The Team Behind the Team – Dr Joy Bringer
Dr Joy Bringer, CPsychol, is an HPC-Registered Sport Psychologist, working full-time with elite athletes and coaches at Sport Wales in Cardiff.
A Chartered Psychologist, Joy is accredited to the High Performance Sport level with the British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences and in her role has travelled to Athens and Beijing supporting British Paralympians, and to Melbourne and Delhi as a sport psychologist for Wales’ Commonwealth Games Team.
Joy says;
“I have been working at Sport Wales as a Senior Psychologist since 2003, helping elite athletes and their coaches train and perform better. When I start working with a sport, athlete or coach, we will go through a process of a ‘needs analysis’ where we will identify areas where improvements might be made. This could include teaching skills such as goal setting, refocusing strategies, imagery, and managing emotions.”
Joy continues:
“I work within a team of sport scientists and sports medicine providers, so whenever possible I link in with the other support staff. For example, if an athlete wants to improve concentration during competition, the performance nutritionist will work with the athlete to develop an appropriate nutrition plan for competition days, and I will help the athlete with refocusing strategies.”
Five members of staff from the Sport Wales Institute are being followed by BBC Radio Wales to look at the work going on behind the scenes in the build up to London 2012.
Find out more about Joy Bringer and the work she does with Welsh athletes; her interview is at roughly 2hr 50 into the programme.
