“If you believe it, the mind can achieve it” – Ronald Mandel “Ronnie” Lott

Over the years, football psychology has allowed athletes to reap the seemingly endless spoils that are brought about from exposing and then understanding their own football minds. Understanding patterns, behaviours, outcomes or even why specific things do or do not materialize are all part of unlocking an athlete’s football confidence and creating a strong football mental game.

Athletes that do not innovate will certainly get locked into a mental comfort zone which leads to repeatedly being shackled to the same performance limiting mistakes. Unless the athlete is willing to take a long, hard and honest look at themselves and what they are doing to feed their own plateauing demons they will be stuck in the realms of insanity (as defined by Einstein), fenced in by a sometimes invisible mental barrier.

Some athletes will gradually come to the realization that something is not as it should be but it is just too uncomfortable or frightening for them to innovate, improve or change. Instead they consciously or unconsciously choose to keep plugging away and engaging in the repetitious things that they have always done, thereby remaining frustrated in their inability to rise up to the next level. Getting locked into a comfort zone is the quickest way for an athlete to circle the drain of disappointment and mediocrity.

In terms of psychology for football, comfort zones get in the way, not allowing for an athlete to play freely. When stepping out on the field, athletes will have expectations about their performance. These expectation beliefs will ultimately depend on their abilities and the typical performance range. What ends up happening is that the athlete will be constantly comparing how they are performing with how they expected them self to perform. This self-monitoring is what gives rise and sets up the comfort zone. Any athlete that attempts to step outside their comfort zone for the first time will experience resistance.

If an athlete is under performing they can expect frustration as a result. Interestingly, if they are over performing and they don’t expect it, they could start to protect their performance by playing defensively instead of offensively. They start to focus on the don’ts and by playing in this protective manner they cannot compete freely. To get back to playing offensive football an athlete must acknowledging that they are playing well, riding it, taking hold of the situation and thereby getting as much out of it as possible.

Football psychologist can teach athletes to step out of their comfort zones so they can then start developing skills that were previously unutilized when performing.

In order to develop maximum composure for crunch-time performance athletes will need the ability of performing without the mental handcuffs of a comfort zone.

By properly managing fears; self-esteem will grow and this will provide a new opportunity filled vision of reality, where objectives can be chosen and motives found. By not giving into the emotional tension that pulls athletes back into the comfort zone it will finally be time to take flight from the comfort zone and finally experience the goal of learning to pursue objectives.
Be patient in your training, confident in your goals, make your strategy well prepared, be positive and your football mental toughness will strengthen; allowing your objectives to finally come true.

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