MARK ETHERIDGE: All in the mind

At home in the swimming pool for SA for a decade or so, Kirsten van Heerden became part of a proud group of professionals who helped guide the Proteas women’s cricket team to a home final at the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup last week.

The national level swimmer toured the globe for swimming and during her travels had plenty of time to work out the psych of high-performance sport.

She was a vital cog in the side that made their first World Cup final before going down to the all-conquering Australians.

Van Heerden is a clinical psychologist in Durban, specialising in sport and counting top-level sportsmen and women among her clients. She worked previously with the national polo-crosse and netball teams.

“I know myself how much my mind played in my own performance,” she reflected this week. “It’s all very well training for six hours a day, but if you don’t train your mind as well you can’t use all that hard work you’ve put in.”

Also a member of Team SA’s administration team at 2022’s Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, she got involved with the Protea cricketers through the SA Cricketers’ Association (Saca) as a Player Development Manager for the team six years ago, “and I was very grateful that Saca and Cricket SA asked me to be part of the team at our home tournament”.

The relationship between her and the players’ set-up proved to be as fluid as a Laura Wolvaardt cover drive, with everyone dovetailing perfectly.

You won’t find Van Heerden constantly looking to be part of the action. Instead, she describes herself as being a “fly on the wall”.

“When they were in training camps we’d have group sessions but by the time the real competition starts, you don’t really need group sessions, it’s a little less informal,” she explains.

So it would be a quick word at the breakfast table or at practice “if I could see someone was struggling with something — or on the bus to and from practice, only really intervening if I think it’s really necessary”.

“To be honest, the ladies are all wonderful and me being there in person is often just a physical reminder for them to do even the simplest things, like remembering to breathe properly and to just remember, that there actually is a mental side of things.”

Strangely enough, often her job is to simplify everything. “My job is to help them not think, if that makes sense ... when they’re under pressure they tend to overthink and there’s a nervousness to perform. So if I can help them quieten their minds and just focus on doing the correct things at the right time, the things that really matter.”

Van Heerden is also at pains to point out that there’s a vast difference between a sports psychologist and a motivational speaker. 

“Sometimes I’ll get a call and be asked: ‘Hey, Kirsten, we’ve got a big tournament on Saturday, can you come and talk to the players on Friday?’… and that’s just a no-no. I’m not a motivational speaker, I teach skills.

“Players often say themselves that on match/race day 90% of their performance is ‘in the head’ and I’ll ask them: So how much time do you spend practising this mental side? And they don’t.”

Proteas vice-captain, big-hitting all-rounder Chloe Tryon, certainly goes in to bat for Van Heerden: “We’re from the same town and I’ve had many occasions working with her over a couple of years now ... she gives a person so many more options of how to deal with things both on and off the field. In my book she’s been fantastic and helped me look at things both on and off the field from different angles.

“It’s a really important role and so nice to have when things get tough. Especially like when you’re away travelling for  two-three months at a time ... you can’t always speak to your teammates and it’s great to have someone else to let off steam to and get different perspectives.”

Like many South Africans, Van Heerden agrees that simply making the World Cup final at Newlands, and having been fewer than 20 runs away from beating a freakishly good Australian side, is something of a Rubicon-crossing.

“Now that they’ve broken through into a final is huge. The girls now know that they’re good enough to play a final and it was even more impressive after losing that first game against Sri Lanka and then also losing to Australia in the group stages.”

It’s a phrase all too often trotted out to the media by sporting personalities after a loss but Van Heerden truly believes that lessons have been learnt.

She mentioned that Argentina lost their first match at 2022’s men’s football World Cup and yet went on to lift the trophy.

“What’s important is being able to hold your nerve, trust yourself, trust your teammates and also to acknowledge that there’ll be ups and downs and that you have to tolerate them.”

Or in the words of a Taylor Swift song, some days It’s Okay Not To Be Okay!

“Being in that final in front of so many people at Newlands gave them incredible exposure/visibility and letting thousands of little girls see what can happen ... this belief is going to be critical. Only once you’ve done something like this do you really get that belief.”

For her part, Tryon barely had time to party with the team after the World Cup and is already in India where she will play for the Mumbai Indians in Saturday’s first game of the 2023 Women’s Premier League (WPL).

“The response we got from SA was fantastic, despite losing in the final. So I’ll reflect on the World Cup but you kind of just park it there for now as I have a very quick turnaround, but I’ll take those good things I learnt into the WPL.”

And, like Van Heerden, Tryon says the Proteas can only bloom more from here on in.

“We’ve improved a lot as a group and showed so much character towards the back end of the World Cup

“Important for me was that as a team we showed the aggressive brand of cricket we’re striving to play, while also still having fun and playing for each other out there — but we can only go up from here.”