Ryan Nelsen is bringing to New Zealand a sport psychology system he believes can help develop the next generation of Kiwi talent. "This is exactly what got me ready for the World Cup," he says of Provelop, a system of measuring mental strengths and weaknesses developed by English footballer-turned-sport scientist Tony Faulkner.
Faulkner was head of performance at Blackburn Rovers, where Nelsen has been club captain for a decade.
"When I met Tony at Blackburn we had a lot of conversations about the mindset of the academy players. Particularly, why weren't some extremely talented players making it through to the first team - while less talented players with better mindsets were," Nelsen told the Sunday Star-Times.
"The way Tony saw it, virtually 100% of academy training was being done on the pitch. None of it was about mindset or the mental side of the game.
"I first did the profile about two-and-a-half years ago and it opened my eyes to an area of the game I never really understood, and to be honest, I don't know if a lot of people truly know what they mean when they talk about mental toughness.
"I really got into this ahead of the qualifying process for last year's World Cup in South Africa. You find out some truths about yourself, some answers about where you're weak, where you're strong and how you can get better.
"One of the big things for me was confidence. If you have a couple of bad games in front of 50,000 people, and then the papers are on you, it can knock you, and some people don't fully recover.
"The same demons can come from a Saturday afternoon where there are just a few parents watching.
"I'd love to give the same opportunity to all New Zealand kids, young sportspeople in general, to become the best they possibly can, whether that's first XI or world elite. It doesn't matter how much natural talent you have, having the right attitude is priceless.
"I'd like to think I've become a better footballer, and a better person, through this."
