psychology training is to teach players to focus only on what they can control, not on what opponents are doing or on what might happen in the future. Of course, helping a team to prepare mentally is a lot more challenging than helping an individual player because there are more factors involved (eg team-mates), hence more distractions (how well do players really listen to the coach during a team talk?). But ultimately, every player has to take responsibility for how they individually prepare, how they perform during the game and how they respond to set-backs on the pitch (making a mistake, getting booked, etc). This idea is summarised by the acronym “PRIDE” - which stands for every player’s “Personal Responsibility In Delivering Excellence”. So, the practical question that all players should ask themselves when they look in the mirror after a game is: “Did I take ‘pride’ in my performance today? What did I do well and what do I need to work harder on?”


Q What’s the best way to introduce sport psychology to a team? Are the players sceptical?

Fitness, training and preparation have become a lot more serious and professional in recent years in the GAA. Given this change, players and coaches are always looking for an extra ‘edge’ over their rivals. So, it’s not surprising that a lot of teams these days are turning to psychology in their pursuit of success.

Interestingly, All-Ireland winners like Wexford (hurling) and Tyrone (football) have used sport psychologists. In fact, most counties these days consider psychology to be a key part of their team’s preparation for championship matches. As regards scepticism, I think it’s a good thing. Players have to think for themselevs on the pitch, so why shouldn’t they think carefully off the pitch as well? Generally, scepticism can be overcome in three ways. First, giving examples of top teams (eg, All Blacks in rugby, Germany in soccer) and sportspeople (Pádraig Harrington) who use psychology professionally can help to convince players of its merits. Second, describing the insights of top managers who use psychology can be helpful. For example, Arsene Wenger once said that his task is not to ‘motivate’ players (ie psych them up) – but to help them to stay calm enough during games to express their natural talent. That’s a very interesting idea – the manager as a psychologist. Third, asking players to think back to when they last played very well usually brings up a host of psychological factors like ‘motivation’, ‘confidence’ or ‘focus’ – which then leads to a discussion about how to develop these mental skills so that they’re available all the time, not just occasionally.

Of course, some players will always be sceptical of the value of psychology. Interestingly, the snooker star Ronnie O’Sullivan once said that “when you’re on, you’re on; when you’re off, you’re off – there’s nothing you can do about it!” I’ve come across similar attitudes among players from time to time – the idea that there’s nothing you can do to prepare for success or to prevent yourself from reacting angrily to provocation: it either happens or it doesn’t.

This example shows the importance of exploring players’ theories about what helps them to play at their best. If they don’t believe that there is any connection between how they prepare for a game and how they perform in it, they’re not ready for, or open to, the benefits of psychological training.


Q. What are the principal benefits of sport psychology?

Sporting performance is a jigsaw with four main components - the physical (fitness), technical (skill), tactical (strategy) and the psychological (ability to focus under pressure). In order to play consistently to their full potential, players need to be confident that they have worked on each of these areas. There are at least three benefits to working on the mental side of your game. First, psychology training can help players to perform more consistently. Interestingly, one of the reasons why players consult psychologists is because they can’t understand why they play well one day but badly the next day.

Second, psychological techniques can help players to control their emotions more effectively during a game. For example, saying a trigger word like “next ball” inside your head can help players to ignore insults and gamesmanship by opponents or to take a quick free-kick rather than retaliate against someone who fouled you.

Finally, psychology can help players to find the ideal preparation routine that they should follow in order to deliver their best perofrmance. Think of a recent game in which you played very well. What did you do beforehand? How did you feel before stepping out on the pitch? How can you recreate those feelings each time you play?

Q. Coping with the ‘big occasion’, what helps?

Research shows that players perform at their best when they focus only on what they can control. A simple exercise for any player is to draw a line down a page and write down the things you CAN control (how you prepare, how much effort you show on the pitch, how you react to setbacks) and that you CAN’T control on the other side (for example,  what the fans think, what your opponent does,  previous games between the teams). This simple act can clear your mind before a big game and remind you of what you’re responsible for on the big day. Clearing your mind before a game is the key to successful performance. But it’s hard to do because of the many distractions.

For example, I remember a hurler telling me that what ruined an All-Ireland final for him was being told to pull his socks up by an official as he walked out onto the pitch before the match. He liked to wear his socks down but the official insisted on him pulling them up – so he got angry and played poorly for the first 20 minutes as a result. All because he didn’t have a way of clearing his mind of distractions.

The challenge for all players on the day of a big game is to gradually clear their minds of all thoughts except those concerned with the jobs they have to do. Put simply, players will do their best when there is no difference between what they are thinking and what they are doing. There is no single ideal way to prepare for a big game – but players have to identify a routine to follow that will take them, like the steps of a stairs, from thinking to action. Some players like to laugh and joke before a big game – others prefer to be on their own, it doesn’t matter, just so long as players clear their mind of distractions before they step onto the pitch.

Q. What techniques would you recommend for free-takers in Gaelic games?

Free-takers need to use a concentration routine before they kick the ball as they only have one chance to be successful. People like Charlie Redmond had routines – all the Dublin kickers in recent years had routines.

Top kickers in other sports, such as Ronan O’Gara in rugby, follow strict routines in which they place the ball, visualise the target, lower their shouders and ‘centre’ their bodies, breathe out deeply, take a set number of steps backwards, remind themselves of their target and say to themselves “follow through” – or some such ‘trigger word’.

Every kick is crucial in the same way that every putt in golf is vital, and the player should take the same amount of time for each step of the routine.

