The iceberg effect

There is much speculation at the moment with regard to the sporting future of Gavin Henson as he has been placed on indefinite unpaid leave by his club, the Ospreys.

As with Jonny Wilkinson, he has suffered an almost continuous range of injuries over the past couple of years which must be both physically and psychologically debilitating. Jonny Wilkinson has dealt with his situation by learning French (apparently he speaks fluent French) and moving to an aspirational club in the south of France for a new environment and challenge. He will experience a completely new way of life and be in a climate that will be kinder to his body than the north east of England. It will be interesting to see, in the coming season, if this move rejuvenates both his career and his body but early signs are encouraging.

So what does the future hold for Gavin Henson? I am not privy to this but hopefully he, and those closest to him, has some idea as to the future direction of his sporting career, if he wants there to be one. What is certain however, is that performance is not just affected by the normal things that you would associate with sport such as fitness, nutrition, psychology etc but also those factors that are usually unseen and lurk below the surface. It is these that we call the 'iceberg effect' since they are usually given much less priority by sportspeople and coaches. They include things such as personal relationships, general health and wellbeing, physical environment, personal accountability and responsibility, emotional intelligence etc etc.

However, like an iceberg, if they are not sufficiently solid then the top of the iceberg will start to crumble and disintegrate. Too often in the (macho) sporting arena such issues are regarded as 'soft' and unimportant. I beg to differ and in my view they are the areas of one's life that need to be equally as robust as the things that can be seen above the surface. Who knows, perhaps the real reasons for Gavin Henson's continued absence from the rugby field relate as much to these being out of balance as to physical injury. If this is the case, he needs to get to work on them as soon as possible to ensure that the iceberg stays afloat.