SPORTSPEOPLE: development and performance improvement

Jan’s Sporting Pedigree

Jan’s family sporting pedigree is rich with her uncle being the famous Test Cricketer and VFL (now AFL) footballer Keith Miller. Her father-in-law is the legendary Melbourne Football Club player Percy Beames and former The Age chief football and cricket journalist. As such she is well acquainted with the pressures that sportspeople typically face. Recently Jan featured heavily in Australian Story - a television documentary on her uncle and how fame impacted on his life and family.

Jan’s Work with Sports People

In the sporting field, Jan has worked with elite athletes and coaches, including Olympic swimmers, runners, rowers, Australian women’s basketballers, AFL players and coaches, and rugby union players.  

Their issues have included performance anxiety and pressures, form slumps, performance blocks, unrealized potential, personal issues, stress from injuries, and anger, etc. All of these issues potentially sabotage or adversely impact upon performance.  

Jan’s Point of Difference: Emotional and Mental Fitness

Whilst major sporting clubs may have a range of sophisticated programs in place (e.g., team building, mentoring programs, etc.) aimed at performance maximization, Jan works at an individual level. This is a critical but often neglected area as sometimes there can be deeper unresolved issues that impact on performance. Using a variety of performance enhancing processes and techniques, including their application on game day, she equips her clients to access their inner positive resources and perform to their true potential. 

Often players’ performance anxiety or loss of form results in their over analyzing or “overthinking”, resulting in them losing touch with their natural instincts. Additionally, the atmosphere of the club environment can sometimes be quite suffocating.  Jan offers an outsiders perspective whereby players often feel more comfortable opening up without fear of any recriminations. 

She also assists elite athletes, who can often be self-absorbed, to develop as people, and deal more effectively with personal issues (e.g., anxiety, stress). In the heady sporting environment, players can be prone to the temptations of drugs, alcohol and gambling as a means of coping or escape, with potential adverse consequences for all parties concerned.