Greg Turner: Entourage of experts hamper player ability to perform

COMMENT

The recent announcement of a 26-person British Lions management team seems almost certain to give the All Blacks a distinct advantage going into the series, as they will be so keen to beat these over-populated tourists. It's another example of one of the most counter-productive side-effects of the professional era: the entourage.

In golf, they are now regarded as the norm rather than the exception. Leading players will regularly travel with a nutritionist, trainer, physiotherapist, psychologist, manager, coach, caddy and sometimes a yogi.

Their daily lives are prescribed from dawn until dusk. They are told what time to wake, what to eat and when, when and how to exercise, when, how and what to practise and what to think and when to think it. All of this so they can be 'free' to concentrate solely on performing on the course.

There are several flaws in this philosophy, not least that there is far less to most sport than meets the eye. With the requirement to think for oneself removed, the brain inevitably puts itself onto -a semi-state of hibernation. Or worse, it will do what most other muscles or machines do if left largely unused for too long - seize up.

Alert, thoughtful minds test boundaries, are innovative and react the most quickly. One could suggest that it is very much in the interests of the various specialists to create a situation where the individuals involved were incapable (or perceived to be incapable) of looking after themselves. Why travel with a psychologist if you can sort out things for yourself? Is there a need for specialist coaches in almost every rugby position? As for personal trainers, I would have thought a simple program would surely do.

I am not suggesting that experts do not have something to contribute, nor that they would deliberately set about to dumb down their clients to make themselves more indispensable. But it certainly does them no harm if such a process occurs.

In my experience, most so-called experts have been prone to over-estimating their own importance. Coaches will tell you your problems are 80 per cent technical. Physios will have you believe that many of your technical problems are physiologically based. Psychologists will suggest that the game is largely mental and that the technical problems relate back to your being molested by a Catholic priest in a previous life.

Nutritionists will suspect that your diet has led to many of your problems while the trainer will feel that it is a lack of personal fitness that is at fault. The manager will resolve that if more income could be generated then the whole problem would disappear.

The reality seems to be that with the professional table being piled increasingly high with bread, there are many more species keen and able to feed off the resultant crumbs. As to whether most of those relationships are parasitic or symbiotic - that's open to debate.

What I feel for sure is that a greater degree of self-sufficiency would be a good start. Many of the most successful sports people I have come across have been independent thinkers, have held many interests outside of their own narrow field of endeavour and have been much more likely to look inward for the reasons behind failure rather than outward to apportion blame.

I'd like to finish with a story I found particularly amusing. It involves Northern Irish golfer Darren Clarke and his delightful Irish wife, Heather. Darren has the type of entourage I mention above, a situation that is often the topic of discussion in the Clarke household. A friend on a recent visit overheard an exchange where Darren had inquired from his office if Heather knew the location of the letter opener.

"I think it's his day off," came the rather caustic reply.