Psychological Edge
We recognise a high-performance netball environment can often be competitive, fast-paced, and stretch people to the edge of their coping capacities. This provides opportunities for growth, and it is important to acknowledge that some level of challenge is normal when people are trying to achieve extraordinary things in netball. Where there are high levels of challenge, we need to meet this with high levels of support and consider together how to promote high performance in a way that is sustainable.
As such, the psychological edge pillar is there to help coaches and athletes sustain excellent on-court performances, whilst supporting individual and group wellbeing.
Psychological edge includes three characteristics that were developed from studying high-performance athletes across various sports. These characteristics are linked to maximising an athlete’s development over time, progression to an elite level, and sustaining performance at an elite level over time.
Whilst these characteristics can be broken down into observable behaviours and used to guide the psychological edge of your netballers, there also needs to be an appreciation of individual differences. Fundamentally, the aim of this pillar is to help you understand what drives each of your athlete’s behaviours and the ‘story’ that sits behind these behaviours.
To do this we look to help you understand the various factors that influence behaviour (e.g. developmental history, context, environment, personalities, beliefs, pressures etc) and provide you with some core information around:
1) How the brain works under pressure.
3) Attachment styles (e.g. how to build relationships with athletes).
Seeking to understand your athletes gives you the best chance of providing effective support. Furthermore, it forms the basis of a trusting relationship that is built through curiosity, empathy, and willingness to understand others. This acts as a springboard for your athletes to develop into autonomous self-aware thinkers, to take ownership of their drive to do what it takes to achieve individual and team success, and to be clearer and more connected to their purpose.
