Mind over matter

Bahrain’s up-and-coming sportsmen and women will have the ‘mental edge’ to go for glory at the inaugural GCC Games.
Their coaches are being tutored in the art of sports psychology by one of the world’s leading consultants, Dr Conrad Milne.

He believes the power of the mind can be the difference between taking gold or missing out on the final hurdle as the kingdom’s top athletes and footballers prepare for action.

More than 1,500 competitors are expected to take part in the first-ever event of its kind to be hosted by the kingdom and entitled ‘Bahrain 11’.

Between October 11 to 22 all six GCC nations will compete in 11 disciplines – athletics, bowling, cycling, swimming, basketball, handball, volleyball, soccer, table tennis, endurance horse-riding, as well as goal ball for special need athletes.

Sport executives have in recent years been developing competitors alongside well-trained and responsive coaches. To assist instructors, in 1996, the General Organisation of Youth and Sports (GOYS) tied up with the Canadian Coaching Association to introduce the coveted Canadian National Certification Programme.

Translated into Arabic, it includes five levels of theory and practical skills. The coaches in Bahrain are currently at Level 4 and highly-experienced international doctors and professors including Canadian Dr Milne are helping them achieve the standard.

Educational psychologist Dr Milne, 75, who has specialised in physical growth and perceptual-motor development, was recommended to assist in running the programme. He had lived in the kingdom for 10 years and acted as an advisor to then GOYS president Shaikh Fawaz bin Mohammed Al Khalifa before taking up a teaching role in the US in 2007.

Dr Milne said: “Bahrain is on the cutting edge of coaching education, not only in the region but also in the Arab world. No other Gulf country has this programme as well-developed as we have.

“Iran bought it first but they aren’t anywhere near where we are, Qatar has Level 1 and 2 and now Jordan has just joined up.

“Level 4 is aimed at elite coaches working with elite athletes. We are way ahead. Our coaches are getting well trained and hopefully they will be able to do a better job with their small number of kids and resources in comparison to some larger countries. We can compete with others by having better coaches and better techniques. That is our job ... to provide the best coaches to help the youth reach their full potential. Why go abroad when you have qualified coaches here?”

The techniques being employed are an array of developmental programmes, a sporting archive, a human performance laboratory and even a biomechanical computer programme known as Dartfish which analyses the performance of any team during a match.

Dr Milne returns to Bahrain twice a year to help train instructors on how best to prepare their squads mentally for sporting action.

He said: “We strive to have our coaches bring out the best from their players during a game. We refer to this as the ‘idealistic performance’. That is what we are shooting for in this type of training.

“We look at what the players feel and ask them to think back to when they had a really good performance. We try to get them to mimic that feeling so that they can direct all that positive energy into their current game. These feelings and thoughts are trainable.”

Many of the world’s top performers use these techniques. When basketball player Ron Artest of the Los Angeles Lakers credited psychological help for some of his success on the court, some commentators took that as evidence that he was ‘crazy’. To the contrary, though, professional athletes like Artest would be crazy not to seek help from professionals like a sport psychologist, analysts say.

Dr Milne said: “There is more to sport than technical skill. The biggest facet that needs work is the mental aspect of the game.

“As a coach or administrator it is your job to help athletes reach their ultimate performance state. Their success is your success.”

The five basic steps that are needed for successful mental training are relaxation, self-talk, imagery, concentration and refocusing.

The Bahrain University girls’ basketball and badminton coach Sameera Asiri, 47, from Hamad Town, said: “This programme has really helped me. I think more about what my girls need and how they feel and I put myself in their shoes.

“Girls go through a lot of issues such as body image, peer pressure and nutrition. Mental training can help them overcome these issues – this programme doesn’t just help you in sport but also in your daily life. I feel closer to my girls and recommend this programme to other coaches.”

Hidd Club’s Under-17 boys’ basketball coach, Salah Khalifa, 33, from Galali, said: “These methods are new for me and I believe they will be very useful when I introduce them into the training schedule.”

Dr Sami Zubari, sport development supervisor for GOYS, said: “This programme is the toughest in Bahrain and I believe the coaches have truly gained from it. It has advanced their careers and we are now proud to offer our players, young and old alike, the best qualified instructors possible.”