NS EXCLUSIVE LEAH FOGARTY: VICTORIAN NETBALL LEAGUE SPORTS PSYCHOLOGIST
PART 2
This is part two of a two-part interview series that covers discussions with sports psychologists about peak performance and the impacts of Covid within Suncorp Super Netball and the Victorian Netball League.
There is no doubt that the last two years have called on great resilience and poise from athletes, coaches, and umpires and has also starkly reminded us of the vital role mindset plays in consistent peak performance.
Training to perform at the elite level of netball requires not only physical training and refinement but also mental. Helen Housby put it aptly in the 2021 Suncorp Super Netball grand final pre-game interview: “If we show up and bring our best game, we can beat anyone, it is more mindset than anything. It is nothing physical.
“It is how you show up on the day, trusting the processes and sticking to game plan, that is when we will win it”. But knowing how to get there can sometimes be difficult and requires drawing on many different resources.
While we understand that Suncorp Super Netball athletes engage in building a performance mindset, it is less well known that the Australian Netball League and the Victorian Netball League (VNL) also focus on mindset by working with sports psychologists.
Leah Fogarty is currently the Netball Victoria sports psychologist, working with the Casey Demons in the VNL and is the Director of Melbourne-based Performance Psychology business, Between the Ears, where she individually supports athletes, coaches, and umpires. Fogarty has previously worked with Victorian based Australian Netball League Teams and from 2003 to 2004 was the sport psychologist for the Melbourne Phoenix. She has also been a sports consultant for other organisations, including Swimming Victoria and the Melbourne Golf Academy.
For players, umpires, and coaches to develop their craft, sports psychologists like Leah Fogarty can help to answer questions about which psychological resources to draw from and how these resources can be utilised, to ensure that they can achieve their goals and fulfil their potential.
Leah Fogarty in a workshop with netballers. Image supplied by Leah Fogarty
The foundation
Leah Fogarty likens the body to a high-performance machine.
“Everyone is a high-performance machine. If you think of a machine as a race car. Pick the car you want to be. Some might want to be a Lamborghini, or a Maserati. But right now, you might only be a Mazda 2. How do we get a Mazda 2 to perform like a Formula One race car? And what is the driver of the car? Between the ears.”
Fogarty explains how other elements of training fit into crafting the machine. “While the brain drives the car, the nutritionist is helping to fuel the system and the strength and conditioning coach is working on the aerodynamics of the car, for example.”
Human beings are complex systems that live in complex environments. Therefore, the environment or club culture is the first port of call for Fogarty, who believes that this acts like a Global Positioning System (GPS) for players. Having clarity in the purpose and direction helps the team articulate the group ethos, values and therefore the desired behaviours and outcomes, which help players to step over obstacles with intention throughout the season.
“My role is to help VNL clubs intentionally create their own culture at the start of the season. In my program, I am asking teams, what is your GPS, what is the destination we are putting in the GPS? Is that finals, is that just winning one game? This ensures that the clarity of purpose is established and begins the process of asking – how we are going to get there?”
Fogarty drills down into the importance of team culture when she says, “The word culture in Latin means ‘to care’. To have a good culture, it means you must have good connections, heartfelt connections. Athletes have to feel inspired and buy into the culture and creating a heartfelt team culture through connection is paramount to this.”
Breaking it down to the fundamentals, Fogarty also encourages players in her program to tap into the person behind the athlete and provides resources for players to enrich their self-care and self-reflection.
“There are many well-being components that we need to take care of because we can have this beautiful road map or GPS, but if no one is able to function or perform, by taking care of those nuts and bolts, we have no team. Once areas like sleep and body awareness are taken care of, the players can have a solid foundation to reach their best performance.
“I do those types of workshops where you might be talking about yourself as an athlete, but you also might want to share some of yourself in your private life. After all, you are first and foremost a human being.”
One roadblock to consistency and focus that Fogarty has noticed in her time as sport psychologist is players comparing themselves to other players or teams.
