Simon Middlemas is aware that sports psychology can be a hard sell. But his input to the Great Britain volleyball programmeme in recent months has helped produce some remarkable results on court.

The sports psychologist, who has worked with Nottingham Forest and the National Ice Skating Association, has been helping out the GB squad for the past 16 months as they build towards the 2012 Olympics.

All of the GB teams are punching way above their weight considering that, as relatively new teams, they have beaten established European nations in recent months.

Middlemas's work has encompassed the men’s and women’s indoor squads as well as the beach squads, all of which have more than a fair sprinkling of Scots.

He not only has to deal with the differing demands of the six-a-side indoor game and the two-a-side beach teams but there are a number of different nationalities to deal with including Brazilian, Canadian and American-raised players in addition to the home-bred British players.

So do the Scottish players have a different psychological make-up than others in the squads?

“The Scottish players I have worked with in both the indoor and beach programmes are generally very committed and passionate,” Middlemas outlines.

“They are easy to work with, because you know you will get nothing less than 100%. It would be fair to say they also like to give me a fair bit of banter too, but it’s part of working in sport, and is good for cohesion.

“The sacrifices they have made, moving to Sheffield [indoor] and Bath [beach] and living away from friends, family and their home is significant. Getting to the 2012 Olympic has provided a huge motivational force which is driving these athletes and coaches, but there is a big cost too.

“With limited funding, tough international opponents and a constant fight to get selected, the stress can be high at times, and expectations have to be managed. The progress has been excellent, and the key is to stay focused in the face of these uncertainties.

“The athletes are desperate to show people from outside the sport that they deserve to be Olympic athletes, and this desire can at times add its own pressure.”

Middlemas is an integrated part of the GB programmeme and works hand-in-hand with the coaches involved, including Harry Brokking, who coaches the men’s indoor team, and Dr Lorne Sawula, who guides the women’s indoor side.

Sports psychologists are often only brought into a sport when things are going wrong but Middlemas has been a key component in the make-up of the GB backroom team.

“My approach is athlete-centred, but coach-led. It is the coach ultimately who leads their programmeme, and it is important that psychology work is valued and that I maintain a positive professional relationship with the coaching staff,” he continues.

“The more I am immersed within the sport, the more involved I can be in these performance issues. Examples of the areas which I spend time focusing on in GB volleyball include motivation and goal setting, pre-match preparation, dealing with conflict within the team, post-match debriefing, supporting the rehab athletes with chronic injuries, coach-athlete relationships and handling critical moments of pressure.

“In situations where the game is tight, and where the games can swing one way or another, an athlete’s mentality can make the big difference. The coaches and athletes recognise the impact psych can have, which makes my job easier.

 “I tend to focus on the psychological ‘make-up’ of the groups in the GB programme rather than the nationalities or gender. Confidence and motivation are key issues, and it’s important that the athletes work on their strengths, and set goals to move forward, rather than getting trapped in negative, confidence-related spirals.

“In a very technical sport, like volleyball, athletes need to remain in the ‘here and now’ rather than allow themselves to engage in negative error analysis mid-game, and they need to do this whilst being an effective team member.

“By working with the athletes on cognitive/emotional control strategies they can employ in critical moments to handle pressure, they can maintain their focus under great pressure. The emphasis is on the athlete to take responsibility for their psychology work, and my role is to provide a structure in team and individual sessions through which they can reflect on the effectiveness of their mental game.

“The more involved the coach and other sport science staff are within their psychology work, the more effective this can be. Too often psychology and psychologists exist on the edge of sport set-ups - labelled the ‘shrink’ and used only when problems occur.

“It’s not easy at times, trying to achieve a balance between performance enhancement and athlete well-being, but you need to be in a position to understand and influence, not just wait for problems to occur.
 
“In essence, my role is to enable the athletes to regulate their own mental approach to their volleyball. If they trust you and feel able to speak to you when experiencing stress, or conflict with team-mates or coaches, then they will want to work through these issues when they present rather than wait until they cause problems.”

Middlemas emphasises that honesty and openness are a key part of a successful psychological approach but he knows that, in team situations, there can often be conflict between individuals.

 “With all the teams, the ‘buy-in’ comes when talking about making the team and individuals get tougher under pressure,” he goes on.

“My view is that there is always room for improvement in how we prepare for games and how we handle pressure situations. These are not quick fixes, you have to target consistent improvement over time so that these skills become robust, not simply ‘tricks’ you turn to when panicking.

“When you have 12 fired-up players pushing themselves as hard as they can to win games, you need to make sure you have a process for handling success and failure positively and not losing momentum. Our teams have a refreshing lack of ego for a big group of athletes, but there are often very strong differences in opinion, and this can become negative if it isn’t managed.

“From a performance viewpoint, the levels the players have competed at, the teams they have played in, and the styles of coaching they have been exposed to all contribute to their mental approach to their volleyball.

“But whatever their background, it is more important that they buy-in to the culture surrounding the team. It is their responsibility as a GB player to develop a strong team ethic – shared beliefs, values, codes of behaviour.

“As a sport psychologist, I might help to explore some of these team processes with them, and help them strengthen this team ethic. Ultimately if I can improve each individual in the way they approach their game mentally, then I have done my job.”

RM
© Copyright In The Winning Zone, MMIX, All Rights Reserved

--
images courtesy of Michael McConville and Lynne Marshall, SVA