AASP Newsletter - June 2017

Tom Patrick, PhD, South Australian Sports Institute

While it has been well documented in the past that the practice of applied sport psychology can be best described as eclectic, it has been my experience that this characteristic is even more relevant than ever before. When practicing sport psychology with High Performance Sport New Zealand, and in particular when working as part of a network of practitioners with the New Zealand Rugby Union, the practitioners’ backgrounds and approaches were never more diverse and included psychiatry, organizational psychology, sport science (physical education) and clinical psychology. As opposed to being burdened by the potential challenges of such a wide-ranging group, what emerged was a group committed to a strong sense of professional sharing and collaboration. This professionally mature approach was refreshing and I found myself immersed within a professional culture that was open to multiple backgrounds and views regarding the psychological development and mental and emotional components of high performance.

Key lesson learned: Work with others and pay attention to different and/or opposing views from experienced practitioners. It will help you grow!

Following my work in New Zealand, I accepted a dual role to head up both high performance program management and sport psychology in the State of Qatar. Certainly, this role was going to be challenging from the outset as I would be immersed in a culture that was predominantly Muslim where the native language was Arabic. Moreover, the Gulf countries have a unique culture and sporting history and it was of critical importance that our collective practice was adapted to fit our environment and those within it as opposed to simply transferring lessons learned from the past that had informed our previous practice. As my time in Qatar progressed, I had found that my personal ability to impact the athletes (and at times the coaches) who were Qatari Nationals was limited. The belief systems at play were different and required a very different approach than I had adopted in the past. While I could play a reasonable role as “mentor” or “critical friend,” it was my Muslim and Arabic speaking colleagues who were capable of the best work and the key was to recruit others and embed an enhanced level of practice that would be delivered from those who possessed shared beliefs and understandings with the athletes, coaches and parents.

Key lesson learned: Recruit those who are the best fit and pay attention to the culture, language, and belief systems with which you are working.

Following my tenure in the Middle East, I moved to Australia to head up High Performance at the South Australian Sports Institute (SASI). Having completed my PhD in Australia, I have lived and worked in the country in the past and have always appreciated the commitment and collective energy Australians demonstrated when it came to sport. Having now been immersed in the high-performance sport system for a few months, I have found the field of sport psychology to be in a state of flux. There are several reasons for this. First, Australia’s new high-performance strategy (Australia’s Winning Edge or AWE) has given the responsibility to the National Sporting Organizations for the achievement of their high-performance outcomes. As such, and as we have likely all experienced in our past, the risk is that sport psychology won’t be prioritized to get the level of funding, support (and therefore contact time) required to make a difference. So, I am slowly working to partner closely with as many of our National performance partners as I can to ensure that we can provide world class sport psychology support and that the support personnel will be integrated and embedded in their daily training environment. For this to happen, we must dedicate enough financial and human resources to ensure all sport psychologists can dedicate themselves to their respective sports to be able to achieve the presence and rapport required to make a difference.

Second, another recent addition to Australia’s high-performance landscape is the Personal Excellence program (formally the Athlete Career and Education Program or ACE), whose members work alongside sport psychologists and coaches to ensure athletes’ decision making and life “beyond sport” are aligned with what is required for them to achieve sporting excellence and have a meaningful life beyond sport once their sporting career is over. My recent experiences with our practitioners here at SASI suggest that athletes can benefit greatly when “real” (I always think of Dr. Cal Botterill when I use the word “real”) integration and interdisciplinary collaboration exist. Too often, practitioners are asked to provide some assistance that can often fall outside of their true scope of practice and expertise.

Key lesson learned: The right people who are willing to work together make up for someone with a lot of experience and expertise.

These experiences from three different countries each emphasized how their cultural nuances can inform the practice of sport psychology. They have provided me with unique and unexpected learning experiences that have shaped how I apply sport psychology to performance excellence.

This article was originally published in the June 2016 Canadian Sport Psychology Association (CSPA) newsletter: http://www.cspa-acps.com/. I hope that many AASP members will find inspiration in my story and lessons learned to benefit their own praxis of applied sport psychology.