The new Biarritz Olympique is in its image. He is the head coach of BOBoris Bouhraoua who said it, half-heartedly, after the victory against Grenoble when taking stock of this first block, with a leading position in Pro D2 to the key. “What characterizes our team today is calm,” just after having mentioned the name of Agathe Salques, the new mental trainer, who came to strengthen the supervision of the professional group this summer. His contribution, although invisible to the general public except for the supporters used to training during the week in Aguiléra, was quickly praised by the team.
From the outset, the former athlete from Saint-Etienne in the Loire debunks a cliché about her role: “No, I’m not the players’ psychologist!” And for good reason: his place is in the sports staff led by Boris Bouhraoua, not in the medical staff. As soon as he arrived, the technician wanted to call on a mental trainer. “We train the physique, we train rugby, why not train the head?”. With the idea that this mental monitoring for his players could end up being a lever intended to optimize their performance on the field. There are two aspects to his role adds the coach who arrived this summer from Paris. The first is individual: helping players manage pressure, euphoria, or stay calm in critical moments. The second is collective: together, we analyze the key moments of each match to optimize collective performance.”
Individual and collective support
The 30-year-old woman works several times a week in Aguiléra as a freelancer and an external service provider begins to approach her way of seeing things. “Each player has their specific needs. I work on three pillars: motivation, self-confidence and emotion management. These are the basics, but everything is individualized.” Concretely, for a player who misses a move like a kick, “the idea is to question the way in which this gesture is performed in training, how it happens, what condition it is in, is it possible to perform it consistently, etc. rather than reworking Sometimes a performance problem may seem technical, but it is often linked to emotional factors.
Stéphane Garcia
She must also carry out this work on the entire collective which, in itself, is an entity in its own right: “The group feels, functions and reacts together. It’s a challenge, especially in a sport like rugby with so many personalities. But the idea is to create together a collective consciousness around the club’s project.” Its role goes far beyond simple intervention in the event of psychological blockages, as Boris Bouhraoua recounts: “She and I analyze key moments of matches. We use an image of a gymnastics beam: the goal is to stay on the beam as long as possible without falling and to better understand the strong/weak times.”
“It unlocks things”
Over the weeks, Agathe Salques has found her place within the Biarritz group, she who concedes that her “acculturation to rugby continues”. The players also seem to have found a relay, a resource in his presence. The youngest and the oldest. This is the case of center Yann David who, at 36 years old and with nearly 300 professional matches under his belt, welcomes the regular interventions of the BO’s new mental trainer. “This is one of the first times that I have benefited from such structured mental support. Even around ten years ago, it was perhaps something quite taboo, but for me, it is essential. We are all delighted with this initiative. It allows us to continue to perform while making a clean sweep of the negative elements of the past.
For his part, winger Baptiste Fariscot had already dealt with Agathe Salques during his time at the BO training center. And for good reason: the one who worked for a while as a PE teacher in Crétail and Rouen before switching to mental preparation, has occasionally worked with the Espoirs since 2021, upon her arrival in the Basque Country. “After the first exchange I had with her, I came to the following training sessions with a strap on my wristremembers the 22-year-old who has already started three times this season. I wrote two or three words on it: pleasure, free, magic, etc. Just to activate things. To remind me that if I was there, there was a reason. When you are young and you arrive, there are things that block you: the fear of doing wrong, the fear of failure or the way others look at you. The act of speaking, putting words, liberated me and it shows on the pitch.”
“Non-play” time management
It is clear that this choice pays off on the ground since as the weeks go by, the BO seems to manage the meetings better and better. “On July 3, I presented the rugby project. I talked about attack, defense, counter-attack, kicking and non-playing timerelate Boris Bouhraoua. Rugby is a sport in which there are many non-playing times. If we don’t do something to optimize these moments, we’re missing out. Working with Agathe allows us to stay focused, efficient and aligned, even outside of the game.”
Biarritz Olympique seems to have found a new balance by integrating mental preparation into its training program. A balance which, he hopes, will be one of the keys to long-term success this season in Pro D2. For Agathe Salques, this adventure has only just begun: “I am not here to convince, but to propose another performance lever. I am convinced that by aligning our efforts, we will be able to push our collective and individual limits.”
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