HOW DOES a superstar athlete take their game to a new level?
For Dustin Martin and Dylan Grimes, their work with Richmond’s mindfulness coach Emma Murray helped them shed feelings of fear and self-doubt, allowing them to develop into two incredible athletes who helped the Tigers win three premierships in four years.
Murray joined The Inside Game podcast to take host Bec Goddard inside the minds of two of the AFL’s greatest talents.
>> LISTEN TO THE FULL INTERVIEW IN THE PODCAST BELOW
“My work in the AFL really started with Dylan Grimes,” Murray said.
“He went to the club in 2016 and he said ‘the way I train and the athlete that I am, it doesn’t come out on game day’.
“He will say that he was very close to his career really sort of ending, or not going anywhere. And he knew he had more but come game day, it wasn’t happening. And he’d had so many hamstring issues, and I don’t think he’d strung four games together because of hamstrings.
“So in an athlete like Dylan, what happens is their subconscious mind is constantly looking for what is going to cause that hamstring injury.
“And even so Dylan’s not thinking that, in the game, his subconscious mind is holding him back to keep him safe.
“So for Dyl, at that subconscious level we were able to remove those blocks… and straight away he saw an increase in his GPS and his stats.
“And what happens now is he feels better, so he’s not playing with that same level of fear, and now he can string games together and see he’s actually pretty good at this game.”
While slightly different to Grimes' situation, Murray's work with Dustin Martin is credited as a driving force behind his development into a superstar of the game.
“Dusty’s a champion, if I’d never met Dusty he probably still would have had all those awards,” Murray said.
“But he himself will say he had quite a noisy mind, so when he had the ball in his hands he had a noisy mind and that leads to getting rid of the ball quickly.
“The athlete that can pay attention better than someone else is going to get more information.
“Dusty’s a freak of an athlete, and when we get him present in that moment, it goes to a level which is unbelievable.
THE INSIDE GAME Why 'genetically blessed' Dusty does the bare minimum
“But as soon as expectation kicks in, human wiring does, fear does… and Dusty’s still a human.
“So we see him go to these heights in 2017, then he’s still amazing in 2018 – but why is he not exactly the same? There’s a whole new level of expectation and pressure on him.”
Listen to the full episode to hear about Dusty’s mindfulness journey, what Emma has learnt from Dusty, and about her work with other athletes such as Will Pucovski and Scott McLaughlin.
This week’s episode guide…
1:10 – What is mindfulness?
4:50 – How does mindfulness fit into high performance sport?
10:20 – Examples of mindfulness techniques
21:35 – Why Richmond’s approach to mindfulness is so unique
24:25 – Emma’s work with cricket prodigy Will Pucovski
26:30 – Emma’s work with Dylan Grimes
28:15 – Emma’s work with Dustin Martin
33:00 – Takeaway Tips, fuelled by the John West Protein+ range
'The Inside Game' is a new podcast series that takes a peek behind the scenes of the high-performance world of the AFL and AFLW. Join AFLW Premiership Coach Bec Goddard as she chats with high-performance experts who share the one-percenters that make the difference between an average day and a great day, fuelled by the John West Protein+ range.
