It seems a very sensible to have a psychiatrist available to check on mental health issues. Hopefully he'll still keep in touch with ex players after they've retired.
Not so sure about the performance related role. I remember reading about ex England football goalkeeper, David James. He once had a nightmare for England in a game against Denmark. He was slaughtered by the press afterwards, partly because he was so bad, but mainly because he admitted that he hadn't prepared as well as usual.
He later explained what he meant by that comment. In the days leading up to the game he had done everything that he would normally do on the training pitch. On the day of the game he prepared exactly as normal. The only thing that was different was on the evening, the day before the game. He'd been led to believe that he wouldn't be playing in the game so didn't spend the 2 hours sat on his hotel bed mentally preparing for the game. Didn't carry out his "visualisation" exercises where he imagined making saves, catching crosses etc. On the morning of the game he was told that he would be playing. He said his reaction was "Oh sh*t, I'm fu*ked" , which turned out to be a self fulfilling prophecy. It did seem ironic that mental exercises designed to improve confidence had become a crutch on which he had become dependent.
Ex England cricketer Matthew Hoggard also said that he liked doing the visualisation stuff. Although he admitted "its a lot less tiring than bowling in the nets".