Using visualisation or imagining the ball going over a particular spot on  the bar is a very useful technique.

In fact, the English rugby fly-half Jonny Wilkinson imagines a large gaping mouth as  this image reminds him to kick through the ball not at it. This is a powerful example of visualisation in action.

Q. Maintaining concentration is one of the most important mental skills. How might players improve their ability in this area?

If we presume that people are sufficiently motivated and talented then the question is how you get the most out of your performance. Then, arguably, concentration is that key. Optimal  concentration can be described in a single  phrase “when there’s no difference between what players are thinking and what they’re doing”.  That’s a focused state of mind, but its extremely difficult to achieve that level of focus because there are so many distractions and pressures during a game, from opponents, the crowd, and the referee’s decisions.

To concentrate properly you need a target and a series of action steps to reach that target. If we regard concentration as a spotlight, then that spotlight is narrowed under conditions of anxiety so the player literally cannot take in the coach’s instructions because their spotlight is too narrow. A good example of this is in Australian Rules where researchers explored what happened to players once they got out on the pitch – what did they remember of their coach’s instructions. Results showed the only thing the players could remember is what the coach said he’d do to them if they lost! This example shows that a negative instruction can lodge in a player’s mind and can displace the actual jobs that players should be focusing on.

There’s a variety of concentration techniques available – such as using ‘visualisation’ (seeing and feeling yourself performing a given skill in your mind’s eye), ‘trigger words’ (saying instructions like “next ball” silently to yourself), ‘action steps’ (reminding yourself to keep up with play or to make a tackle), and routines (which we spoke about earlier). Physical relaxation also helps in clearing the mind.

In the modern game, a lapse in concentration can mean the difference between winning and losing. And that’s why a big challenge for managers these days is to keep their substitutes focused while they sit on the bench – which is an extremely difficult thing to do. One solution is to have the players watch the game very intently and to run up and down along the sidelines so that they can get to the ‘pitch’ of the game as quickly as possible when they’re called into action.


Q. What do you recommend to a player/team on getting the balance right between being psyched up and focused? Are the days of blood and thunder speeches gone?

Gaelic games is a physical, confrontational sport so there’s no question that one must be physically ready for a competitive match.

Whatever the coach has to say to ready his players for physical action, it must be gone through, but on top of that there are going to be plenty of breaks in play and that’s where coaches, in my experience, are not so skilled at equipping their players. Because they don’t know what to say to them in the downtime during games. They certainly know how to encourage them to win the first ball and display physical aggression, letting him know you’re there, getting in early, following their opponent around, and all that kind of thing, but what they’re not so good at in my experience is helping players to switch themselves back on and in helping players to deal with mistakes and setbacks.

To help with switching themselves ‘on’, I know that some players I’ve personally worked with regard the pitch as the performance zone and as they get closer and closer to this zone,  they deliberately switch on their concentration. For some of them, leaving the dressing room door is the last signal that they need to switch on their ‘game face’ and when they step onto the pitch they’re ready for battle. It helps to imagine a sequence of steps between sitting in the dressing room and stepping onto the pitch. Of course, when the game starts, one thing is for certain: every player will make a mistake and the teams that learn more from their mistakes, or that make fewer, will win. There’s nothing wrong with making mistakes – but making the same mistake over and over again is inexcusable.

Psychologically, mistakes give us feedback about the limits of our performance. They define the boundaries of our comfort zone. So mistakes can be helpful in showing us what we need to work harder on. But most players try to hide after a mistake or are uncomfortable talking about it afterwards.

I think that pre-match instructions/team-talks have changed a lot and there are far less ‘blood and thunder’ rallying cries. Still, an inspirational speech still has a role in one way - in psyching players up for the physical challenge that they face. But remember that there is a very thin line between being ‘psyched up’ and being ‘psyched out’ and sometimes players’ aggression can get the better of them.

Again, I know of a story where the players were all psyched up for game but they couldn’t get out onto the field because the band were still playing when they were ready to go out, so all their energy disappeared before they stepped onto the pitch!


Q. How does a team go about incorporating psychology in their preparation?

A team would best go about incorporating sport psychology into their set up by learning more about what sport psychology is – eg, by reading a book like “Pure Sport: Practical Sport Psychology” by John Kremer and myself. However, I think they have to be careful because there are some people who purport to have expertise in this field but don’t, and it’s sometimes alarming that managers will not scrutinise a sport psychologist in the same way they would scrutinise a physiotherapist or a doctor.

The first step should be to learn about what sport psychology involves and the second step would be to acquaint themselves with the range of professionals in the field in Ireland (see the Irish Sports Council). The final step, of course, is to integrate this knowledge with your own experience as a player or a coach. That’s the most important step in many ways.

Q. What contribution can sports psychology make to our understanding of successful teams?

I think it would be great if I could say that we know that successful teams have the following characteristics but there isn’t really as clear-cut an answer to that question as you might expect. So, for instance, it’s often thought that team bonding exercises are good but a lot of the time going away for training camps and having bonding exercise with players doesn’t work as well as you might expect, because the assumption is that players have to like each other and fight to the death for each other for a team to be successful but that’s not really true. Some players just don’t get on with others but provided they have a common goal, personal relationships are not crucial to a team’s success. John Woodn, one of the USA’s most successful basketball coaches, once said that teams should never let what they can’t do (by way of skill or talent) interfere with what they CAN do (by way of effort and commitment). For teams, success comes in ‘cans’ not ‘can’ts’.



Aidan Moran is co-author of  Pure Sport: Practical Sports Psychology (Routledge)