“Pressure is something you feel when you don’t know what the hell you’re doing.” – Peyton Manning

Football mental toughness is the sum total of many parts. The state of an athlete’s football confidence, their football mind and overall football psychology are all but a few of the parts that, when aligned correctly, can provided the superior edge needed to reach peak performance.

In order for an athlete to reach their own personal pinnacle of their football mental game, an athlete can train themselves to guide their mind, their energy and focus away from the pointless thought patterns that can lead to negative outcomes and instead steer it towards the thought patterns that can lead to positive outcomes.

One such example, of a thought pattern that can lead to negative outcomes during competition, such as prolonged tension and anxiety, can be when an athlete chooses to focus on their own performance expectations; instead of actually getting ready for the competitive challenge. This pattern can also lead to unwanted pressure being applied to the athlete.

While the setting of realistic goals and the pursuit of achieving them can be used as a “healthy” motivation tool, the ability and the way in which an athlete chooses to deal with setting realistic goals and the inevitable failures that will be encountered along the way, can determine how tense and anxious an athlete will get about their own performance expectations.

Some pre-game performance tension and anxiety are just the mind’s way for readying the body for a physical challenge and are not only normal but a necessary part of the preparation process that the body needs in a situation. It’s the athletes that carry this tension onto the pitch that become “negatively” affected. This is a possible indicator that the athlete is focusing on a non-beneficial though pattern, such as, their own performance expectations.

Mental Game Coaches are familiar with the notion that, in order for any athlete to be consistently successful on a play, the athlete must have first become aware of their own mental “weaknesses” that are spilling over to affect their football mind.

An athlete’s mental game in football may quickly benefit from the introduction of a personalized routine. These routines can be used during practices, pre-games or even in the game itself.

There are many things an athlete can learn to think about that can result in putting themself in a better position to succeed. A few example of a routine could be to focus the mind and its thoughts on:

1. Making sure the athlete execute their techniques effectively at all times.
2. The best possible execution of each play.
3. The weaknesses of the other team and how to exploit them with their own strengths.

By expelling unrealistic expectations athletes may find that they are no longer limiting themselves. They may realize that worrying about making mistakes, freezing up and having tension in their muscles have become a thing of the past; that only held them back.

*Download the free mental game assessment and get started on Improving your Mental Game in Football