FEATURE: WRESTLING WITH AN EDGE WRESTL WITH AN ED SPORT HEALTH HAD THE PRIVILEGE OF INTERVIEWING TAYLOR INNES, the Head of Psychology at the AIS and the then High-Performance Manager PERFORMANCE PSYCHOLOGIST FOR of Wrestling Australia. AUSTRALIA‘S COMMONWEALTH CAN YOU DESCRIBE YOUR GAMES WRESTLING TEAM. ROLE WITH WRESTLING AUSTRALIA? WHEN DID YOU FIRST DECIDE CAN YOU GIVE US AN INSIGHT The AIS Psychology Initiative was created TO MOVE INTO PSYCHOLOGY? INTO YOUR PAST POSITIONS to assist sports in their preparations for AND HOW YOU FOUND the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games. People fascinate me. I have alwaysYOURSELF WORKING WITH Accordingly, my role has largely been wanted to understand why people WRESTLING AUSTRALIA’S performance focused: working with (myself included) think and behave theCOMMONWEALTH GAMES athletes and coaches to maximise training way that they do. However, I only started TEAM? and performance outcomes. Given the to consider psychology as a potential limited timeframe, my work is focused on career during my final year of highI have had the privilege of working with aestablishing the psychological strengths school. And once I entered the field, thevariety of athletes and high-performanceof each athlete and then extending those opportunity to support people dealingteams and support staff across a range ofskills. I have also introduced the athletes with life’s challenges and assist them insports. These opportunities have variedto new performance concepts, however their pursuit of mastery—whether that befrom one-off presentations on a specificI am conscious of not overloading them in a relationship, at work, in the creativetopic (such as performance anxiety),with completely new content weeks arts, or in sport— kept me hooked.engaging with an individual athlete onout from a major benchmark event. a specific issue to working with teamsObviously, I am also involved in any WAS SPORT PSYCHOLOGY throughout a competition season. Somewelfare aspects of the athletes’ lives. ALWAYS THE GOAL, OR WAS of the highlights have included workingAn athlete’s life outside of sport often IT SOMETHING YOU MOVED with a national women’s rugby 7s team,influences their performance, so part of INTO ORGANICALLY? a world’s rowing crew, several statemy work involves providing support to development squads, the Queenslandathletes on issues outside of sport. I wasn’t actually aware that psychologistsAcademy of Sport and most recently, could specialise in sport and performanceWrestling Australia. Because the athletes and coaching staff until I was exploring the options available are scattered throughout Australia, the for a Master’s Degree. Once I becameThe opportunity to work with Wrestlingmajority of my work occurs in the form of aware that sports psychology was anAustralia emerged from an initiative ofindividual consultations with athletes over actual thing, I thought it was the perfectthe Australian Institute of Sport (AIS),Skype. Sometimes, the session involves way to turn a passion into a career. I lovewhich sought to offer funded sportjust listening to the athlete. Other times, what I do and feel privileged to work inpsychology services to sports that do notit is working with them on a specific the high-performance space. typically have access to such a service.mental skill like mindfulness, relaxation, When I was made aware of the initiative,goal-setting, performance anxiety, I was excited by the opportunity, applied,getting comfortable with discomfort or and was selected after an interview withany other issue that has arisen for them. 46 VOLUME 36 • APRIL ISSUE 2018