“You shouldn’t be comparing yourself to your own club, your own team, or your own self, the person you were yesterday. We want to make sure players can be the best they can be and that the team or club can be the best it can be, and this requires consistency. The more you’re putting your energy out there, the more you lose inside of you. That means you are already giving over your power, gifts, and strengths. You have to be in your own lane.”
Sticking to your own lane enables the team to function well, as it allows players to stay focused on executing their role on and off the court.
“Everyone has a part to play and if you don’t the machine doesn’t function. It will be shut down on the side of the road, not being able to drive. Accountability and responsibility are essential for a positive team culture.”
“Finger pointing and blaming looks back and looking in the rear-view mirror means that the car will probably crash. We want players and teams to be looking ahead, focusing their energy in being proactive in driving their car where they want to go.”
VNL athletes have also benefited from working with Fogarty. Image Kirsten Daley
Performance mindset and focus.
Once the foundations of well-being and team culture have been set, performance mindset and focus can be cultivated. Fogarty divides this process for her VNL teams, getting out on the court and doing what you need to do, into two simple and catchy categories- The three Ps and the three As.
The Ps
Purpose – what is your why?
“Every game, every performance needs to have a purpose. Questions players should be asking themselves are: Why am I going out there, what am I going to do? This gives the players something tangible to ground themselves. This is different for everyone and so it’s really important for players to personalise this process.”
Process- game plan
“Understanding the process, the game plan or quarter plan, is essential and is inextricably linked with the other two P’s”.
Present- staying in the now
“This ties back into the staying in your own lane. To be at their best, players need to be mindful and in the moment. I will get players to do a lot of mindfulness work before the game, whether that be while you are eating, while you are brushing your teeth, or even when you are talking to someone, so when they are on the court, they can bring their attention back to the here and now and the process, when they might be time travelling in their mind. This also involves pre-performance routines too.”
The As
Attitude – energy and mindset
“Having catch phrases like ‘pressure is a privilege’ or ‘never give up’ on their phone or written on their hand, for example, helps players to anchor themselves when their attitude might be waning.”
Action- Just do it
“Action is quite self-explanatory. The players need to make sure that they act. You can draw a picture of the car but unless the engineer and everyone puts the car together, it is still just lines on a page.”
Adapt – In real time and post-game review
“When we do act, not everything goes the way that we want it too. That’s the adapt. Adapt is not just at the end of game, it is also about quarters. At the end of each quarter, they need to be taking stock of what’s happening, what’s working and what is not and be open to change; taking risks and seeing opportunities as they present. Players need to be accountable for the part they played and taking their learnings into trainings for the next week or two.”
A thought for all. Image supplied by Leah Fogarty
Post Traumatic Growth and Personal Experience
As of late, Fogarty has developed a Post Traumatic Growth program to help athletes and coaches find meaning, learnings, and benefits from loss and pain, which bloomed from her own experience on the court.
“Seeing the gain in the pain is essential for players’ growth. If you get beaten by a team by a lot, it is important to reflect on what we did well as a team, but also what was some positive aspects of us getting beaten. This situation could give you ideas and desire about what you could be doing even better.”
Fogarty says her days as a former netballer for Western Australia has helped her understand that the work on yourself, before stepping the court, is a crucial investment, to ensure you can live up to your full potential.
“I never made it to the level I wanted to because I was a fiery defender. I was one of those players who would get angry on the court at myself, at the opposition and at the umpire. What was behind all that anger though was my first encounter with death at the age of nine.
“I have lost a lot of people in my life and throughout my teens and early 20s I was carrying all this residual grief, which would come out as anger. I needed to do more healing of my own traumas to shine and be free and achieve everything that I wanted to achieve.”
The transition from on the court to the sidelines has been an interesting and enriching process, allowing for Fogarty to impart her wisdom to other players.
“Due to my ties with Netball Victoria and playing against the likes of Sharelle McMahon, my first job as a sports psychologist, after finishing my studies and coming to Melbourne in 2001, was with the Melbourne Phoenix. I was then working with Sharelle and Ella (Southby). It was a really interesting transition from being that player to then being the professional on the side of the court, who is working with them, not playing against them, which I was used to.”
