Sports psychologist Dr Richard Cox hopes to have Scotland mentally ready for next year’s World Cup, in the Scottish Herald.
“Every day we’re learning more and more about how the brain works and what a wonderful computer it is,” he said. “The most recent developments are in that line, in what we call psychobiology. But it could be another 200 years before science finally defines what makes man tick.
“Among other things I talk to the squad as a whole. I’ve done workshops on thinking, and why people think in certain ways. We talk about task-
relevant thinking, which is simply about keeping your mind on the job.
“In rugby, you can be hit hard or struggling for air in the last 20 minutes, or both. It can be very hard to concentrate on the task, and you concentrate on yourself instead. What I do is try to develop players who can offset that. Once you raise their awareness of what will happen under normal circumstances you create an opportunity for them to interfere with that sequence of events.”
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