The psychology behind England's history-making mentality

If Sweet Caroline was the soundtrack to last summer, 'Sarina, you're the one' wasn't far behind.

In the aftermath of England's historic European Championship final win, it was the Atomic Kitten-inspired homage to manager Sarina Wiegman which rang around the dressing room.

Rewind 13 years - to the only previous time England had met in the final of a major women's tournament - and the post-match reaction was decidedly different.

A 6-2 defeat, external left then manager Hope Powell and her squad, who were still playing on a part-time basis, in stony silence.

But amid the immediate disappointment a longer-term evolution was taking shape.

This is the story of the mentality behind the Lionesses' turnaround, from Powell's decision to appoint the first psychologist used by any England national team to the 'how to win' culture which helped inspire the side to glory in 2022.

"You don't win by wanting to win."

Kate Hays' words are simple but instructive. The Football Association's head of women's psychology is explaining the logic behind an ethos critical to a Lionesses' team who have swept all before them in the past year.

Since her appointment in October 2021, Hays, together with Wiegman and her coaching team, has instilled what she a 'how to win' culture in the England camp.

Embedded within everything from pre-match preparations to the style of play, the philosophy is rooted in a shared purpose, a deep understanding of the players' characters - including what motivates them and how they respond to stressful situations - and defined measures of success.

"In sport everybody wants to win; that's the dream," says Hays.

"But you win by having a really good strategy for success and having real clarity around what you need to do and how you go about your business."

Hays' approach is informed by best practice from other sports. During a seven-and-a-half-year stint with the English Institute of Sport, she spoke to coaches and performance directors from different Olympic and Paralympic teams to find out the most effective ways of psychologically ing athletes. According to Hays, a recurring theme emerged.

"What we kept coming back to was the importance of the cultural environment and creating environments that are facilitative to not only high performance, but also positive mental health," she says.

While 'high performance' is now a widely recognised term within elite sport, it wasn't lauded to nearly the same degree when a 31-year-old Powell was appointed England manager in 1998.

Taking over at a time when the women's team still had to travel to training and matches without a bus, Powell immediately set about instilling a professionalism that would act as a precursor to the 'how to win' culture established 23 years later.

"It was about being on time, eating the right food, getting the right expertise in, such as psychologists and strength and conditioning, and trying to create a professional environment, even though the girls were working," explains Powell.

"These are little things, but I thought they would really change the mindset of the players and staff."

By employing a psychologist to the senior side, Powell became the first coach of any England football team - women's or men's - to provide specialist psychological .

While her willingness to embrace change wasn't for everyone - she recalls encountering "a little bit of scepticism and uncertainty" from fellow coaches - Powell was unwavering.

The move was part of a radical overhaul of the national set-up, which saw the establishment of under-17 and under-19 women's teams. Every group was instructed to play a 4-3-3 formation to ensure players were accustomed to the playing style used by the senior side. Each cohort was also ed by a dedicated psychologist, with Marcia Wilson and Amanda Croston helping younger players and Misia Gervis ing the first team.

Powell says: "I just thought, why not start early? Why wait until they're senior players? They want to go on this pathway and become senior players. There are going to be some challenges along the way, so let's give these kids some tools so they can help themselves."

The initiative meant of the current Lionesses squad were introduced to the concept of psychological from a young age, with senior figures such as Lucy Bronze part of the under-17 set-up during Powell's tenure. Indeed, each of the 11 starters in the Euro 2022 final against have progressed through the age-group pathway established by Powell.

It is perhaps no coincidence that players such as Bronze and Leah Williamson have gone on to speak openly about mental health - the latter talking movingly about her struggle with endometriosis - although Powell its she initially turned to psychologists with a shorter-term aim in mind.

"I embraced it because if anything can make even a 1% difference, it's got to be worth a try," says Powell.

The theory was put to the test after England's opening match of the 2009 European Championship. Pitted against Italy, they fell to a 2-1 defeat,, external with Casey Stoney sent off after only 28 minutes.

In an interview, external last year Gervis, who accompanied the squad to the tournament in Finland, recalled her role in helping them recover.

"As we came off the bus from the game, Hope said 'over to you', which basically meant me talking to the players and trying to navigate through the emotional turmoil," Gervis explains.

"I that meeting really vividly and it was about how we validated the emotions, but also how we wanted to define ourselves, what happened next, how we were able to learn from the game without blaming each other.

"We spoke about things and we had some values that we returned to - things like 'reclaim your power', 'action makes the fear go away', 'know that you count'. These were things the players had written collectively and they kind of pulled us together.

"And then we recovered and, by our fingertips, got out of the group."

In one of Gervis's first workshops with the squad, players were asked to contribute to two lists - one entitled 'Empowering Beliefs' and the other headed 'Limiting Beliefs' - to encapsulate their thoughts about each of their tournament opponents. The exercise helped understand the players' perception of their eventual opponents in the final.

"I wanted to get a sense of what they believed about themselves and what they believed about other people, other teams and how they, in a sense, were empowering other teams," says Gervis.

"The limiting beliefs list for was long, believe you me. But if you don't acknowledge that then you don't have a starting point to try and get people to view themselves differently.

"We did it for all the countries in the Euros because, if we didn't ask questions about that, then you invisibly take that baggage on to the pitch rather than kind of going, 'Oh, that's what we think. That's not going to help us, so what do we do? How do we change that">