Motivation is key during lockdown: Murphy

by Val Febbo on August 26, 2021

Bowls Australia’s (BA) National Assistant Coach Karen Murphy OAM has endured a challenging commencement of her role in the high performance program thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, but insists that while players have an inability to get on the green, there is still plenty to focus on.

Speaking on BA’s ‘Without Bias’ program, the Jackaroos legend admits that while many key dates have been missed or cancelled, the national coaching staff are focussing on maintaining morale for athletes, as well as themselves.

“As a coach, for both Gary Willis and myself, the biggest challenge has been trying to keep our players motivated,” Murphy said.

“We’ve got some players that live alone, and that’s half of them in lockdown living in Sydney and there’s also a lack of events.

“So we’re trying to keep them motivated and upbeat and trying to help them set goals, so if we can’t get on the green or can’t prepare for a Commonwealth Games trial for Birmingham, let’s do the one percenters that we can control.

“Those could be nutrition, fitness and mindset, and just doing things that make you feel good.”

With under a year to go until the opening ceremony of the 2022 Commonwealth Games, the women’s pairs gold medallist from 2006 says virtual preparations will be the norm for the near future, but that will not deter any planning for the event.

“We’ve already started the virtual preparations with lot’s of Zoom meetings,” she said.

“We’ve been bringing in guest speakers, rolling out a lot of our behind the scenes, back-of-office big documents to the players.

“It’s a matter of planning for the events that are still scheduled like the Olympians did for five years, and we’ve got twelve months to go for the Commonwealth Games so we’ll just plan as if they’re going to go ahead.

“We won’t wait until we get the word that the event will be on or not, virtual preparation is better than no preparation because we never previously had the luxury of all these platforms that keep us connected.”

Hear the full Without Bias chat with Karen Murphy and Barrie Lester below.