Meet the Scotland winger with side hustle in performance psychology - 'I use myself as a guinea pig'

The Sale Sharks winger has a masters in performance psychology and now combines her rugby career with a business helping sportspeople perform to the best of their ability when the pressure is on.

She credits her knowledge in the field as being beneficial to her own sports career and is now passing it on to others, making the point that mental dexterity is as important as physical prowess.

“I think the mental side of the game is as much a muscle as anything else that you have to practise and you have to rep it for it to improve,” she said. “So having that awareness for me personally has been huge.

I use myself as a guinea pig

“I'm kind of lucky, anything I read about or learn about I can just use myself as a guinea pig. So that's kind of the way that I try to do it.”

Campbell, 25, returned to the national squad for this year’s Women’s Six Nations and scored a memorable try in the win over Wales at the Principality Stadium. It was her first Scotland cap for four years and followed a spell in the GB Sevens set-up. But it is not just on the park that she has been making strides.

“I started my own business, Kraft Performance, which is a performance psychology business,” she explained. “Primarily I am working with youth age athletes coming through that are in performance pathways. But yeah, that's kind of my little side hustle just now and I am starting to work with more clients.

“I think it's probably what I wish I'd had at that age. So that's kind of why I've targeted that young age group to help them develop that self-awareness and sense of self. And then, as the ups and downs of elite sport come in as they naturally do for everyone, they have that stronger sense of self that will hopefully put them in good stead.”

Built, not found

One of Campbell’s main maxims is that high performance is built, not found.

“I think there's a bit of a misperception that confidence is something you either have or you don't have,” she said. “But actually, it needs to be built. And the more that you spend time building it, the longer that it will last and the more resilient you will become.”

She added: “I've worked with rugby players, hockey players, cricketers and netballers because I come from a multi-sport background as well myself.

The Montrose athlete has played netball and touch rugby at national level and her speed and footwork mark her out as one of the most dangerous attackers in the Scotland squad. She will need to bring all her attributes to the fore on Saturday as World Cup finalists Canada visit Hive Stadium in the WXV Global Series, the first of three consecutive home fixtures for Scotland in the competition, with New Zealand and Australia to follow.

It’s a tough sequence of games but Campbell won’t lack for mental toughness when she comes up against some of the world’s best. But she candidly admits she is not the epitome of serenity on the rugby pitch, despite her background.

“Absolutely not! I think that's the reality of the mental game.”