Sport: de mentale kwestie

In top-class sport, everything revolves around the winners. Their successes and eruptions of joy are extensively followed and exposed by the media. We hardly ever see or read anything about the backgrounds to their accomplishments or about the failure of those who have (just) not made it. People tend to forget that top-class sport also involves issues such as grief, fear of failure and personal development. In De mentale kwestie, debut filmmaker Lies Niezen follows a number of Dutch top sportsmen during their physical and, more particularly psychological, preparations for the recent Olympic Games. On the basis of interviews with famous sports psychologist Peter Blitz and haptonomist Ted Troost, she finds out that the importance of mental coaching is not yet fully acknowledged in Dutch sport. The motto ‘blank your mind and go for the prize’ does not bring the desired result for all top-class sportsmen. Apparently, there is more between success and failure than we can register with the naked eye or a stopwatch. (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)