Sean learning to stay cool from best in biz
BURNLEY boss Sean Dyche has been chatting with top golfer Tommy Fleetwood as the Premier League season gets set to tee off again next month.
Dyche has often plugged into other sports personalities to help his players punch above their weight. Trophy-winning cycling chief Sir Dave Brailsford, Hull KR coach Tony Smith, Oxford University rowing coach Sean Bowden – in addition to top rugby union sides Saracens and Harlequins as well as the Mercedes F1 team – are amongst those enlisted in the course of Burnley’s continuing development.
Now Dyche hopes his chat with Southport-based Fleetwood can lead to a Premier League pay-off for his players.
“Obviously the bigger picture is the team but I like to see how individuals work,” said Dyche. “Recently I had a really good FaceTime call with Tommy Fleetwood.
“I like to try and nick those little bits of gold off people. I was asking Tommy about the psychology, the in-between bits which arrive when you are playing, how to maintain your concentration.
“You’re walking down the fairway. There could be a five-minute walk before you play your next shot. How do golfers find that alertness to play that first shot following the break in play?
“Can that help us for instance in a penalty situation or when play is halted for some time?
“It’s also how do you let mistakes go. I call it small failures. In golf you have a lot of small failures. You have a bad shot but you haven’t got time to think about it. You have got to become alert again and learn how to park the mistake.
“I spoke to him about how footballers can do that and how if there’s a bad moment they have to let it go and move forward.
“We talked about how during training you can do things right all the time but how to then transfer that automatic response either to the golf course or on to the football pitch. “He said to be able to do that on a golf course is vital. We talked about aligning that to a whole group rather than an individual which is much harder although the thinking is the same.” Dyche has always been prepared to travel down various routes to produce the results which have made him such a respected manager.
“I’ve spoken to Dave Brailsford in the past – there’s always some common sense which can lead to marginal gains,” he added. “It’s more relevant now with the coronavirus outbreak but at the time we spoke he stressed the importance of washing your hands. “A few years ago his Sky cycling team found they were getting lots of illnesses so they applied simple logic.”