As an embodiment of the process, Fogarty highlighted that while resilience is bouncing back, post traumatic growth is bouncing forward.
“I lost my dad to a heart attack in 2006, so more grief came into my world and everyone, including athletes, deal with death of some sort, whether that be a relationship loss or moving house. It wasn’t until 2018 where I went to a sports conference that focused on mental health awareness and well-being and I asked the panel how much support and fundings there was around grief counselling that I realised that this was lacking, and I needed to do this.”
Fogarty provides programmes supporting the emotional development of athletes. Image supplied by Leah Fogarty
Fogarty has created a program that aims to help umpires, players and coaches heal themselves, and to see the goodness that comes out of hardship. The concepts of grief (shock and denial, bargaining, guilt, anger, sadness, acceptance) also have a final element- finding meaning. It is here that Fogarty’s three principles stem.
Understanding – the issues in the tissues
“You need to understand what your traumas are. If you don’t, they are going to be behind the scenes and they are going to hold you back in life. We create stories that aren’t true, that aren’t facts that can sabotage us. So, I get people to write out their history of pain, particularly with netball and see the themes that emerge. We have to start with releasing the energy from the body because our body holds the emotional pain.”
A simple yet powerful exercise to clear this emotional pain is- name, feel and release. When we participate in naming, and feeling, our body and mind can align and file the memory away properly.
Emotional release and body and mind alignment are empowering processes, yet to get there we need to take personal accountability.
“What happened was meant to happen because it happened. If you are sitting in the pain of it, you are only seeing part of the story. You can’t blame the other person, or that coach. We, as human beings, tend to see things as good or bad but things are good and bad.”
The stories and the meaning– reframing to see gain in the pain
Having the understanding can help to empower individuals to reframe facts, which facilitates the creation of deeper transformational meaning.
“Focusing on the facts means that we can then reframe the stories that we tell ourselves. So that’s the thing- we find the facts first and then the meaning. So, what were the opportunities that presented because of that pain? Did someone come into your life because of that pain? This also leads to questions like “how are you going to make decisions differently in your life because of these events?”
These processes provide cognitive reprogramming, marrying together the painful event, which has now been processed through the body work, with the story of ‘gain in the pain’. Fogarty highlights that this Post Traumatic Growth template can be used on an ongoing process, not only to help clear out past emotional issues, but also issues that arise on and off the court on an ongoing basis.
By releasing what is holding individuals back, the focus can now be on the process, being present and acting in alignment with their purpose. Being emotionally clear can provide the space for athletes, coaches, and umpires to have the right attitude, take appropriate action, and adapt in a way that serves their goals and aspirations.
“This framework is applied to coaches and umpires in the same way. Let’s go through the history of pain, let’s release it and let’s explore the stories that you tell yourself about you and others or your career and look at the gain in the pain. The players, coaches and umpires drive it all, I just give them the template.”
Most importantly, this process empowers players, coaches, and umpires to create their own version of success.
“Having an ideal or goal to work towards also helps anchor this process for players, coaches and umpires. I ask them, what do you want your legacy to be? When you hang up your whistle or coaches’ jacket, what do you want to be known for? Take the best of idols you might know and create your own ideal and balance that with your own strengths.”
“Because when you are anchored in your sense of self, whatever happens out here, you are fine and if you have your connections around you, you’ll be fine.”
Melbourne Vixens kick off their campaign in 2021. Staying connected through Covid is crucial according to Fogarty. Image Kirsten Daley
Covid and VNL
Accordingly, Fogarty views the pain of the last two years through the lens of gain.
“We are social creatures. When we go through challenges, we need support. With Covid, it has been the hardest thing for people. When I start with culture in a club, I say, this is about you as people, we are going to get you heart connected so that no matter what you go through, you’re doing it together and you are going to heal together.”
“Staying connected during Covid was the most critical way to get you through this time. The gain in the pain is when people were brought into my life or people were there for me, so this has been a really great time of learning.”
With the move online, creativity around connecting players has been paramount. Fogarty has moved much of her work online and this has made it even more accessible to the netball community.
