I spent some time with Tommy Freeman recently. For those who don’t know, Freeman is a prodigious talent. Capped internationally over the summer for England, his club rugby is played for Northampton Saints in the Gallagher Premiership. He is a favourite at Franklin’s Gardens because of the way he plays: intelligent and fast but most importantly, he seems incredibly gifted at producing outrageous pieces of skill when seemingly most needed. Within just a couple of seasons, Freeman has firmly set himself into East Midlands’ hearts.

We talked for the well-known rugby publication ‘The Rugby Journal’ about his rugby journey and making his international debut this summer. One part of our discussion linked especially well to my work as a Mind Coach. We discussed how he best performed out on the field. Amongst the disorder and the fury of a top-flight game of rugby, he revealed what worked for him to access his best self. He talked about his mindset and revealed how top coaches had recognised the way that his mind operates and how they have changed things to suit him.

Now, we have to put this insight into context. Freeman is a distinct talent and plays a game that is incredibly fast-moving and unique. He has to recognise and respond to situations in a very quick and particular way. But that doesn’t mean that we can’t learn from him and apply it to how we do things. Listening to the way that he sets up his mindset is fascinating and can give us some interesting pause for thought.

Trust Your INstincts

Here he is talking about being in the game and trying to work out what to do:

“You can’t think about it; when you do it you haven’t got time to think, it happens too fast; you’ve just gotta read it, trust your instincts. Other people have it in different ways. Tiny things that most people would miss: Dingers (Fraser Dingwall), with his defensive reads, sees things almost before they happen. If I think about shooting up to intercept or whether I’ll sit back in the defensive line, if you think about it, the moment will have gone. Thinking about it isn’t very useful to me.”

For a brisk, chaotic sport like rugby union, perhaps this is understandable. But it links into a conversation I have with all sorts of different sportspeople about their mindsets. How their minds can overcomplicate things. Thinking about things for too long can bring confusing, almost contradictory messages and a feeling of sinking under a weight. They want to operate freely, without that burden.

The less the better

Freeman went into more detail about how he is being coached. How certain coaches see the way he works and have actually removed him from situations where he might take on board information.

“That’s what Sam Vesty (Saints Head Coach) and Eddie Jones (England Head Coach) have both said to me. ‘The less you’re coached, the better.’ It comes down to me having to think about stuff on the pitch. Vesty said to me that I ‘make the easy things look hard and the hard things look easy’.”

“When I started in England camp, in training especially, I was so focused on doing what I was told and I don’t think I stood out. Outside of set plays, it is just rugby, and I had forgotten that. That’s why my second test match was better because I had started to relax and stopped thinking about what I was doing. I just started to become me and I started to make breaks.”

This is somewhat revelatory. But look at that last sentence: “I stopped thinking about what I was doing and just started to become me…” Sports coaches, especially in schools, spend a huge amount of time trying to pass on information.

And of course, there are players who are good at being able to deal with this, but I wonder how many are better the lighter they travel? Translated into the classroom, I wonder how many times we’ve tried to give kids too many pieces of information.

Rugby does have moments of coordination and structure: set pieces like lineouts and scrums will have specific things that players will need to know to operate as one. But outside of that? Freeman’s brilliance often appears in these ‘broken field’ moments.

Have a look at this bit, coaches actually excluding him from meetings:

“Sam (Vesty) tells me not to come to some Saints’ attack meetings. He doesn’t want to overcomplicate things for me. He says that he just wants me to see space and run into it. Just play rugby. It’s an incredible thing, a lot of players would dream about having that freedom. But the best coaches are the ones that understand their players best.”

“Vesty and Vassy (Ian Vass) know how best we attack and defend. That’s the difference. And that’s what you have to be as a coach: you can have the best ideas, best drills, best plans, but if you don’t understand your players and what skills they have then you’ll be playing a different game plan to the one that actually suits you.”

understanding players

This last part chimes incredibly well with the ideas and words of Owen Eastwood. If you haven’t read his fantastic book ‘Belonging: the Ancient Code of Togetherness’. I would recommend you do. Eastwood has worked with a lot of different teams in different sports and even sectors, working out how best people perform together. These words from Freeman around understanding players sound like they come from Eastwood himself.

In his book, Eastwood bemoans the idea that top sports coaches are tasked with creating their own plan and then getting the players to adapt to it. This is especially evident in football where the rather archaic nomenclature of ‘manager’ still exists.

The manager comes in with his way of doing things and everyone has to head in that direction, or leave. Eastwood feels it is the job of a top coach to work out how his set of players work best and look to find a style that suits the skill sets of the players in the team. And there’s a huge amount of logic in that concept.

Here’s Freeman again talking about his relationship with world-renowned Wales fly-half Dan Biggar. Again, ‘information flow’ comes up:

“It’s funny; he says to me that, during a game, I should do the opposite of what he says. He knows he talks a lot and says things to me, tries to get me to do things the way he sees them but then I will do them my way, the opposite way, and they work out.”

“When I’m fed lots of information it doesn’t really work, I think Dan knows that now. I am always looking for a cross-field kick, if there’s a bit of space I will back myself nine times out of ten. I have learnt to read his game quite well and I think he knows the way I do things.”

“He’s incredibly driven, a great leader, great vision and that’s what you want from your ten. But not everyone needs shouting at and maybe he recognises that about me!”

Nothing is the best Thing

What strikes me re-reading this all is how adept Tommy Freeman has become in recognising something in himself. He has understood how he plays best and rather than passing judgement on that, he has focused on what he can do. This is a great positive mindset.

He’s not saying that being unable to take on lots of information is a failing on his part, he is just saying that he does things differently. He knows how his mind operates and crucially, for him, either he’s been able to communicate that to those around him or they’ve had the ability to read the signs and change their behaviour.

So often, we can go into situations overloaded with information. And in an attempt to get it all into our lesson or performance, we end up somewhere in the middle. We aren’t able to be ourselves because of all the information, and we are not able to put across all the information because we are not ourselves.

I often think about this as a teacher at this time of year. Insets are amazing at loading you up with lots of information that you then have to carry around. ‘Just get to know your class in a fun and enjoyable way’ is probably all that is needed for the first week back.

Taking stuff away really helps. Not loading people with extra advice and instruction can make a real difference. Making tasks simpler and more straightforward can enhance the message. Making messages less laden with information can make them much more likely to stick.

And Tommy Freeman is a timely reminder to us all that sometimes in life, removing things to the extent where you are left with nothing but your instincts and skill, can be how greatness is achieved.

The full interview I did with Tommy is available in the beautiful Rugby Journal magazine. More information on how to get your hands on it is on their website.