Morgan
THE FIRST time a Jamaica football team got full-time mental preparation was just before the Under-20s left for Honduras in January for the CONCACAF final round play-offs for the FIFA Under-20 World Championship.
The youngsters were put through their paces by a performance enhancement team which included Dr. Kai Morgan, a psychologist, Jerry Bentley, drama therapist, Dr. Wendell Abel, psychiatrist and Eulalee Thompson, a sociologist/journalist.
Yesterday afternoon, The Gleaner connected One-on-One on the topic of sports psychology in Jamaica with Dr. Morgan, a former national junior lawn tennis player and now a practising psychologist at the University of the West Indies (UWI).
QUESTION: What is sports psychology?
KAI MORGAN: Really it is dealing with the psychology of the team, how they operate mentally and how it affects their performance.
Q: How important is it in today's world?
KM: It is absolutely important. If you check a lot of the international teams who are able to afford a psychologist, they have more than one on their team that they travel with. Sports is 90 per cent mental and ten per cent physical. You can have as much ability as you want but if you are not there mentally, then you don't perform at your best. So the mental aspect of the game is absolutely critical.
Q: Tell us about your programme with the Reggae Boyz?
KM: The programme teaches the players techniques in concentration and breathing, relaxation plus team building with emphasis on team spirit and patriotism.
We had plans to deal with three major aspects that are involved in sports psychology.
Focus and flow: this is the ability to maintain optimal performance in the face of distractions and maintain attention and concentration.
Imagery and simulation: we use imagery to help them to achieve optimal performance. There might be a situation where a player might be injured and unable to go to practice so we use imagery to visualise a particular play using their head.
Team building: getting the boys to be like a family. Pick up for each other and function as a family. It is important to have that group cohesion as well, whether they are down or up.
Q: How did the players respond to it?
KM: They were very positive in their reaction. First of all, when the coach spoke to them they were all interested and excited about it. In our interaction with them they were very open to the interaction. This is not about 'you are crazy or you have problems that's why you need a psychologist on the team'. This is not what sports psychology is about. It's about dealing with pressure, the mental toughness, how you survive when you have just lost, how do you come back from that and stay motivated, how do you pull together as a team.
Q: Do you think this should have been introduced in Jamaican teams a long time ago?
KM: Absolutely, absolutely. They were very open to it. In Jamaica our players have enormous ability but something keeps us stuck. We can't quiet get to the next level sometimes. That is the aspect that was always missing for us. As a Third World country we face certain obstacles that a First World team does not face. A lot of our players have to work and play because they are not getting enough money, if any at all, so they play for the love of it. That's a real challenge that we face. In spite of all of that we still have to perform at our best.
Q: Do you work with other personalities in other sports?
KM: I had actually worked with the netball team last year. They have similar issues as a team. Every team has the same problems.
Q: Do you intend to work with schools at any level?
KM: We (performance team) had discussed it and would love to implement it. We are thinking about how could we get involved at that level. But it's a little challenging because most of us have full-time jobs. We even were approached by a premier league team.
Q: Is there a career for sports psychologists in Jamaica?
KM: Definitely. I certainly think so, because I got involved with the netball team last year. Psychology as a discipline is really growing in Jamaica. It is still young and growing, people are just catching on, while for years all the international teams have their psychologists. People are just starting to understand what is psychology, much less sports psychology. When I just started working with the netball team a lot of people were asking sports psychologist, what is that? What you do? Most assumed that it is how you deal with the problems in their lives. The understanding is coming around.
Q: There are two terms, narcissism and sociopathic disorders. What are the narcissism and sociopathic disorders that are normally diagnosed in athletes?
KM: Narcissism is a disorder where the person feels like they are better than everybody else. They are the focus of everything. They will step on people to get where they are going and are deserving to be where they are at. Self-centred, vain, so they are always having inter -personal relations problems and are not getting along with people. They are self-centred to the point where they are dysfunctional.
The sociopathic is what we call an anti-social person. This person is almost in the same class as being self-centred. This person is very manipulative and will do anything, whether it is breaking laws to get what they want. They don't have much care and don't develop close relationships, simply because they are using people. They will get into a relationship to get just what they want. This class of person has no respect for rules and practically no morals. They will break the law as long as they can get away with it. It can go as far as a con man to a murderer.
Q: Most professional athletes will agree that their psychologist plays a large part in their success. Why are they so reluctant to utilise the service?
KM: It's all about ignorance. This ignorance is at all levels. I am talking from the government coming down. A lot of people do not clearly understand. This is a beautiful avenue for people to understand. Funding is also another part of it. Psychology will be someway down the list of things to do for most teams. Some won't have psychology in their budget. They need it but financially they are not able to put it in. Hopefully that will change.
- Howard Walker
