adminIt was a deliberate attempt to avoid the public scrutiny which has followed his tumble from form, after a knee injury triggered the kind of psychological crisis elite athletes dread.
“The confidence I require to stand at the end of the runway and then charge down, land my pole and soar almost six metres into the air has left me for the time being,”
Hooker admitted in February.
“Sometimes I run in and I don’t take off. It’s as simple as that.”
Hooker has faced down his mental demons, clearing an Olympic qualifying 5,72 metres in the specially sanctioned, invite-only event at his personal training centre, with
just 150 people present.
But his battles provide an extreme example of the importance of an athlete’s mental state — which, according to experts, will often be the difference between winning and losing at the London Games.
“Many years ago psychology was the sort of thing you did when you had a problem. It’s now part of an athlete’s weaponry,” said Matt Favier, director of the government-funded Australian Institute of Sport (AIS).
“It’s less of identifying a problem and it’s about how you maximise your performance potential.”
Australia’s Olympians will be offered a clinical psychologist in the team’s mobile recovery centre for the first time in London, where they can debrief and come for relaxation and other stress-management techniques during competition.
Some athletes will have counselling or learn breathing or sleeping techniques, others will simply listen to music or practice positive visualisations of their disciplines.
Shona Halson, head of the AIS performance recovery programme, says mental recovery is being recognised as “just as important” as physical repair at major events. — AFP.
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