By Rudi Webster
In the early nineteen eighties, I worked with many Australian Rules football coaches and spoke to them about the dangerous effects of high levels of continuous stress on the performance and the mental and physical health of their players. Concurrently, I tried to show them the benefits of adequate rest, relaxation and recreation at critical periods during the season.
Last October, Glenn Maxwell, an outstanding Australian player, took a mental health break from local and international cricket, claiming that self-imposed pressures and the stress of being constantly on the road ruined him mentally and physically. He said that when he decided to take time off for rest and rehabilitation he was pretty cooked. He added: “I think I was eight or nine months on the road living out of a suitcase, and that had been going on for four or five years, just constantly on the road and it all just caught up with me at that time.”
