How FA mindset guru’s four questions provide building blocks to sporting glory | Cath Bishop Kate Hays, the sports psychologist assisting the Lionesses in their Euros defence, offers an compelling blueprint for sustainable performance.
Hays, head of women’s performance psychology at the Football Association, takes us behind the scenes of some epic sporting achievements, from Tom Daley’s diving career to the Harlequins championship-winning team and Sarina Wiegman’s Euros-winning Lionesses.
Britton, a forensic psychologist, looks for the “mind trace” left by criminals rather than fingerprints or bloodstains, and asks himself four questions when faced with a crime scene: “What happened, who was the victim, how was it done and why?”.
She recalls loving the TV drama series Cracker, based on Robbie Coltrane’s colourful criminal psychologist, and was gripped by Paul Britton’s book The Jigsaw Man.
We search to understand how the best teams make game-winning decisions, communicate almost telepathically, recover from failure and deliver breathtaking performances when it matters most.
