“Firstly a massive congratulations to Sharon Hunt for her impressive win in Luhmuhlen, Germany – a tremendous achievement for horse and rider. I am sure there will be plenty more to come.

On the flip side, it is a shame that our England footballers have struggled to show the same level of focussed determination. That said, and whatever you may think about the World Cup, it is refreshing to have witnessed the supposed ‘minnows’ of the tournament consistently beating the footballing ‘giants’ such as France, Spain, Germany and Italy. This to me demonstrates a power that transcends physical talent alone, and thank God! The sporting world would be a highly dull place if the winners could be predicted by ability and experience alone. As sport psychology starts to break down the mysteries of this illusive ‘X-factor’, what interests me the most is how to help people recreate their best performances – every time they go out and compete. With this in mind, I was recently given the opportunity to put one or two key principles into practice with the UK Polocrosse Team.

From an individual equestrian sport to a team equestrian sport, I headed up to Doncaster to work with the senior and junior polocrosse squads as they started to plan ahead towards the Polocrosse World Cup to be held for the first time on UK soil next year. A fast, dynamic team-sport, Polocrosse offers its players very different psychological challenges to that of eventers, dressage riders and show jumpers.

In fact, I am often asked how working with equestrians compares to working with athletes or teams from other sports. In short, the principles tend to be the same but with a different emphasis. For example, we may not consider the role of leadership to be as important in an individual sport as it is in team sports like polocrosse, but actually I see a huge amount of leadership behaviour contributing to the success of riders. Our new Badminton winner for 2010, Paul Tapner, has emphasised the value he places on building and maintaining the “team environment” upon which the people who surround him are motivated, confident and feel valued within their role. Take time today to watch somebody who is doing something because they are told to do it (the ‘agnostics’ as I like to call them) and compare their behaviour with someone who is doing something because they want to do it. Teams and leaders who recognise and address this ‘human element’ tend to be the ones who go on to perform beyond expectation (as has been seen to great effect in business as well as sport).

So how was this going to help UK Polocrosse in their quest to become the best team in the world? For a start, I was likely to be introducing myself to a group of individuals with varying degrees of ‘belief’ about the importance of psychology. This is understandable because, until recently, sport psychology has only really been applied to the upper echelons of sport. Nonetheless, I was less interested in trying to ‘prove’ anything to them and more interested in simply uniting them in their appreciation of what it’s like to compete at the highest level. In other words, how does pressure impact on performance and how do we prepare ourselves for this beforehand. From there we were able to recognise and observe common patterns and behaviours that led to either defeat or victory, thereby starting to install elements of control both as individuals and as a team. The day developed from there and I was delighted to see such enthusiastic consideration of new routines on-and-off the pitch, communication styles, responsibilities and even victory celebrations (of which I am sure there will be many!)

The day finished on a high with plenty to take away and digest. Importantly, there was a rejuvenated excitement for what the future may hold! Thank you very much to the team for inviting me and I can’t wait to take it further as the World Cup draws closer!

To keep updated with information on equestrian psychology and for future events, please visit my site (link below) or join me on Facebook (Charlie Unwin – Equestrian Psychologist).”