Jean Fournier is a psychologist, lecturer at the University of Paris-Nanterre and former president of the French Society of Sports Psychology (2017-2023). He worked for twenty years in the field of mental preparation with various Olympic athletes and coaches as well as with the French Golf Federation. He just published Psychology of sport and physical activity (Elsevier Masson, 208 pages, 35 euros).

Is the title of mental trainer recognized at national level?

The French Society of Sports Psychology accredits mental trainers and psychologists, but the title is not yet recognized at the national level. Every time we move forward and manage to make this need clear to the Department, the Minister generally changes. For years we have been trying to explain that psychologists should be respected because they are guarantors of mental health but do not necessarily have the necessary knowledge in sports. And conversely, not everyone involved in mental preparation necessarily has knowledge of psychopathology to recognize disorders. Their priority is performance and some forget to take care of the mental health of athletes. I’m not saying one job is better than the other. In addition, both usually work together when things are going well: there is a mental trainer and a psychologist, as well as a physiotherapist and a fitness trainer.

What about abroad?

For example, in Canada there are mental performance counselors who have a different accreditation than the title of psychologist, and the title of sports psychologist cannot be used if one is not a psychologist. In the United States, it depends on each state. There are also regulations in Australia, England, Germany… France is extremely late because there is no desire to train coaches.

That means?

Today, regardless of the type of coaching training, there is practically no sport psychology in France and the content of the training is not up to date. For what? Because the articles available on this topic are written in English and are therefore rarely read, trainers read commonly used articles primarily in French, leading to abbreviations. The training provided should be underpinned by research: if we understand where the content that we are learning or that we need to teach comes from, we will know from scientific publications whether it is valid or not. This would take us away from empiricism and the Middle Ages. France has not chosen to rely on science to achieve results. In many countries, if you want to win, you have to find that marginal advantage (“marginal profit”) and we will look into all possible areas, be it the improvement of equipment or the general training of trainers, which also includes psychological aspects.

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