Tim Tebow is an all American footballer who has achieved phenomenal success in the football game which is attributed to not only his ruggedness, strong physique and physical stamina but to high degree of football mental toughness.  Over the years, Tim Tebow established himself as one of the greatest quarterbacks in the history of college football and a top prospect in the NFL. Tebow ascribes his success to the psychology in football but first and foremost to God. In fact, a term “Tebowing” coined by one his fans is now part of English language. It is used in different contexts but primarily meaning kneeling for praying when everyone else is doing something else around you, this is what Tebow did when he led his team to win.

Tim Tebow is an unorthodox player, a fervent Christian and adheres steadfastly to his beliefs and faith and uses mind power to achieve his goals. Being the son of Christian missionaries, he has been deeply influence by their teachings and beliefs; his faith has pushed him to believe in himself and harness the power of his mind. Like him, there are people who believe that the power of the mind is incomparable, that nothing is impossible when you put your mind to it and do the work unflinchingly.

How the football mind  works is, you have to believe that you can do it and have the ability and training to visualize success. Like Tebow, faith in yourself is a key to good performance (of course a combination of skill, perseverance and practice is required in addition). Mental preparation in football is very important because if football confidence takes a bite, fear would control the mind and stop you from giving 100% effort. Winning a game requires not only physical toughness but mental toughness as well. Mental preparation in football is vital and the following steps are the essence part of the psychology for football

* Belief. It is important to have faith in your abilities and talents, then only you can build football  confidence. This stems directly from your belief in your real and actual skills.

*Reinforcement – In your mind and out loud, keep reinforcing the reasons that you will succeed and fill your mind with positive thoughts of winning. This is an important element that tends to get overlooked.

* Perseverance – There is no one in this world that isn’t plagued by self doubt and in difficult times it becomes even harder to have faith in yourself but that’s the time when you need it the most. Negative phrases should be banished from your dictionary and replaced by positive ones using your past successes as a valuable way to strengthen your football confidence. Like Tebow, one needs to constantly and consistently work in the direction of dream with absolute faith and football confidence in self to achieve success. They say the difference between great players and good players does not lie in their physical abilities but in their perseverance and mental abilities. Great people never let their faith dwindle and kept on working towards their goal even in the adverse situation.

Football mental game and building mental toughness are interlinked; the easiest way to understand this is that unless you think about something (like winning), how will you ever achieve it?  If a person thinks that he can win, the mind will think about hundred ways to do it, because now the mind has a task to do. It has to focus on how to win and will try and find out the ways to do it. If the thought isn’t an integral part of your mental process, how can it be converted into reality? Tebow’s massive success and his story itself is a highlighter of how important spiritual foundation and mental toughness can be in football and in life.

If you are an athlete who wants to win, then take time out to build your football mental game and give God the glory.