Tom Cross (fifth from left), other speakers and participants at the ‘Sports Performance Leadership’ which was hosted by Josoor Institute.

By Joe Koraith/Doha


When we admire the life of that famous footballer, what with them opulent cribs and drool-worthy cars, the one aspect that’s not visible to us is the extreme pressure under which they are constantly. In today’s world, where everything that the player does – professional or personal - is closely monitored, handling this incessant pressure becomes a monumental task in itself.
And that’s where players need to ensure that they don’t bottle things up, talk about it and equally importantly, pat themselves on the back more. That’s what Tom Cross, sports psychologist, believes will help players in their ultra-competitive world. “Generically two things that we don’t do enough of are - one is that we don’t talk. We keep things internally. And we don’t pat ourselves enough. We are not kind enough to ourselves. Those two things are what I reinforce when I work with individuals and clubs,” said Cross. Having worked with GB Hockey for five years and recently with Sussex County Cricket Club, Cross is well versed with extreme pressures that sportspeople go through. He was here in Doha to give a talk to industry professionals as part of the ‘Sports Performance Leadership’ programme hosted by Josoor Institute and Leaders.
And this pressure is no longer an issue that adults have to deal with. Football clubs are recruiting youngsters and it’s normal for a teenage to get to the first team. It was only last year that then 15-year-old Martin Odegaard landed a 12 million pound deal with Real Madrid. Cross believes that it’s important for players to get support from a younger age. “People have different capabilities of resilience, of being able to perform under pressure. I think that people who get supported from a younger age tend to cope better as they get up into the professional ranks,” he said.
And at that stage the role of the coach and the senior players play a huge role. “The coach is a physiologist, the senior players are psychologists. They don’t have the qualification but they have the experience and the understanding. It’s about how a club can get players to share their experience. They need to have platforms to talk.”
Qatar’s Fahad Thani who was till recently the coach of the Qatar Olympic team, agrees that coaches need to don the hat of a psychologist too. “About having a sports psychologist in the team, it depends on the environment and the culture of the teams. But I think most important is that the coach improves himself in this department because he is best placed when it comes to dealing with the players. He needs to increase his information on the players and learn more about the mental aspect of the game. So that it will be linked to his message and the players can benefit from it,” said Thani.
Becoming a sportsperson, a successful one, gets you money, a lot of it today. Does that make it the main cause of the pressure that the player is experiencing? Cross doesn’t think so. “It’s just naive to think that money is the main cause of all pressure. They are in an abnormal culture. Elite sport is abnormal. We are asking people to perform to the best of their ability consistently, day in and day out. There’s anyway a lot of pressure internally within the team to get into the starting line-up. Not to mention the close scrutiny that their lives get in the public spectrum,” he said.
Pressure though is something that none of these players can escape from and Cross believes it’s vital that the mental aspect of the game gets as much, if not more, importance. “The biggest thing is that people buy into the fact that mental conditioning is just as important as physical conditioning. You have a physio for your body. What do you have for your mind? Your mind is not as if not more important than your body. Recognise that and value it. Respect it and perceive that going to talk to someone about the mental aspect is a positive thing and not a negative thing,” Cross signed off.

Josoor Institute and Leaders host Sports Performance Leadership programme for industry professionals in Qatar

Josoor Institute, a centre of excellence for the sports and events industries, inspired and developed by the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy (SC), conducted an executive development programme titled “Sports Performance Leadership”. The eight day programme is delivered in partnership with Leaders, a global event, publishing and consultancy business and takes place in Doha and London, including the attendance of delegates to the much acclaimed Leaders Sport Performance Summit in London.
The programme serves towards the development of leadership and management capabilities of executive sports professionals in Qatar and combines best practice from the global world of sport with business insight and academic rigor. Among the delegates at the programme are representatives from the SC, Qatar Football Association, Qatar Stars League, Lekhwiya Sport Club, Aspire and Qatar Foundation.
The ‘Sports Performance Leadership’ programme brought to Doha a line-up of world class speakers and leading experts from diverse professional backgrounds, including the CEO of Essendon Football Club, AFL, a High Performance Consultant from the NFL and the NBA, a Sports Psychologist from the Sussex Cricket and London Irish Rugby, and the Chief Talent Officer of Saatchi & Saatchi to name a few.