Sport psychology consulting in professional rugby union in the United Kingdom

ABSTRACT

This article describes my experiences of working within professional rugby union in South Wales, United Kingdom. Initially, I locate the context of professional rugby union in the country alongside how my various subcultural understandings of the sport were obtained. After outlining my consulting philosophy developed for working in a professional rugby union context, subsequent cultural challenges for practitioners working in the sport are then explored, together with example strategies used to account for such cultural considerations. I conclude by reflecting upon the importance of practitioners possessing and developing contextual intelligence and cultural competency to work effectively in high-performance environments.

KEYWORDS:

• Cultural awareness
• mental skills
• negative halo
• professional sport
• rugby union