AASP Newsletter - September 2018

Paul Wylleman

Andrew: How did this “scientist-practitioner-teacher-manager” role in sport psychology develop for you?

Paul: Good question! The scientist role developed out of my clinical psychology studies at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB). Although there was no sport psychology program, I was fortunate enough to have my later boss, Professor Paul De Knop, encourage me to do research into the mental preparation of our national judokas—many of whom were world-class athletes at the time. After graduating, I was offered a position as a young researcher in VUB’s newly established “Topsport and Study” department. Providing support to elite student-athletes, I was able to continue conducting research into the development of talented and elite athletes.

Meanwhile, as a consequence of my research, the judo national coach asked me to join the national team medical staff as sport psychologist. While I had my own experience as a judoka, and notwithstanding my research into the psychology of elite athletes, it was still a big transition to step into this practitioner role. Developing as a practitioner I also worked with young talented athletes in the elite sport schools in Flanders, with the university’s adolescent and young adult student-athletes, and later on with adult elite and Olympic athletes.

As the roles of scientist and practitioner developed in parallel, both strengthened each other. This is also how the basic idea for the Holistic Athletic Career model developed. The challenges encountered in my applied role made me focus my research on the interaction between athletes’ athletic, psychological, psychosocial and academic/vocational development – and how this interaction influenced their development. In my applied work, I was able to use the instruments I had developed in my doctoral research on interpersonal relationships in the athletic triangle (i.e., athlete-coach-parents).

Andrew: So, what about the “teacher role”?

Paul: After gaining my PhD, I was able to start the teacher role when I stepped into a then vacant professorship for sport psychology. In this way, a wonderful combination of complementary roles became a reality; it was something I always wanted to achieve. And yet, I must also admit that at the same time I had a feeling these three roles could not actually be combined. As a young assistant professor, I had the idea that the teacher-scientist combination would be the model to fully invest in. You know, teaching, doing research and publishing seemed to be the path to follow.

In hindsight, I had the great fortune of Professor Dan Gould visiting my university at that same time. While visiting some of the sporting venues, he made the point that being a “hands-on academic” was really no contradictio in terminis. He really helped me to understand that the scientist-practitioner-teacher roles were actually very complementary to each other. Yes, very time intensive and requiring hard work, but very rewarding at the same time. And he was right! In fact, the way in which he himself combined these roles, together with his research output and international work, led our university to bestow him the honorary degree of Doctor Honoris Causa in 2009.

Andrew: How did the “manager” role come into play?

Paul: Well, I got involved with this managerial role from several different angles. First, I was fortunate to be asked to be one of the founding members of the Flemish Society of Sport Psychology (VVSP). This then led me to come into contact with FEPSAC, the European Federation of Sport Psychology. It was by way of my former PhD supervisor, Professor Yves Vanden Auweele, and especially with the support from then FEPSAC President Professor, Stuart Biddle, that I became fully involved in FEPSAC. I must say that I could not have imagined that this would lead me to a 16-year involvement in FEPSAC, first four years as Treasurer, then four years as Secretary-general, and finally two four-year terms as President.

The FEPSAC perspective enabled me to get to know the international sport psychology scene: the International Society of Sport Psychology (ISSP) working together with then President, Professor Sidonio Serpa. But also collaborating with Professors Maureen Weiss and Marty Ewing, who were pivotal in introducing me to AAASP, AASP’s predecessor. This truly opened my eyes for the organizational side of our field. It also helped me to better understand the developmental challenges sport psychologists faced internationally, while gaining greater clarity of the strengths and points to improve regarding sport psychology in Europe.

While I expected that it would affect the way in which I could invest in my other roles, I can truly say that this managerial role actually strengthened me and made me a better scientist, practitioner and teacher. For example, regarding my researcher role, I started to collaborate very closely with Natalia Stambulova and the FEPSAC Special Interest Group, Career Transitions. We were able to “spread the news” about athletes’ career transitions and thus, get young researchers involved in this topic. From the teacher’s perspective, I was given the opportunity by INSEP (the French Institute of Elite Sport Performance and Excellence) to develop the international program Psychological Excellence for Elite Performance (PE4EP). Under FEPSAC’s patronage, we were able to bring together elite coaches and sport psychologists for workshops with Nadine Debois, Hardy Menkehorst, Chris Harwood and Urban Johnson. In my role as practitioner, I was fortunate enough to be able to start the Forum of Applied Sport Psychologists in Topsport (FAST) as a meeting platform for colleagues around Europe working with elite and Olympic athletes and teams. This started at the Olympic Games in Athens in 2004  with support from Maria Psychountaki, the Hellenic Society of Sport Psychology and the Hellenic Olympic Committee. This forum annually brings together senior elite sport psychologists to discuss professional issues working at the elite, Olympic and Paralympic level. FAST was very successful as it has been invited by different NOC’s in Europe and around the world, for example during the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing by invitation of the Chinese Society of Sport Psychology, and during the 2012 London Olympics with the British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences (BASES) as our host.

