Top sports psychologist has key message for Kaizer Chiefs: ‘Keep the fire burning’

Makabi Lilepo and Flávio Silva. Openfield

After a difficult start to the year, Kaizer Chiefs have taken to heart the message given to them by the man who has spent a lifetime helping teams and players through challenging stretches and which is now showing as they’ve climbed into third place in the Betway Premiership.

It’s a message that started on Chiefs’ Vodacom Tsamaya Pre-Season Tour to the Netherlands last year and it was given to the players by Dr Henning Gericke, a master sports psychologist who has worked with the biggest teams in South Africa, from the Springboks to the Vodacom Bulls and now Kaizer Chiefs.

“Keep the fire burning,” he says of the one thing he wants this team to never forget.

“We sat around a fire in Holland and my message to the players was to always keep the fire burning in this team. And when things aren’t going well for you individually in the team, then your role is to find a way to help keep the fire burning for the rest of the team,” says Gericke.

It’s a message Gericke knows the team has relied heavily on as they turned around a run of defeats earlier this year.

Gericke is also well aware of the pressure the club and its players have to deal with.

“It’s a very different culture to rugby, where I’ve worked for most of my career. If you think there is pressure on rugby players, it’s even bigger on footballers. A lot of the footballers come out of difficult circumstances and the pressure is massive when they reach a level of success. When players get a contract at Chiefs they think they’ve arrived but the reality is that’s when the pressure is only starting.”

“The kind of reverse psychology you can use in rugby doesn’t work in football. In football you need to give the players the freedom to express themselves. You need to trust them and give them confidence. When they can express themselves, they’re at their best.”

And then he adds, “But as a player, you need to be mentally tough for this team. And now more than ever, you need to do everything to keep that fire burning and not let it go out.”