To know sharing

Sharing is a word that should be placed at the center of interest for everyone in any workgroup.

Sharing requires agreement on goals, problems, solutions, and an evaluation system. It requires spending time together—technicians, physical trainers, doctors, physiotherapists, and psychologists—to understand each other’s work and how each can contribute to the work of the others.

For example, when discussing injuries, the question is how the various professionals involved (doctor, physiotherapist, psychologist) can collaborate to promote the athlete’s recovery. Or, in the field of physical preparation, how certain training sessions could improve the athletes’ resilience if the coach and psychologist worked together on this goal?

Unfortunately, this kind of collaboration happens very rarely in our sports context, and it only occurs when the professionals’ interests are aligned in this direction, regardless of the sports organization they work for. More commonly, deficiencies in one area are attributed solely to the individual expert, and the larger organization is never questioned. Often, when an athlete or team performs poorly in a competition, it’s said they lacked personality, and the psychologist is then asked to do more to eliminate this weakness.

Over the last 15 years, the situation has changed significantly in many Western countries. In the UK, every national team has a psychologist working full-time and exclusively for a four-year period with a specific program, often in collaboration with the staff. In France, psychologists at INSEP, the high-performance center for athletes, work similarly and participate in the Olympics. In Belgium and the Netherlands, the role of a “behavioral performance or development director” has existed for years, managing this work and guiding performance psychologists, well-being psychologists, and psychotherapists who work with teams. In the US, a similar, highly structured system exists, also addressing psychopathological issues.