The Sports
Psychology Blog
Today's Sports Psychology blog follows the All-Ireland hurling quarter-final between Kilkenny and Galway. Can the sweet scent of victory be a bad thing for a team?
GAA: Galway - The Intoxication Of Success
It's just short of the sixty minute mark in the All Ireland hurling quarter-final. Favourites Kilkenny and Galway are level. There is a palpable sense amongst the Galway players that they can turn over Kilkenny. That the possibility of victory is now a reality. It is right there for the taking. You can see it in their eyes.
You would suspect that this growing conviction would be a strength. A rock of fortitude for their belief to stand on. Under normal circumstances this would be. But these are not normal circumstances. They are facing the All-Ireland champions.
When a team starts to contemplate the possibility of victory it leaves them vulnerable. Vulnerable to losing the potency of focus. No longer being in the moment. Getting a fraction ahead of themselves. Becoming intoxicated with the scent of success.
Leading to over enthusiasm. Forgetting the basics. No longer doing the very things that had created this possibility of success. Strength revealing weakness. And so it proves.
Slack, non-existent marking creates a scoring opportunity for Kilkenny's Eddie Brennan. He takes it, and Kilkenny seize the moment. They exploit this fresh vulnerability. Like predators. Ruthless. Poised. Always at the ready.
If Galway want to learn from their Croke Park defeat, they must develop the mentality of a team who doesn't react to the possibility of beating the All-Ireland champions. That doesn't get ahead of themselves. It must simply be a matter of cool, calculating fact. In other words, the mentality of All-Ireland champions.
