It’s been little over a year now since Paul Flanagan stepped away from the Clare inter-county hurling panel. Describing his time representing the county as “the honour of my life,” his journey with the hurlers had reached a natural conclusion following a second All-Ireland success in 2024. Many supporters would have imagined that Flanagan might have eased into a world post Clare at a gradual pace, but to say he has slowed down since his inter-county retirement would be an enormous untruth.
Between balancing a day job teaching P.E and Irish in Ard Scoil Rís Limerick, with running his own mental skills and performance coaching business, alongside commentary work for TG4, he’s managing to fit more into a week than most. Flanagan can pinpoint the moment his interest in the mental side of performance took off back in 2018. A member of the Clare backroom team gifted him a book on golf that left a lasting impression.
“In 2018 with Donal Maloney and Gerry O’Connor we were exposed to performance psychology for the first time with the senior inter-county team. It wouldn’t really have been in place before that. I was handed a book written by Bob Rotella, the famous sports psychologist in golf, and I remember reading that at home and being captivated by the work he was doing. I just thought there was so much depth to it. The challenge of understanding where a person is at and then trying to support them in what they are doing. I found that side of things fascinating.”
Flanagan knew that this was an avenue he could become fully invested in. He decided to take a year-long career break from his teaching position in 2019 and enrolled full-time in a degree at the University of Limerick. The last 12 months dedicated to his newfound passion have been extremely rewarding. A long list of teams, businesses and clients reaching out for his services is a testament to a growing appreciation in sport and society that mental skills are a foundational element of high performance. However, some individuals still find it hard to embrace and Flanagan is even enthused by the odd bit of doubt he might encounter.
“I really enjoy the scepticism even from players I’ve played with or former players. I had a coach recently where there was a coaching workshop and I enjoyed the fact that there was a little bit of pushback. My response to it was that when you see the evidence and the numbers in front of you or you read a testimonial from a parent or coach on how it has impacted a team or an individual player at club, county or professional level; that’s what I can point to. Again, if I ask most players and coaches how important the mental game is they’ll rank it pretty highly so it’s an important thing to structure. Now you mightn’t always need a mental skills coach or sports psychologist supporting that all the time, but it may be an important consideration for a group.”
Having represented Clare from under-14 level, Flanagan’s difficulties nailing down a starting position for the senior side are well documented. Eventually when injuries abated and his form took hold, he broke through for his first championship start at the age of 28. Two years later his performances were rewarded with an All-Star nomination. During his time with Clare, Flanagan played alongside some of the county’s greatest ever players and learned a thing or two about mental fortitude, particularly that displayed by club mate Tony Kelly.
“It’s been a byproduct of being next to players of that calibre for a long time that you get a sense of what might work. You get a front row seat into Tony. He’s been a good friend of mine. His mental capacity is very, very high. I often say to younger players that Tony never viewed training or practicing his skills or gym work as a chore. He actually gets energy from the challenge. He’s realised over the years that he can rely on the work he has done to put himself in a really good position to perform. Tony’s honed that over years so he’s stronger mentally and has more mental flexibility than he probably even gives himself credit for. Some of the real top performers have those foundational mental skills built in that they don’t necessarily realise they have.”
It is obvious that the scrutiny players like Kelly are dealing with has increased exponentially in recent years. Not only are most games being covered by RTÉ, TG4 or GAA+ (formerly GAAGO) but the influx of streaming services means that club matches at underage, schools and adult level are also analysed and dissected. Flanagan is a first cousin of five time All-Ireland winning forward Séamus Flanagan. Last season, the latter was subjected to countless messages of abuse online after an off the ball incident during a league game against Cork was recorded by a fan and the subsequent clip went viral. It’s something the Clare man is conscious of in his daily dealings with players and management personnel.
“It’s an aspect myself and Cathal Sheridan have talked about recently. Particularly when it comes to underage sport. Jack O’Connor put it so well in his interview during the summer when he spoke about building people up. So much of sport is now on display more so than ever. It’s important that we build people to enjoy that experience and not develop a generation to fear failure. Every test score, every game, every failure is now online. We want younger people to enjoy what they are doing. Before we could fail in private a lot of the time, now it is present online for most. It is definitely something I am cognizant of in my work for sure.”
Flanagan continues to work with underage teams in Clare and Munster Rugby. Like Jack O’Connor, he has paved a path for himself to help others achieve their potential. He’ll find plenty of honour in that too.
