Getting inside minds to make Meath successful again

During his acceptance speech after Limerick’s victory over Galway in the All-Ireland SHC final a few weeks ago, Limerick captain Cian Lynch name checked various people who helped the team to the top of the mountain.

There was manager John Kiely and coach Paul Kinnerk, and various others he referenced who played their part in helping the county claim their 13th All-Ireland SHC success. One of those mentioned was the team’s sport psychologist, Caroline Currid, or performance psychologist, as she is also known as.

In the build up to the final manager Kiely had also referenced to the importance of Currid in the background team; her crucial role in helping to make the Limerick players mentally prepared for the challenges they encountered along the way.

It has been a common practice now for successful captains to reference the role of a team’s psychologist; their importance in the entire project.

Ailbhe Ryan doesn’t know Currid personally but she’s a big admirer of her work, especially with the Limerick hurlers. “I look up to her greatly and what she has achieved, those inter-county successes,” she says.

“When Cian Lynch mentioned her in his speech Caroline nearly got a standing ovation from the people in Croke Park which was just phenomenal. She has broken through a lot of ceilings.”

MYSTERIES OF THE MIND

The mind - wrote the poet Gerard Manly Hopkins - “has mountains, fantoms deep” and the science of exploring minds, the harnessing and shaping of mindsets so that they can be utilised to turn people into the best they can be, fascinates Ailbhe Ryan.

It’s partly what compels her to work with players, to help them maximise their talents although she doesn’t call herself a sports psychologist. Instead, she refers to herself as a “mental skills coach.”

“I’m accredited but because I didn’t study sports psychology at undergraduate level, I label myself as a mental skills coach but basically the two do the same kind of work,” she explains.

Ryan (30) is, in her regular day job, a primary school teacher in Straffan NS but her interest and involvement in camogie - added to her fascination with the mind and the impact it can have in a sporting context – brought her to the position where she has spent the last year working with the Meath camogie team.

Originally from Lucan, Ryan played the game for Dublin and Kildare. She says that connection between mind and body, and the need for players who want to be successful to live a disciplined, focused life, was something that interested her from an early stage.

“I was lucky in the household I grew up in, it was very stable and my father (Liam) is from Kilkenny so it was a hurling mad house, the whole time, but I was very conscious too of the importance of having a lifestyle to match what was required especially at inter-county level.

“I knew a lot of girls and athletes growing up that maybe didn’t have that same outlook and the pressure might have got to them, they might have collapsed more on the pitch.”

As time moved on Ryan wanted to explore why that was the case and what the relationship was between a player’s mentally and level of performance. She studied sports psychology part-time, completing a masters in the subject five years ago.

She has, in recent years, worked with the Tipperary and Offaly ladies football squads. Then she was asked by the new manager of the Meath camogie team, Stephen Sheil, if she would join his backroom set-up. She is delighted she accepted the challenge, because there she found a compatible environment.

“Some management teams, not that I have experienced this myself, might be content to just tick the box, 'oh we need to have someone in for the mental side of things', tick the box, and you wouldn’t hear much from them.

“Stephen from the get-go was so enthusiastic, he was very much on the same page as me in terms of the importance of it, so it was brilliant to work with someone so enthusiastic about the subject.”

Before joining any set-up Ryan seeks to find the answers to some important questions.

“Are the people involved interested in just the performance on the pitch or do they want to the players to be successful individuals and happy individuals overall, are the players eating well, sleeping well? How are they getting on at work and college? It’s an overall support system, not just about what happens on the pitch, it’s totally holistic.”

Questions are asked of players, and whether they want support in other aspects of their lives – or not. It’s not about prying into people’s private lives, she emphasis, but trying to find out how that support system can help.

“Obviously it depends on the individual, some people come to training after a row at home and they play better, but I think for the longevity of the player if they are happy at home, if they have the support that is part of their lifestyle, that they have that balance in their lifestyle, you can see players surviving longer without burn out and things like that.”

“One of the brilliant things with Stephen (Sheil) and all the Meath gang was that we kept saying to the players, if there is something happening in their lives that we can help with, let us know.

"It’s not going to impact how we see you, we just want to support you because a lot of the girls are very high achievers, they are on placement in college or have exams or work to do.

"If we can’t support them, and have an understanding of just how busy their lives are, how could they ever perform at their best.”

PERSONAL HISTORIES

During her time working with inter-county players one of the most common issues Ailbhe Ryan has to tackle with players is the so-called ‘imposter syndrome.’ That self questioning: ‘Am I worthy to be playing at this level?’

It’s something, she points out, that can affect and hamper anybody. It goes to the heart of a player’s core belief in him or herself and their place in the grand scheme of things. Whether they feel they belong on the big stage – or not.

Finding a way to tell players that indeed they do is, she points out, one hugely important step in any player’s career.

“That’s when you say to them 'right let’s go back through the facts'. You ask them to tell you their history in camogie and you find out, sure they’ve all been playing the game since they were five, that they are one of the main women with their club.

"You are trying to get them to come up with the awareness and try to point out, well the facts are here, the facts are you have achieved so much already in your life. You are trying to get them to realise yeah, I actually do put a lot of hard work into this.

“You hope that deep down they have the self-belief and you are trying to tap into it, to get them to pick out the best match they ever played and say to them, you did it then, you can do it now?

“I suppose in all comes down to their own self confidence and what they are saying in their heads.”

The Meath camogie team had a year that contained plenty of disappointments but some high achievements too.

They lost out to Kerry in the National League Div 2 final (0-8 to 1-7) and to Westmeath in the Leinster (0-11 to 1-10).

Then it was onto the All-Ireland championship series where they were conquered by Westmeath (1-12 to 4-13) and Laois (2-13 to 2-9).

The summer was turning into a washout. Then they started to turn things around. A last group game win over Carlow (4-15 to 1-12) was followed by a quarter-final victory over Derry (0-15 to 0-12).

The campaign ended with a 0-12 to 3-10 loss in the All-Ireland semi-final to a very accomplished Antrim side at Inniskeen.

While the results were mixed Ryan feels the players showed the kind of resilience that provides encouragement for the future, especially if the team sticks together. It’s all about picking out the positives.

“Yeah, we knew we were very close, in the league final against Kerry we lost by two points, the Leinster championship, the All-Ireland series, they were all very close margins, we weren’t getting hammered by anyone.

"We did a lot of work around belief, pointing out what we did right and ggbecause it’s Stephen’s first year we are trying to tell the girls this is building, this is the foundational year. We are just trying to get used to each other and work towards getting better and better and keep growing.

“I think there are amazing leaders on the team and everybody had a message. Leah (Devine) said it in her semi-final pre-match speech. She talked about resilience and I think that’s brilliant coming from the captain.

"Things, at certain stages of the year, might not be working out, it’s not an easy road, but everybody is sticking together, that was the message. There is so much hope for the future of Meath camogie,” she added.

“If players are happy, and they can keep the group together, they can achieve anything.”

Ailbhe Ryan clearly believes that is the case. Her mission is to convince others to buy into the same idea.