Kidney looking for a head start
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
FORMER Armagh football star Enda McNulty has been drafted onto the managerial ticket to help provide a psychological edge to Ireland’s Six Nations challenge.
Although the Armagh All-Ireland winners has already influenced the careers of many sporting figures in this country — not least a number of Leinster players — it is a new departure for Irish coach Declan Kidney to formally add a performance psychologist to the coaching ticket.
Irish manager Mick Kearney was on hand at Carton House yesterday to explain the thinking behind the appointment: "He is a trained psychologist who knows all the trigger points in terms of mental drills and skills, rituals and mental toughness; the secret of what Enda does is that he communicates, people can have all the training in the world but if they don’t communicate well in a team environment then it doesn’t actually work.
"There is evidence that it doesn’t work all the time but from my experience with Enda, his record with Leinster and other individuals he has worked with, would lead you to believe he is going to do an excellent job with us."
The manager stressed how margins had become increasingly tight in all rugby sectors but particularly at international level.
"It is an added resource and I think it is looking to the marginal gains; the gains are so tight at international level that the winning and losing of a game can depend on the tiniest little thing and if Enda can actually bring a half or one percent extra to the players, to the team or the environment, then that could be the difference between winning and losing.
" ‘Marginal gains’ could be a little bit of a buzz term from the British cycling-speak but it is true and it is something we’re looking at in different areas whether it is the medical, strength and conditioning, the psychology or coaching. It is all about that and trying to maximise what we have."
Kearney highlighted that all major rugby nations had become innovative in utilising anything that could work to their advantage.
"You look back at tight games and some change on the bounce of a ball or a decision that goes with or against you; we haven’t looked back specifically to identify games over the last two years or so and said ‘maybe that if our mental toughness was different for a period of the game that maybe we might have won’, but I think this (sports psychology) is becoming more prevalent in professional sport.
"Golfers have been using such people for years but pretty well every big rugby nation is using some aspect of psychology in their approach."
McNulty will have to be introduced to many of the Irish squad over the next couple of days, amongst them Chris Henry, but it’s not a newconcept to the Ulster and Irish back rower:
"I’ve never worked with Enda before but I’m very much looking forward to it, it’s a great resource for us to have. I personally used a guy called Hugh Campbell from Belfast who has worked with a number of the Ulster players.
"It’s not something I would go and do daily or even weekly but I would whenever I need to have a talk with someone, to get advice, maybe in connection with a dip in form or for lifestyle management or something.
"If you speak to most of the players it is a great resource for us to have and I’m excited about getting to sit down with him and throw some ideas around.
"A coach has a lot to do with that aspect as well but it is nice to have someone who is removed from the coaching set up; speaking with them is totally confidential and it is nice to have that, it is nice to have someone coming from a different perspective because the coaches are trying to get through so much that it is hard to make time for a one on one."