Andrew: During your presentation at the Annual Conference in Orlando as the 2017 AASP International Distinguished Scholar, you referred to your own involvement in TeamNL, the Olympic and Paralympic team of the Olympic Committee of the Netherlands (NOC*NSF). 

Paul: Yes, my role as manager took on a new and much broader perspective when, after the 2012 Olympic Games, I was asked by Maurits Hendriks, TeamNL’s technical director, to evaluate the sport psychology support provided to Dutch athletes, teams and coaches and to suggest ways to improve it. This analysis led NOC*NSF at the end of 2013 to “hire” me in from the university as Performance Manager responsible for what now is called the domain of performance behavior.

As a member of TeamNL’s High Performance Team, I have two primary tasks: First, to develop and ensure a sustained system of psychological support for elite athletes, teams and coaches. This is in fact where my research background came back into play as I based this system within a holistic perspective. In order to enable this type of support I brought together a team of elite sport lifestyle coaches, sport and performance psychologists, health psychologists, clinical psychologists as well as psychiatrists. After triage, support can be provided by different experts. For example, first by a health psychologist followed by a sport psychologist, or by a sport psychologist in combination with an elite sport lifestyle coach. The request for support will also be assessed in view of the need to provide support to the coach rather than the athlete as to enable the coach to strengthen her or his competences.

My second task consists of providing support to TeamNL in preparation to the Olympic/Paralympic Games and serving as a team psychologist during the Games. This may include, by request from one of our Olympic/Paralympic coaches or my performance managers, providing support to an individual athlete, team, coach and/or support staff. My role will generally consist of analyzing how their development and/or their performance level may be enhanced, followed by ensuring support by one or more of the experts on performance behavior. On rare occasions, I may be asked by our technical director to provide support myself. On the other hand, during the Games my role may be more active and include, for example, assisting a coach or athlete or provide crisis intervention.

Alongside these major tasks, I also provide Master Classes for the performance behavior experts as well as for our elite coaches, physiotherapists, medical doctors, strength and conditioning experts, and dieticians. The aim of these Master Classes is to enhance the competence of our coaches and support staff with regard to performance behavior. As an example, a topic which we have covered recently with these groups was how to use observational data when looking at behavioral change. The stronger their competencies, the stronger the collaboration with the expert performance behaviorists.

Finally, I’m also looking at specific research projects which are directly relevant to the development and level of performance of our athletes. For example, while we are now finalizing a project on the development of performance behavior competencies in talented and elite athletes, we started to look at the psychological components of coping with high environmental temperatures and humidity on our way to Tokyo 2020.

So, while my role within Team NL is in essence a managerial one, you could say that it is actually actively supported by the other three roles.

Andrew: What have been some of the obstacles experienced in this multi-role perspective and what role does the environment (institution[s]) play in helping you maintain this perspective?

Paul: Taking on and maintaining this quadruple role has been my own choice and, therefore I have always seen it as a challenge rather than an obstacle. Nevertheless, I do confess that choices have to be made. For example, if I would not be involved in the practitioner-manager roles, I would probably enhance my track record of publications. However, as I said earlier, these roles to a large extent are not only complementary to each other but also intertwined. For example, in my teaching I’ve been able to use very realistic examples and case studies in my courses when teaching Sport Psychology, Mental Support throughout the Sport Career, or High Performance Management. At the same time, my research group, Sport Psychology and Mental Support, has been able to focus on concrete projects with a direct value for talented elite and former elite athletes such as the development of performance behavior in talented athletes, the dual career of elite athletes, and the process of athletic retirement and the post-athletic career. Furthermore, I have been lucky enough to work at a university with colleagues providing me with several “degrees of freedom,” allowing me to develop in each and every role. And of course, as stated earlier, several mentors have had a strong influence on the development of my professional pathway, a process and an influence which I recognize all too well when comparing my own development to the Holistic Athletic Career model!

Andrew: Finally, what advice would you have for young practitioner-scholars starting in the field?

Paul: I would certainly encourage young practitioner-scholars to make sure they stay involved in both roles, even if one role is or has become more dominant. I would also advise them to become active in our societies of sport psychology! Be that AASP or another international organization. They provide not only a wonderful learning experience with regard to the organization and management of our field, but also a great opportunity to engage in sport psychology at regional, national or even international level. And looking back on my own development, I think I can share two lessons learned: First, it is not the number of roles you can take on, but the quality you provide in each of these roles, which is important; and second, it is largely thanks to the support of my nearest and dearest that I was able to invest in and sustain my professional development. So, while the role of scientist, practitioner, teacher and manager is certainly exciting, it is my role as lifetime partner and parent, which always has been most important to me.