{"id":8047,"date":"2022-03-29T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-03-29T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/?post_type=article&p=8047"},"modified":"2025-12-15T05:11:38","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T05:11:38","slug":"how-to-create-energy-in-athletes-performing-under-great-scrutiny","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/how-to-create-energy-in-athletes-performing-under-great-scrutiny\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Create Energy in Athletes Performing Under Great Scrutiny"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
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\n 29 Mar 2022 <\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>Articles<\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t

How to Create Energy in Athletes Performing Under Great Scrutiny<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n \n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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By John Portch<\/h6>\n
In June 2021, Harlequins became English rugby\u2019s most unlikely champions when they defeated Exeter 40-38 in the Gallagher Premiership final.<\/h6>\n

Six months earlier, the team were languishing sixth in the Premiership table and were without a lead coaching figure following the departure of Paul Gustard as Head of Rugby.<\/p>\n

A series of swift and profound decisions transformed Quins\u2019 campaign. Firstly, Gustard was not directly replaced. Instead, the reins were taken by Director of Rugby Billy Millard, with support from coaches Jerry Flannery, Nick Evans and Adam Jones.<\/p>\n

Off the field, the club sought the counsel of performance coach Owen Eastwood, who has worked with organisations including Gareth Southgate\u2019s England men\u2019s team, the British Olympic team, NATO and the South African men\u2019s cricket team, in an effort to revive their fortunes.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody was looking at them and saying \u2018there\u2019s no energy \u2013 are they not fit?\u2019 Eastwood tells the 2021 Leaders Sport Performance Summit at London’s Twickenham Stadium<\/a>. \u201cThe team was struggling, they weren\u2019t playing well, and they were getting a hard time for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eastwood\u2019s role was vital. \u201cWe were lost in our DNA and Owen Eastwood started spending time with the club,\u201d says Millard, speaking on a different day at Twickenham, where Quins lifted the Premiership trophy. \u201cWe excavated the history of Harlequins.\u201d<\/p>\n

By June, both the men\u2019s and women\u2019s teams had taken their leagues by storm, playing fast and frenetic rugby on their way to being crowned champions. Both were aided in part by the cultural reset that laid the foundations of both triumphs.<\/p>\n

Back to Quins\u2019 roots<\/strong><\/p>\n

As the Leaders Performance Institute speaks to Millard, it is clear that part of him still cannot believe the turnaround that took place. \u201cYou don\u2019t have seasons like that,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

His mind goes back to Harlequins\u2019 last Premiership triumph in 2012. \u201cWe played a certain style, we behaved a certain way. Quins have always been entertainers \u2013 that\u2019s why we\u2019re \u2018the jesters\u2019 \u2013 and we just had to tap back into that, which we did. Our owners [Duncan Saville and Charles Jillings] set a vision, we stripped it right back, and that vision was aligned right through the playing squad.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sitting beside Millard is Danny Care, Quins\u2019 scrum-half who was a key part of that earlier success. He says that he and his teammates had \u2018fun\u2019 as the club raised its game. \u201cI think the main thing we did is that we said we were going to do it our way, we\u2019re going to do it the Quins way, we\u2019re going to go back to our roots, back to what we feel is the way we like to play rugby, do it with a smile on our face,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd we went and did it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 21 years of professional sport I\u2019ve never seen it so strong,\u201d adds Millard. \u201cIf we lost a game, which we did on the run to winning it, there was no panic, as long as we were doing what we said we\u2019d do and play a certain way, everyone stayed true to that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Back in January, Eastwood had spotted the lack of energy. He would conduct 52 interviews with players and staff as he sought to make his recommendations. He says: \u201cJust through some changes in the environment, different philosophies, all of a sudden, this team had this unbelievable amount of energy, and they were the same conditioned group and they were the same people. Something shifted that created this unbelievable energy \u2013 and that was the environment, the culture.\u201d<\/p>\n

TRUE values<\/strong><\/p>\n

As Eastwood, who joined the Quins board in August, began his research into the club founded in 1866 \u2013 the fourth-oldest rugby club in the world \u2013 he quickly unearthed characteristics that lent themselves to a neat and powerful acronym: TRUE, which stands for \u2018tempo, relationships, unconventional, enjoyment.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cOwen said this acronym had been around forever,\u201d says Millard. \u201c\u2019Tempo\u2019 \u2013 Harlequins play with tempo. \u2018Relationships\u2019 \u2013 everyone says relationships are important, but we live and breathe that. Our relationships are the foundation of what we do.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re \u2018unconventional\u2019. As [prop] Joe Marler says, that means we can do whatever we want. Pretty close. And enjoyment, so T-R-U-E. It\u2019s not everyone\u2019s cup of tea, but it\u2019s Quins for nearly 160 years.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Eastwood] spoke to us about all these amazing stories about relationships and unconventional and enjoyment; and we all tapped into that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Care takes up the theme. \u201cI think it\u2019s the main reason we were successful come the end of last season,\u201d he says. \u201cTo revisit what the club is all about, I think, for players, sometimes you\u2019re in a hard situation as a player. You feel that you can\u2019t really speak out and say what the coach doesn\u2019t want to hear. But when we did have this reset, I think it was a great opportunity for players, coaches, staff to sit in a room and each of them describe what we needed. I\u2019ve never known an environment where we\u2019ve felt more empowered because we were asked questions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Belonging cues<\/strong><\/p>\n

