05 June 2005    
Misia Gervis Exclusive

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As the England Women’s first ever sport psychologist Misia Gervis would freely admit, her field of expertise has suffered from a certain amount of scepticism in recent times.

Yet with England’s ten match unbeaten run coming shortly after Misia's appointment, we took some time to find out the part psychology plays in the England setup.

"An important part of those wins has been the excellent team behind the team," she said, "and everybody has contributed to developing that and moving everything forward.

"I think I probably brought in some expertise in new areas and have also been important in developing a strong, cohesive and supportive team.

"When you get to this elite level of competition differences in terms of physical ability, training regimes, technical ability, become a lot smaller.

"Often the key difference is in terms of the psychological approach – how players manage the situation, how they handle the pressure.

"So that’s a key area in which sport psychologists can help develop coping mechanisms and ultimately enhance performance."

So was England Women’s Team coach Hope Powell responsible for her appointment?

"Absolutely, she has always been very aware, and very forward thinking. She’s been willing to embrace anything that she thinks will give that extra one percent.

"I started working with the team in August - it was important for me that it was far enough away from the tournament to enable me to actually have some impact on the team.

"I think in some instances sport psychologists are brought in as quick-fix merchants, problem solvers rather than an essential part of developing a team and part of a much more holistic way of viewing team development and team performance.

"If you try and come in and fix something in two weeks it isn’t going to work, because you haven’t had enough time to develop and work with the players."

With sport psychology playing an increasing role over the last decade, Misia feels the trend is set to continue into the future, and would encourage more people to take up training in the discipline.

"If you look back over the last ten to fifteen years you can see the role of sport psychologists have changed drastically. It is evolving and it is changing, but is still fairly new in football.

"For those wanting more information there’s a lot of degree courses available. In my own university, Brunel, we offer programmes that look specifically at sport psychology.

"The FA Learning Level 1 Sport Psychology site is also a useful place to start. It shows how sport psychology can be useful particularly working with children – it starts at that kind of level. So there are different avenues that people interested in it can access sport psychology now."