Dan Abrahams: Meet the leading sports psychologist working with AFC Bournemouth and the England rugby team to give them a winning mentality
IT really can be all in the mind.
Dan Abrahams is one Britain's leading psychologists, helping the world's best athletes achieve peak performance in a multitude of sports.
The 40-year-old Londoner has used his practices with many footballers and is currently working alongside Bournemouth and the England rugby team.
But while he's not willing to discuss Eddie Howe and Eddie Jones' men specifically, he can reveal the secrets to his success in mentoring players' minds.
Dan's previous breakthroughs include instilling belief in Carlton Cole who went on to represent England after working with him in 2008.
He also worked with former Arsenal youth product Anthony Stokes, helping the Irishman earn a big-money move to Celtic in 2010.
SunSport sat in the psychologists' chair to discuss his methods in aiding sports stars development.
Dan revealed what it is that's going through the brain of a player lacking confidence and how he allays their fears through motivational techniques.
He also shared the secrets you'll need in your arsenal to make it at the top level.
Dan told us first how he got into psychology after failing as a pro golfer because he suffered with the mental side of the game.
"I was a professional golfer and I played on mini tours around Europe, but didn't quite make it," he admitted.
"I had talent, but I was one of those golfers who saw the trees, bunkers and the water and looked at everyone else's swing and thought their's was better than mine.
"The mental side of the game let me down. I coached golfers and then got into the psychological side of it and got my qualifications."
Dan left golf behind, registered as a sports psychologist in 2006 because he wanted to specialize in lots of sports.
He began life in football with Wayne Burnett, who is now the under-23s coach at Tottenham.
"I went into non-league and had the pleasure of working with Wayne, who was at Fisher Athletic at the time," Dan said.
"I had a great time, got to know the language and was proud to say that nine players went up to play league football when the season ended.
"It then became apparent to me how important the mental side of things is in football."
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"I worked with Anthony Stokes around that time when he was north of the border," he said.
"Stokes scored six goals in a month after we started working together. He got 21 league goals that season and earned a big-money move to Celtic."
Dan's work continued to earn him plaudits and his client-list grew.
"I also started to work with more West Ham players too - Anton Ferdinand who went on to an £8m move to Sunderland.
"I've been around all the clubs. I've probably worked with individuals of all the 92 clubs."
He continued: "And it's very varied. You can work in the medical department and support injured players.
"You can work to support the manager and the coaching staff. You can work with the players themselves individually.
"You can help with sports science, and even with the organisation as a whole.
"Ultimately, it's really about helping players, whether it's feeding through the coaches or working with the players themselves.
"It's helping players high-perform, more consistently, under pressure and helping them perform effectively."
Dan admitted that he faces all sorts of personalities when he meets a squad of footballers, with cynical stars being the most difficult to speak to.
"When you start out with a team you've got a squad of 25 players who all have different needs, wants, hopes, doubts, beliefs and attitude.
"You're going to get a lot of different beliefs and attitudes to what you do with them within that team.
"Out of 25, you're gonna get some that are open-minded and want to explore and you get those that are skeptics.
"You're also get cynical ones, who are challenging to get a breakthrough with.
"The problem is, football sees psychology as isolated.
"What we now know is that psychology and all those auxiliary areas in clubs need to be integrated."
Psychology within sport works on a subtle basis, according to Dan who shared what a player thinks about when he isn't playing well.
"When someone's going through a poor run of form, what is happening in a player's mind is they're imagining failure every day," he said.
"So they come away from training thinking about the bad moments in training.
"They use their imagination and start predicting failure on match day. They build that in their mind and create a stress response.
"They then become very anxious and that can go in one of two directions. They start to force their performance or they become so fearful they freeze.
"And what happens on the pitch too.
"Rather than see the 360 viewpoint, tracking runners, being aware of the movement of their teammates, they become tunnel-visioned.
";Their anticipation slows down, their decision-making suffers. What that adds up to is just a general decline of performance.
"Confidence goes down, they lose their first touch, they're scared to take a shot. That has a massive impact."
So how does he help a player get out of that ruck?
"For me, as a psychologist, I know I have to immediately start a conversation about their strengths," Dan explained.
"I'll tell the player to tell me about them at their best. Tell me what that looks like, feels like, what's your movement like, what runs they are making...
"We also use action-based words that encourage them to work to their best.
"If a player says to me they're sharp and athletic, I'm going to build on those keywords.
"What I'd encourage that player to do, when he goes out on the pitch, is to concentrate on those words.
"Show me what sharp movement and athletic looks like. I will encourage them to stop trying to force their performance."
Dan is in admiration of the modern day football managers.
He insists, though they're not psychologists themselves, they have to have the skills to communicate with their players.
"Managers do like to get involved," he said. "Football is what we call in the profession a psych-social game.
"Being a manager or coach of a football team is being a manager or coach of people first. It's player second, performance third.
"Managers have to have great people skills. They have to be a manager of people.
"They then have to be a manager of a player, then they have to be a manger of performance.
"People are complex. They bring to the table different needs, wants, hopes, doubts, fears, beliefs, expectations, cultures, backgrounds.
"They construct their own worlds around them.
"A manager absolutely incorporates psychology in his role. He's not a psychologist, per se, but he has to do effective psychology.
"He's got to be passionate about learning, how human beings learn and how he can help specific players learn.
"Really, that's where modern day managers have to keep improving."
Footballers like Aaron Lennon, Clarke Carlisle and Rio Ferdinand have highlighted the pressures they've been under while playing.