Graeme Jones has introduced sports psychology at Luton Town as a way to explore the last remaining ‘untapped area’ of their training and preparation.
The manager admitted after the 3-0 defeat to Reading that it would be an option for a Hatters side on a four-game losing streak and teetering on the edge of the Championship relegation zone.
It’s not the unusual in top-flight sport, with the England team famously employing Dr Pippa Grange to help establish a more positive atmosphere and increasing their ‘psychological resilience’.
And, in particular, her work has been credited, in part, with the Three Lions overcoming their dreadful form in tournament penalty shoot-outs. A spot-kick triumph over Columbia followed, on their way to the World Cup semi-finals last year.
At the same time, Jones was assistant to Roberto Martinez as they guided Belgium to a third-place finish in France and the former Wigan boss spoke about the psychological barrier being his star-studded side’s biggest barrier to success.
Former Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard was also one of the most prominent fans of Dr Steven Peters’ critically-acclaimed self-help book ‘The Chimp Paradox’, with the psychiatrist also joining Roy Hodgson’s England squad at the 2014 World Cup.
With domestic league football once again the focus, Jones has confirmed that he’s used this month’s international break to explore a route into sports psychology for his Hatters players, saying: “I’ve looked into it. I think it’s the last untapped area, so it’s something that I’m interested in, something that I’ve introduced.
“But it’s an ongoing thing, it’s like fitness, it doesn’t come overnight. We’ve touched on it in the international break.”
Asked how it has been put into practice, Jones added: “Well, there’s a group dynamic first, which is different to any individuals.
“Then, individual time is available for players if they want the option. I certainly wouldn’t force any of that on anybody, it’s just another option, another bit of artillery in your locker.
“If you can make yourself as good as you can be, if you go back to my first interviews, I talked about maxing out. That’s another area we need to max out in and it’s still ongoing.”
Jones wouldn’t be drawn on any players that he’s worked with who have benefitted from sports psychology, because of its “private” nature, but he said: “I think there’s still a stigma attached to it, but there’s no reason for that.
“I don’t know anybody who’s perfect mentally. I don’t know anybody who’s perfect physically. I don’t know anybody who’s perfect technically, or tactically.
“I like to think as professional footballers, we all want to improve in every area. It’s just another area that Luton Town can be stronger in and that’s the reason.
“If you talk about my era to this era, there were a lot of slaps round the face and saying, ‘just get on with it and stop being so soft’. I think the eras have changed. There’s a lot more understanding now in that area in particular.
“There’s a lot more pigeon-holes, a lot more labels attached to it, but we’re talking about sports psychology to help our performance, both as a team and as an individual.
“I’ve been part of that for using it for eight or nine years now, so it’s nothing new, it’s something new that we’ve started to introduce at Luton Town. Hopefully we’ll see the benefits of that.”
