Gately: How to deal with a bad day on the punt

David “Gator” Gately is one of the most well-respected form analysts in the world of Australian horse racing, but it isn’t always all glory for Gator.

Despite doing his due diligence for each race, it sometimes doesn’t always go right.

When asked how he deals with a bad day on the punt, Gator explained his strategies for managing his emotions.

“You have to look at it forensically and take the emotion slash money out of it,” Gately told SENTrack & RSN’s Giddy Up.

“If you can take the emotion out of a review, I think it helps a lot.”

Gator has also spent several successful years as a football coach at amateur level and played the into his early adulthood.

When reflecting on how the sport has helped him with his punting, Gator explained that seeing a sports psychologist completely changed his view on his self-worth, and that increased his sporting performance, and now, punting performance drastically.

“Every single time (I punt, I use my footy learnings),” stated Gately.

“The best example is probably, before it was cool and known what sports psychology is, I was trying to work out why I can't be who I wanted to be on the footy field, and I was getting really down on myself, so I went and saw this sports psychologist.

“The AFL weren't even using them at the time, and I'm like how can we be ignoring this aspect of the mind in sport?

“It became the cornerstone of my coaching, but the main one was, if you get it wrong, and you don't get a kick, or you don't tip a winner, it doesn't make you a bad person.

“Self-worth has nothing to do with it. That lesson was really important and stark.

“It was a real light bulb moment. (My performance improved) through the roof.”

Listen to Gator’s full interview below, where the expert analyst discussed his journey in racing:

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