Featured: MINDSETPRO
Mental Health & Psychology for the Rugby League Player in 2021
With over 30 years' experience of helping develop people and organisations, Ross McWilliam discusses the concept of resilience and its impact on performance and mental health for a rugby player. How do you balance the psychology of a player to perform at his best against the needs to protect, or even develop his mental health? Are these two components mutually exclusive in as much as by developing one component, the other suffers? Or is it possible to create a Stephen Covey type Win-Win scenario where improved mental health has a positive impact on player performance and vice versa? An interesting place to start this debate might be to look at the components needed to become a successful rugby league player. It could be said that qualities such as skill, physical fitness, attitude, adaptability, motivation, reliability, being able to absorb pain, having fortitude and patience to overcome injury, and being resilient and even being brave, are all key components that make up the complete rugby league player. Knowing how to gain,
28 | Rugby Blindside - Summer 2021
nurture and develop these qualities, and when to use them, are also key factors to consider. Equally, being aware when we are maybe not making progress, or are actually reducing performance, is another critical factor to be considered. Let’s take the key concept of resilience and look at its impact on performance and mental health. For many people resilience is synonymous with keep pushing, no pain no gain, and suck it up type statements. Others add another layer on by stating resilience is also about being adaptable to change, and being able to bounce back. On the surface this is all well and good – it’s a must have component. However, if developing resilience comes at the expense of our mental health, then a compromised mental state is surely going to have a negative impact on performance.
