Performing Mind

04/06/2023

When in chasing sports accomplishments you lose sight of basic human rights and a duty of care:

Naomi Lee was abused by her elite gymnastics coaches between the ages of 11 and 14. The Australian Sports Commission will now compensate her for the psychological harm she suffered.

04/09/2022

https://themindroom.substack.com/p/do-unregulated-psychologists-pose

What does a ‘mind coach’ do? It’s a question that was raised in June, when Bath Rugby Club announced that Don Macpherson - known as the ‘Monkey Whisperer’, according to Macpherson’s website - had joined their management team. The appointment sparked something of a social media backlash, ...

18/10/2021

Nice little summary of a very common discussion in companies today:

Forward-looking leaders should adopt a hybrid-first model for most staff.

30/08/2021

Unfortunately this resonates with quite a few stories I've heard over the years...

International NZ swimmer Jane Copland tells of the ridicule, pressures and mismanagement of young people's lives rampant within competitive sport in this country.

20/08/2021

The Covid lockdown has allowed for some interesting research comparing home team performances with and without the presence of their fans. In short, it seems that home teams accrue significantly fewer points, score fewer goals and are generally less dominant when spectators are absent.

The elimination of so-called “home advantage” because pandemic restrictions meant games were played in football stadiums empty of spectators meant fewer goals, fewer points and less favourable refereeing for the home team, found a large European analysis. However, the lack of crowds made very li...

18/07/2021

In recent years there has been so much good written about the practice of Mindfulness. Like with everything though, there are potentially also a few 'cons'. This quote from the attached article underlines that there are no absolute panaceas:

'Practicing mindfulness when you're not mentally ready, or when you actually need a nap, to eat, a massage, to work, or an important conversation with a loved one, can clearly create more difficulties than it's meant to mitigate'.

The facts about mindfulness no one's talking about.

12/07/2021

Every single pro footballer should have the ability - from the penalty spot - to slam a ball into either top corner. And be able to do so consistently, even under pressure. The potential to do that now already exists.

The fact that this is not currently the case is simply down to a lack of the right kind of preparation, including of course mentally. Ever increasing precision is however the direction in which sport is headed.

There will undoubtedly come a day when penalty-taking accuracy has indeed increased to the point where it is no longer a viable way of settling games, and thankfully we'll then finally have to find a more engaging solution. 😏

08/07/2021

This piece of research raises a few interesting questions on possible differences in the manner in which males and females respond to pressure:

Having an audience has a different effect on men compared to women, found a German study on biathlon athletes, reports MedicalBrief. In the presence of an audience male biathletes improve their performance in conditioning tasks (skiing) but deteriorate in co-ordination tasks (shooting), while female...