Passion/Emotion

I know we all bang on about this stuff but what influence does it play? and can it be harnessed?. I was genuinely moved watching the tears roll down Mike Brown's face when he sang his anthem - As a welshman I felt for him, I understood it and I thought, good on yer mate. He's had a good tournament IMO. Emotion of course can work in many different ways and I don't think it adversley affected Mikes performance, indeed it might just have been that very emotion and adrenaline that allowed him to stretch that final sinew to bring down Geroge North in magnificent fashion early on. The welsh team were clearly charged with emotion which allowed them to excel as they had the power and control to go with it. In the past Wales have had the emotion, but like a rudderless ship it has often hit the rocks. Tuilagi, whom I'm sure was full of adrenaline just let it overide his grey matter and this resulted in a basic primal response with ball in hand (or not) - It's a fine art managing this emotion and it will continue to play a big part in big games. It can be harnessed IMO but it requires something more than just positive talk. Coming back to Mike Brown as a proud englishman singing his anthem I could not stop and think for a moment about the foreign legion who I'm sure played their hearts out, however IMO they can NEVER feel like Mike Brown did when he sang that anthem - does that affect their passion, emotion or performance in any way? - Discuss

Mike Brown has had a lot of undue criticism....i think he's been one of Englands best players despite playing out of position. He needs to be given his chance at 15 now.

I said on another post...the Welsh were up for it on Saturday and for me that was the difference. They simply wanted that ball more than England...and they were prepared to fight tooth and nail to get it. Once they had got the upper hand...and England saw the ferocity and passion in the Welsh we kinda gave up a bit i think.

We'll be back another day though...better experienced for this defeat..

Still waiting

Time to put on those rosey specs.

Favourite Irish game I have ever seen in the 6N would have to be the 43-13 victory over England in 2007.
It was the second game of rugby union to ever be played at Croke Park, and whatever your thoughts on the political backdrop, the passion, pride and emotion was so gloriously harnessed that day. You could draw parallels with the game on Saturday, they were proud days to be Irish/Welsh.

Meanwhile, under Declan Kidney...

Alex Cuthbert is our most emotional. He cares so much.

Passion and emotion are all well and good but can't half drain the energy tanks, emotion fuels adrenalin and that can't last long periods, plus when your adrenalin reserves deplete it can effect other energy systems too.

I think if teams fly out of the gates at 100 miles an hour and don't have incidents on regular basis to gee them up they'll struggle, you can see players of immense stamina dissapear after 20 minutes because they were too emotionally charged.

Hyping your players up pre match (and we are talking few minutes or so, any coach who does it before then is an idiot) is a risky game to play IMHO

To go a bit deeper into the topic, having played rugby, soccer and tennis all at a decent competitive level, there is a delicate balance between adrenaline and composure.

However, out of those three sports I would say rugby was the easiest to prepare mentally for. Although I am generally a reserved character on the pitch, the bulk of the mental preparation before a game was the "pumping up", bracing myself for the physicality of a game. I don't mean to say, "rugby is a game for hooligans" etc., but composure was one of my strengths in my rugby mindset so I would like to think I wouldn't make the same mistake as Tuilagi. In rugby however there are greater differences between the positions, although I think BOD has the best balance, admittedly Saturday was a bad example, but nobody doubts his footballing genius and there aren't many greater warriors to have graced rugby than BOD.

Tennis is definitely the most mentally demanding out of the three. For a start, you are on your own, and there isn't a chance to switch off for a few seconds like you might do in a team sport. You also have to handle tactics, momentum swings, psychological edges on your own. Then there is the nature of the game, there are times for the shirt-ripping, fist pumping antics when momentum is with you, but otherwise you just plunge yourself into a mental breakdown, or come out all guns blazing when just a soft, composed touch is needed. This bloke called Roger Federer would be tennis' equivalent to BOD, a true master of the game at his finest, but also possesses such grit when the going gets tough.

Football lies more in the centre of the spectrum for me, it is a contact sport, although sometimes it may not appear that way , so there is that "battle-hardened" aspect, but then there is no point getting yourself sent off within ten minutes, or blasting a shot into the car park when your team-mate is in a scoring position.

I have no idea if you see the comparisons with tennis and football, but I do hope I have provided some insight.

Interesting article.

thebluesmancometh wrote:Passion and emotion are all well and good but can't half drain the energy tanks, emotion fuels adrenalin and that can't last long periods, plus when your adrenalin reserves deplete it can effect other energy systems too.

Spot on here, although it would be a factor I have experienced more in individual sports rather than team sports.

Can a foreign legioner feel the truth of passion for an adopted Nation? Is that the question, Ruby?

Hmm, if it is, I wouldn't know the answer. I couldn't know. Only a 'foreigner' could tell us about that as I'm passionately Irish (in a much quieter way than might appear here sometimes!!! - cliched Irish traits make me queasy) - but pride in being what I am is so deep within me that I couldn't imagine me feeling close to the same for any other Nation on this earth.

But in football, back when Jack Charlton was in charge of Ireland, we had to go looking for some dubious Irish-granny types. And we found one in Tony Cascarino. He became one of the hallowed players of that time for Ireland, one of the guys who dragged us kicking and screaming and 'long kicking' into championships we should never really have been part of in skilled terms but were certainly up to in passion terms.

It turns out that many years after Tony hung up his boots, we found out he didn't have a drop of Irish blood in him...even at Granny level. He lied to play...and then he played to gain our respect for him and to add himself to Irish football folklore. And we didn't give a damn that he lied. Only the foreigner really knows how passionate he gets for his adopted nation....we can't really second guess them.