Brent Pope talks openly about mental health and the strategies that he and elite athletes have used to achieve success and look after their mental health and well-being.
In the podcast to accompany this article, I talked with Brent Pope, a media and rugby pundit about his book Win and his mental health and the strategies he uses to cope with life. I asked him about his busy life and said that he always stood out of his comfort zone and about breaking down the barriers in the so-called rugby macho life that didn’t fit the stereotypical rugby player that he was, and it’s never been about money or success.
He played rugby for the New Zealand All-Blacks at the highest level right up to the World Cup, but unfortunately, he got an injury just before the World Cup tournament which ruled him out. He explains about unexpected injuries to young players in the game and the pressure of expectation from the parents of very young rugby players. He discusses what happens to a professional rugby player or a high-performance athlete of any sport who must retire early in their career, they can end up with very serious mental health problems.
The problem is that in their playing career, everyone knows them and wants to buy him or her a drink, and they are adored by the fans and the attention they receive, but now in retirement, no one recognizes them and instead of getting complimentary tickets for the matches, they must pay for them. Your appearance is the next thing, the athlete has changed over the years and the youthful look is gone and that can bring more pressure and anxiety to the athlete.
Failure in sports for a young person can have huge implications for their future, it’s akin to a breakup of a relationship or financial troubles, failure can have a knock-on effect for a long time and can be very distressing and can affect your social life and your circle of friends. What do you say to a young player who has been dropped off the school’s rugby team?
Brent’s advice is to go back to the why and why you are playing the sport is it for enjoyment, so whatever sport you choose do it for enjoyment and not to keep your parents happy. Brent says that some parents are trying to relive their sporting life through their children even if they never made the first team and that it puts too much pressure on a kid who may not even want to play the game. Most high achievers, as written in the book, go through periods in their life when they’re put to the test, and how they deal with pressure, there are always bumps in the road, but that’s why you should have the tools to deal with these situations.
Brent gave a great example of a student in Blackrock College who was six foot four built well and whose parents were pushing him to play rugby, but he had no interest despite his parent’s expectations he wanted to be in the college orchestra. He was never asked do you wanted to play rugby, that’s why parents should be careful about pushing their children too hard to play a particular sport, Brent kept reiterating the why, why you are doing something not just in sports but in everything in your life, make sure you enjoy something you are passionate about.
He talks about his collaboration with Jason on the book, how Jason was the technical part of the subject, and Brent researched the practical elements and talked with elite athletes about their positive and negative experiences when it comes to mental health and wellbeing.
The loneliness, long travel, injuries, training schedules, diets, pressure, anxiety and commitment to their sport, and strategies from Ronan O Gara, Paul O Connell, Sonya O Sullivan, David Gillick and Johnny Wilkinson. He goes on to talk about athletes who have failed to win an Olympic Gold medal due to illness or an off day on the track.
He took a holistic view of what an elite athlete should be, not just physically but mentally and to make sure that they have the tools to deal with disappointment, injury, loss, and many other factors that would bring negativity into their world. He said it was fascinating talking to elite athletes about failure and he mentioned the world record-holder Michael Johnson and the disappointment of getting sick two weeks before the Barcelona Olympics after putting in four years of training for his goal of winning many gold medals.
He likened an athlete to a pizza, and it’s got all the different slices like physicality, stamina, positive thoughts, mental attitude etc. His one strong message from the book was what positive visualization can do for you in every aspect of your life and gave the example of being behind in a rugby match with minutes to go and the captain told the team to visualize them scoring a try and many times it worked.
We then talked about masking, and he said that many men are masking or hiding their mental illness and that social media is causing huge problems when it comes to the mental health of the younger generation.
People with suicide tendencies are also masking it, how many times have you heard about the person who has died, I was only with him the other night and sure he hadn’t got a care in the world. Brent goes on to talk about his mental health and that he is not ashamed to say that he needed help and that it is ongoing. We talked about success and its subjectivity and how music is so important to your mental health. Journal your day and look back on it the following day and you will realise that it wasn’t a bad day yesterday.
We then talked about journaling and visualization, he explained that you should visualize something and see your success, believe and you can achieve, like visualize yourself scoring the winning try or the Gold medal or succeeding with your goals in business, the media, college or whatever your goals you have, you must visualize them and you will have a better frame of mind when tackling them. Listen to the podcast to get a more extensive spotlight on mental health.
