Iggy Clarke encourages players to mind their mental as well as physical health

By John Harrington

Former Galway hurler, Iggy Clarke, has stressed the importance of GAA players looking after their mental as well as physical health.

Clarke works with a lot of GAA players in his role as a psychologist and therapist and he has seen at first-hand how the increased demands of the game, both at inter-county and senior club level, has put players under the sort of mental strain that just didn’t exist during his own playing days in the ‘70s and ‘80s.

“Their experiences are very different, much more pressurized,” says Clarke.

“I do a programme, called Ahead of the Game with Movember. That means meeting up with a lot of young people and going into the clubs to meet them.

“The fact that I can say to them, ‘I was like yourselves. I played minor, under-21 and at senior county level’ – I think means that they can appreciate that I’m likely to know the experience of playing, the difficulty, the joy and he probably knows what he’s talking about.

“The fact that we have shared that experience with its ups and downs, training and the frustrations of being dropped, injured and recovered is a major connection with players regardless of age.

“The pressure on players now has to have an impact on mental health. There is great emphasis on being physically fit and doing the strength and conditioning but you have to have time for mental health as well, for other hobbies, for balance in life and if you’re mentally fit, I believe you can be physically well able to perform skilfully on the field.

“Compared to our time, I think there is massive pressure on players now and it’s probably why some players escape to gambling and in clubs especially to drugs. It’s just an outlet really. I think that’s part of the extreme pressure on them. In our day in the 1970s and ‘80s we didn’t have that type of pressure. We trained twice a week and played on a Sunday and carried on with the rest of our lives in the meantime.

“I felt there was a good balance in our approach at that time.”

You can imagine that Clarke has drawn on his own lived experience to develop the tools needed to be an effective psychologist and therapist.

He was a priest for almost 20 years before he made the difficult decision to rejoin the laity, and that experience of helping people deal with all sorts of challenges in their life helped him develop the emotional tools he now uses as a therapist.

And while mightn’t have experienced the same sort of pressure in his own playing days, he can still relate to many of the stresses and strains that afflict the modern sportsperson such as being dropped or sustaining an injury.

He himself missed out on what should have been the greatest day of his career – Galway’s 1980 All-Ireland Final win over Limerick, their first since 1923 – when he sustained a serious injury in the All-Ireland semi-final win over Offaly.

“It didn’t kick in immediately because there was serious disappointment,” recalls Clarke. “I was taken off by a stretcher and off to the Mater hospital and had a big operation that evening, putting steel pins in my shoulder and then the doctors saying that they have to be in for six weeks. I knew then the All-Ireland was out.

“There was devastation at that, disappointment and the doctors were so clear and adamant that it became equally clear in my head that I wasn’t going to make this. It was difficult because a lot of other people were saying to me, ‘ah, you’ll be fine. You’ll be grand, recovered, and on the field’.

“It was difficult when others said, ‘ah this is only a game, you’re pretending, you’ll play’ kind of stuff. The fact that Cyril (Farrell, manager) asked me to play a role and to be involved meant that I wasn’t completely withdrawn and a major help for me.

“I think my training, which looked at the broader philosophy of life, helped me to acknowledge that this had happened. I’m going to have to accept it and work with it. Being philosophical in that sense was probably a great help.

“The fact that I was from a farming background was also a help. Farmers have to be practical, down to earth and close to nature and its consequences. That practicality helped me as well. I was being asked to make the most of it, to deal with it and recover.”

Clarke was speaking last week in Croke Park at an event to mark the 10^th anniversary of Samaritans as the GAA’s Mental Health Partner.

Through this partnership the Association has teamed up with Samaritans volunteers from across the country to reduce the stigma around mental health while also encouraging members experiencing challenging times to avail of the charity’s 24-hour 365 days-a-year helpline (freecall 116 123).

Clarke has seen at first hand the hugely positive impact that Samaritans make in communities all across the island of Ireland.

“The fact that the Samaritans can provide a listening year is, I think, fantastic,” he says.

“Any time we externalise what's deep inside ourselves, it lightens the load and I think the Samaritans do that in a fantastic way. They're non-judgemental and are there to facilitate whatever is going on for a particular person.

“I know that society now is a lot more pressurised than it once was. There's a lot more social media and all of that adds to the pressure on people. So it's lovely to be able to try and ease that pressure, especially for young people.

“If we can sow the seed with young people then it gives them the facility to be a bit more resilient, to have an ability to recover if something difficult happens.”

Samaritans is available round the clock, every single day of the year. They provide a safe place for anyone struggling to cope, whoever they are, however they feel, whatever life has done to them.

Their email and freephone helplines are anonymous. Please free-call 116 123 in the Republic of Ireland or Northern Ireland or contact jo@samaritans.ie.