Win een wedstrijd voordat je het veld op gaat
Je stapt het voetbalveld op samen met je teamgenoten. Samen ga je voor één ding: en dat is de wedstrijd winnen. Tenminste daar doe je met zijn alle twee helften kei- en keihard je best voor. Maar hoe kan je een wedstrijd al 'winnen' voordat je op het veld staat? PITS Football legt uit (let op: artikel in het Engels).
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When you’re going through a run of bad games, you feel as if everyone is judging you. You become so focused on not making mistakes, that you make more mistakes. By the time you step on the pitch, you make a misplaced pass or get beaten by an opposing player. Your confidence dips lower, and your performance goes from bad to worse. The truth is, you are losing your game in your mind before you even get on the pitch.
This is common for anyone in a competitive sport. You see this happen to professionals on TV, who can’t seem to do anything right on the pitch, and crumble under the pressure, for example, Beckham blasting the ball over the bar in England’s Euro 2004 penalty shootout defeat to Portugal or Fernando Torres lack of form at Chelsea.
Football is stressful, and filled with many unseen pressures: the pressure for your coach/manager to win, the pressure from your team mates to perform well, the pressure from the opposition waiting to capitalise on any mistake you make, the pressure from the spectators who will not hesitate to berate you for any mistake you make. This is a harsh reality of the sport, and unfortunately, the higher you climb up the leagues, the more unforgiving your manager, your team mates, your opposition and your spectators are.
Well, I’m here to say that there is a huge possibility that you are performing badly, not because you lack skill or ability, but because you have accepted defeat before you step on the field. Your mind-set foreshadows a defeat. It’s about time you reversed this spell of bad performances that have bewitched you. It’s about time you learned how to win a game before you step on the pitch. How? You may ask.
So step 1; start changing your mentality on mistakes, start seeing it as an opportunity to improve
Second is that you have not identified why you are having bad performances or keep making certain mistakes. For example, you keep losing the ball and you want to stop losing the ball, so you ask yourself, how do I stop losing the ball? That’s a good question, but a better question is, why do you keep losing the ball? Are you spending too much time on the ball, do you know what you’re going to do before you receive the ball? Are you getting yourself into a position where you can receive the ball comfortably? You have to really dig down to the root of the problem, and once you identify the why, that should be what your focus in training sessions. Arrive to training earlier, stay for extra, find the time to work on this mistake till you no longer make it, till doing your desired action becomes second nature. Broad and vague statements do not help you, they only hide the real problem.
Step 2; identify the problem, and work on it until you can’t get it wrong, instead of working till you can get it right
Lastly you are not setting yourself achievable goals or realistic standards. So now you need to start setting yourself more achievable goals. By achievable goals, I mean goals you know for certain that you can achieve. For example, player X wants to stop losing the ball. Player X identifies that they keep losing the ball because they are not receiving the ball in space. Player X sets an achievable goal of making sure he finds space before he calls for the ball ten times during the 90 min game. Ten times you may say is too low, but the focus of these goals are to build confidence and to change the focus from not doing the wrong things, but to start doing the right things. As these goals are achieved consistently, then make the goals more challenging as you progress; you will see a difference in your confidence and as a result your performance.
Step 3: Set yourself achievable goals
Football is a game played both on the pitch and most importantly in your mind. Without the right mentality you cannot perform to your full potential, you will continue to have sub par performances. The problem is, we rarely take the time to identify what’s going on in our heads and that’s why at times we feel hopeless and unable to change. The truth is you haven’t learnt how to harness the power of your mind but now you have a key; it’s now time to unlock your hidden potential, and start winning the game before you step on the pitch.
Step 4: Start using the power of your mind and start winning the game before you step on the pitch.
