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The sports psychologist and ex-PJA man on why jockeys top the resilience league
What inspired you to leave racing and retrain as a sports psychologist?
A combination of 15 years observing jockeys while at the PJA and Richard Dunwoody, who used a sports psychologist in the latter part of his career. And AP McCoy, who stupidly said one day: "I'd pay to see you." So I started retraining, which took me seven years in total. I blame him for everything.
How do jockeys compare to other sportspeople?
They remain at the top of my resilient league as they are constantly hungry, often injured, tired and get beaten more than any other sportspeople I have come across, which is the hardest part. In the words of Michael Channon Jr, “It's a losing sport."
Working within other sports, is there anything racing can learn from any of them?
I work with some very good teams, coaches and sports scientists and the stand-out point is they focus on rest, recovery and managing injury and fatigue, whereas jockeys (and trainers) get very little rest. Sometimes I wonder how they all keep going.
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