“I contacted the head coaches and asked them what their plan was regarding their training schedule going forward. I gave them ideas for certain activities, for example, adapting Pilates online, as one of the girls in the team had her own Pilates studio. Beside the normal training they were trying to do at home and have guidance with, they had these other formats where they could remain connected.”
“I did also do Zoom workshops with them last year, to the point that this year I was working with four VNL teams. There is no conflict of interest, it is more me going in and being of service to anyone in the netball space.”
Connecting players together was the main strategy to help maintain momentum, energy, and passion through a time when consistency in the VNL program was not possible.
“It’s been a dance, there hasn’t been the typical process of training, playing, and having downtime and then we go again. They haven’t had that rhythm, everything in life is a rhythm and suddenly now we don’t have a rhythm; it’s like we have a flatline.”
Another example of connecting players is the buddy system.
“Most clubs adopted the buddy system, where you had to check in with certain people on an individual level, besides the team and group forums.”
The impact of Covid over the last two years has been far reaching and some netballers may choose to move on.
“It has been a hard time for a lot of athletes. 2022 is not going to be like these last two years. There will be people who drift away from netball. Some will have been disheartened now, or maybe enlightened that maybe netball isn’t everything. Covid has shaken us all to reflect on what we really want. Some girls may say I have a different path to walk, and this could include jumping from netball to AFLW, as I have worked with a lot of netballers who have jumped codes.”
Fogarty aptly puts the impacts of Covid into a metaphor about water.
“Imagine you are walking along, and I have water in my cup, and someone bumps me. What is going to spill? Imagine then that that cup is filled with pain from the last two years. What is going to spill out when someone bumps me? That is what Covid did. It bumped the pain out of us.”
A VNL match between the Hawks and the Falcons. After a long hiatus, netball is hoping to go ahead at a community level. Image Kirsten Daley
The future for VNL looks very different with the uncertainty of when teams can get back on court and how teams will be selected.
“VNL clubs are trying to look at how they do trials, like, how do you select a team, or a club for next year because they don’t know if they can have on court trials in the coming months. There were even whispers about video trials where you video yourself doing specific skills. It is going to be interesting to see what sort of season it will be regarding performances. Either people will go out and shine and be happy to be back or, as there has been such a big gap, it might take a while for players and the like to find their feet. Aside from the physicality of it all, the passion may have been lost.”
Fogarty, having worked with players from the Casey Demons and umpires in the SSN hub last year, shares how stressful this time was.
“A lot of them went to the hub in Brisbane. Working with the umpires and players in the hub was different as there was a group of people who have been thrown together, to live together for a substantial period. Every emotion is amplified, and people had meltdowns. This year, I have been working through Netball Victoria, with umpires, and athletes, to help them heal.”
Looking forward to implementing her programs with teams at the start of next season, Fogarty says that she is going to focus on heart connections with the girls, rather than jumping into the mechanics like she usually would.
“We will talk about well-being, where are you at? And then talking about what we went through last year, what is still sticking with you? Some of the girls had not let go. The cultural stuff at the start of next season won’t be about the mechanics as such, it will be about getting back to the heart connections, healing the pain from the past and then slowly putting the pieces of the puzzle together. The on-court stuff will then take care of itself.”
Although the last two years have reminded us of the importance of mindset, it has also shown us that netballers, umpires, coaches are human beings first and their role second.
“A lot of the athletes I have worked with this year, it hasn’t been about netball. It has been about the bare basics stuff- have you lost your income? Have you had to move house? There has been a lot of athletes that have been grieving the loss of their netball but also their basics need of living have been taken away. Because we are human first and athletes or whatever your role is second, so this is where I will start with them. “
“I hope that next year we can get to the new normal, where we can move around again, we are based in our own states and people get to have that rhythm of the natural life, where you are at home with loved ones and can go to training and games.”
As teams and officials emerge from 2021, Covid implores us to take time to reflect and be in stillness, to engage with what is between the ears and our body on a deeper level. The space for our inner pain to be processed, as Fogarty has so eloquently emphasised, is the essential groundwork for anyone wanting to achieve their ultimate potential.