The English rugby team has appointed Dr. Sherylle Calder, a world renowned sports scientist and coach specializing in visual performance, to improve the decision-making of the players. She has inked a deal with last year’s Six Nations Championship winners and will work specifically with the team’s back players, typically the fastest players in a rugby team.
Calder’s pioneering work in visual awareness saw her found her own company in South Africa, creating an online training program called EyeGym, which focuses on improving visual skills. The program that is also aimed at students and businesspeople is accessible through desktop, mobile and offers a gamified approach to testing visual reflexes, while also tracking performance and providing feedback. In her role with England, she will use EyeGym and also a number of on-field drills to measure and enhance reaction time.
“If we up-skill every single player, then they will be able to handle anything that is thrown at them,” Calder said in a statement.
“If every player can make one better decision on the field that could be 15 vital decisions.”
It has been reported that Calder will crack down on the use of mobile phones by England’s players in order to maximize how effective her training methods will be.
“In the modern world, the ability of players to have good awareness is deteriorating by the nature of mobile phones,” she told The Telegraph.
“When you look at your phone, you are losing awareness, because you’re in here [the screen] all the time. There are no eye movements happening. Everything is pretty static.”
Calder’s contract means she will again be part of another England team bidding to win the Rugby World Cup, with the next one in 2019 in Japan. She has been a part of Clive Woodward’s backroom staff which saw England lift the famous Webb Ellis Cup in 2003 and also helped South Africa win the same trophy four years later.
Calder, a native of South Africa, obtained a PhD in sport science from the University of Cape Town, with her thesis focusing on how visual skills affect the improvement of sporting performance, especially in field hockey. This interest in hockey was based off her own notable sporting career representing South Africa between 1982 until 1996 in the sport, earning 65 caps in total for her country.
Outside of her work in Rugby, she has also worked with the Dutch women’s hockey team, English soccer clubs including Tottenham, Wolves and Bournemouth and also the South African tennis team. She has also worked one-to-one with sports stars including Ernie Els, Miami Dolphins quarterback Ryan Tannehill and Mercedes Formula One driver Valtteri Bottas.