Why winning is all in the mind

ANY minute now, it'll happen. All those England flags will be stripped from car aerials, bedroom windows and pubs to be replaced by the distinctive black, red and gold of the German tricolour. In the spirit of Europeanism, the English will unite behind Germany's bid to win the World Cup on Sunday.

Or maybe not.

Let's face it, those English football fans who tune in on Sunday will be 100 per cent behind the Brazilians. There is something about the Germans that puts our backs up.

It can be traced back to a couple of skirmishes in the last century, of course. But since the football pitch has replaced the battlefield, our desire to see Germany get a good stuffing has not diminished.

Hence the unalloyed joy of England's 5-1 defeat of the Germans in Munich a little under a year ago. And our pain at seeing an ordinary German side get to the final after we faltered at the quarters.

Oh, but they do like to rub it in. German football legend Franz Beckenbauer told the Daily Mirror after the Brazilian match: "If England had the mental strength of Germany they would be in the semi-finals and be favourites to win the tournament.

"Some teams take failure and use it as a reason to come back stronger. They build up again and use the memory to their advantage. That is what Germany appear to have done.

"Other teams use failure as an excuse for more failure and it becomes a mental block."

In other words, as the Mirror's headline put it, "You bottled it". What makes his comments all the harder to take is they have a ring of truth about them.

Rubbish, says York occupational psychologist Katherine D'arcy Brown. Beckenbauer might have been right a few years ago, when England did "bottle it" in penalty shoot-outs against Germany and Argentina.

But things have changed. "I totally disagree with Beckenbauer on that point," said Katherine, who is a partner in Oriel Consulting Occupational Pscyhologists in High Ousegate.

"I feel very strongly that the English team have done a lot to strengthen their psychology under the management of Sven.

"The psychology of the English is now very professional. Rather than just bash the ball about, they go out and are very confident in their skills.

"They have played in a much more psychologically-controlled manner."

Colin Sanctuary agrees. The York St John College sports studies lecturer is researching which psychological skills cricketers need to succeed.

"England almost didn't qualify then suddenly they have gone through to the quarter finals. They are breaking that mould," he said.

Both he and Katherine point to coach Sven-Goran Eriksson's use of Norwegian sports psychologist Dr Willi Railo to build up the England player's mental strength. Dr Railo told the Guardian he spoke to some of the team by telephone after their morale-draining opening draw with Sweden. He told them "about self-confidence and self-belief and the need to dare to lose a match to win it".

This did the trick: they put in a superb performance to clinch victory against Argentina.

Dr Railo cited captain David Beckham as the most obvious beneficiary of his work. And you could see instant results, Katherine said.

"Beckham certainly has been doing a lot of psychological training. He is taken through a process of visualisation: they call it 'getting into the zone'."

The England psychologist "takes a player into this area where he imagines himself taking a shot, and imagines himself taking it successfully, before actually doing it".

Remember the concentration on Beckham's face as he waited to take the penalty against the Argentinians? That was him "getting into the zone".

"Professional footballers know they have the advantage when they take a penalty. If you rush then you're more likely to miss. They have trained him to take his time."

More generally, sports psychology is all about putting England in a winning frame of mind. And the England coach has the perfect temperament for instilling that confidence. "Sven is calm, he brings everybody down," Katherine said. "He's not building up expectations, he's saying go out and do a professional job: he teaches them not to believe in the hype."

Yet we still lost to Brazil. Katherine puts this partly down to a psychological mis-match.

"The mis-match is not to do with England's not wanting to win as much. But the Brazilians had a different psychological style in the way they approached the game.

"The psychology of the English is now very professional, whereas the Brazilians are playing to have fun and not worrying about it."

The good news is that she believes this happy belief in their own ability to conjure a goal from nothing could also undo the Germans' rigid mentality.

Since England's World Cup exit, the nation's hopes for sporting success this Jubilee year have been dumped on one man's shoulders: Tim Henman (although Greg Rusedski does share a little of the burden).

After three big Wimbledon stars went out on Tuesday, the Sun's front page yesterday put it this way: "Tim, Greg... If you can't win it now you never will". Talk about pressure. How would Elizabeth advise Henman to cope?

"He's the number four seed. He's got the ability to win, he's got the skills to win. I wouldn't let him read too much of what's being written.

"I would train him to block out the background noise and everything that's going on, and practise ignoring everybody, and get him to focus purely on what he was doing in the game.

"I would take him through the process of expecting what's going to happen with each player and anticipate the different styles. Focus on that and nothing else."

Colin Sanctuary said Tim Henman's previous semi-final appearances at Wimbledon suggest he has the mental toughness to succeed. He dismisses the idea that only ice-cool automatons such as Pete Sampras can do well, citing the success of firebrands like John McEnroe. "As long as they have got the talent, it doesn't matter."

But the right mindset is more crucial than ever, Colin believes.

"These kids who are playing professional sport get expert tuition in technique, they get the best physical training. Still the one area that tends to get neglected is the area of the mind."

So what psychological techniques would turn the nearly-men of England's football team and Tim Henman into champions?

"If you could answer that question you would make a fortune," said Colin.

Updated: 10:43 Friday, June 28, 2002