About

Dr Duncan Mascarenhas

Qualifications: BA (hons), MSc (hons), PhD, C. Psychol, HE Academy Member (33749)

Duncan is a Chartered Psychologist with 20 years of experience working with sports officials. Having provided psychological support to the Rugby Football Union (RFU) Elite Referee Unit he has since provided training to many clients including the Rugby Football League Match Officials and New Zealand Netball amongst many others. His PhD research focused on developing the decision making of the RFU national panel of referees resulting in groups of referees improving the accuracy of their decisions by up to 17%. He completed a post-doc research project with New Zealand Soccer referees investigating the interactive effect of physical performance and decision-making. Duncan is UK level-4 basketball referee and currently enjoys refereeing touch-rugby (Level 3 EFT),  basketball and soccer. He is employed at Edinburgh Napier University as an Associate Professor in Sport & Exercise Psychology and Coaching and is the programme leader for MSc Performance Enhancement in Sports Officiating. He became a BASES (British Association of Sport & Exercise Sciences) Accredited Sport & Exercise Scientist in 2001 and has research interests in high-pressure team decision-making, sports officiating and video interventions in sport.

Clients include:

• Basketball England
• Basketball Scotland
• England & Wales Cricket Board, Association of Cricket Officials
• England Superleague Netball Umpires
• Football Association of Wales
• Gloucester University Referee Scholarships Programme
• Hurlingham Polo
• National Programme Umpiring Association (Hockey)
• New Zealand Cricket
• New Zealand Netball
• New Zealand Rugby
• Rugby Football Union
• Rugby Football League
• Scottish Rugby Union
• Cricket Scotland
• Soccer NZ
• Sports Officials UK
• England Touch Association
• Lawn Tennis Association