As Care says, the Harlequins players were asked for their input to help shape training and preparation in the absence of a head coaching figure. Tabai Matson would be installed as Head Coach during the subsequent off-season but, there and then, the players led the way and, most importantly, felt heard by Millard and his support staff.<\/p>\n

He says: \u201cThe coaches fully gave us that trust and listened to us. Then, as a player, you then feel empowered and trusted to go out on the weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n

As befitting Quins\u2019 \u2018unconventional\u2019 label, changes were made behind the scenes, including the abolition of the \u2018captain\u2019s run\u2019 [the traditional final captain-led training session on the eve of a match] and Quins consistently found a level of performance befitting their talent.<\/p>\n

Eastwood believes that a fundamental factor was the \u2018belonging cues\u2019 the players increasingly received from the coaching staff. It stems from his research into the relationship between energy and hormonal states.<\/p>\n

\u201cFundamentally, from a hormonal point of view, when we go an compete, we will be stressed,\u201d he says. \u201cThe two biggest energisers in our hormones are adrenaline and cortisol. It\u2019s not hard to find them when we\u2019re competing, but if we\u2019re only fuelled by them then a) is it sustainable? And b) that type of fuel will have consequences. People in those states can have tunnel vision, they can find it hard to talk. More widely, people who are marinating in cortisol and adrenaline can get into a self-preservation mode and find it hard to connect with other people. People who are fuelled by cortisol and adrenaline can find it hard to be vulnerable; if they don\u2019t understand something they may not put their hand up and say it.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo what we want to do is create this balance, from a hormonal point of view, when we are in a competitive environment. The cortisol and adrenaline will be there, we don\u2019t need to ramp it up, actually we need to calm it a bit. And what hormones like oxytocin, around our connection with other people; dopamine, which is that motivator pushing us forwards towards the goal; serotonin, which has a regulatory effect on our mood. What we really need to do is, in our environment, promote those hormones. I think there\u2019s a simple way of understanding it and it\u2019s all related to energy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Therefore, belonging cues, as Eastwood argues, can have a positive impact on a person\u2019s energy and hormonal balance. \u201cWhen people receive belonging cues, it\u2019s a massive energiser. So many experiences I\u2019ve had of going into teams where people, they trust me and they\u2019ll talk to me and they\u2019ll say, \u2018I don\u2019t know if I belong here, I feel a little bit like an imposter, I don\u2019t know if the coach respects me. I feel like every single thing I\u2019m doing, even training, off the field, I\u2019m being judged and people make decisions all the time about whether I should stick around here.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen that happens, again, people start marinating in cortisol, stress hormones and adrenaline. They go within themselves. If they don\u2019t understand something or if they\u2019ve got a weakness in their game that they want to develop, they\u2019re not going to put their hands up and say that because they feel unbelievably vulnerable. We also know that our short-term memories are affected when we\u2019re in that state as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we feel a sense of belonging, that we actually belong here, that people respect us, we\u2019re in a completely different hormonal state. Our dopamine, oxytocin levels are raised, we\u2019re able to focus on our job and our teammates, if we don\u2019t understand something we feel comfortable in saying that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was definitely different to what I\u2019ve been used to,\u201d says Care. \u201cI\u2019ve never felt more trusted, empowered, respected, but also then there was a massive responsibility on us as senior players to lead it and the younger players to follow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Millard says that the approach is here to stay and, when it comes to recruitment, there is \u201ca method to the madness,\u201d adding, \u201cyou\u2019ve got Danny and the leaders telling stories and Owen Eastwood saying \u201970 years ago, this is what Quins used to do\u2019 and these young kids are like \u2018we\u2019re bigger than this, the spotlight\u2019s on us now but there\u2019s so much that came before us and, in 20 years, we\u2019re still going to be playing this way.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

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This article originally appeared in our Special Report Enhancing Your Environment: Nurturing positive high performance set-ups<\/strong>. It also features insights from English Premier League Brentford FC<\/strong>, Major League Baseball’s Toronto Blue Jays<\/strong> and Google<\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n