“Knowledge is meaningless until your own experience gives it meaning, making it wisdom and without wisdom, knowledge is more stupid than ignorance” - Cathy Brown
Cathy has had to learn the art of Psychology in the field whilst she was training and competing; she hit a lot of walls and broke through them because she always kept her mind strong. Not only with the battle through life, but conquering the male dominated sport of boxing, whilst surviving and being successful throughout her hard training whilst working, the expression “if you want it enough, you can achieve it” is a true reflection on her mind-set. So, she studied Sports Psychology and Cognitive Behaviour Therapy to make her a better coach and trainer, so not only has she had true life and sport experience of how a strong mind can be put into practice and how to apply it, but educated herself to fully understand the philosophy.
Sports Psychology and Cognitive Behaviour Therapy is the understanding of how and why external emotion and elements affect the way a sports person operates, then looking and finding ways to improve how these external forces are dealt with to allow improvement and development in sports or life performance. It is recognising how and why psychological influences can enhance or weaken how we operate as people.
Cathy’s role is to thoroughly understand specific sports and people, to look at behavioural patterns, not just in the sport but in outside life activities. Analysing and understanding these patterns as everyone is different and affected by external influences in variable ways. Being able to communicate on all levels to individuals and finding out their desired outcome, gathering evidence of prior accomplishments and experience to asses if their goal is feasible, and discovering their strengths and weaknesses. Using structured questioning and observation determine what may be affecting their mental state, whether it is psychological character, physical state, nutrition, intelligence, self esteem, social skills, religion or culture.
Putting all this research together and developing a unique programme which will improve their mental process, using statistics from quantitative data and combining qualitative research methods and observations to identify problems in areas that need improving and using the above mentioned methods to improve the clients perception and beliefs. Using effective communication to give feed back to the individual or team and aid them to understand why and how this will improve their development for success in their sport and to help them put it into practice. Monitoring on a regular basis to see if it is effective and how they are responding, so she can change if necessary.