“I visualize things in my mind before I have to do them. It’s like having a mental workshop.” Jack Youngblood

Hall of Fame defensive end Jack Youngblood summarizes a key aspect of a dominant football mind – utilizing a mental toolkit in order to boost one’s football mental toughness.

Such toolkits are customized personal mental tools for the mental preparation of football, whether it is the practice field or the gridiron of game day.

The mental game of football can be marked by athletic dominance but is defined by football mental toughness.
Included within each mental toolkit are the chosen strategies and techniques needed to reinforce the mental muscle and football confidence of football players, and each and every mental toolkit is different depending on the person.

Like medicine balls, cone drills, 40-yard dashes, and one-on-one drills, the mental tool kit should be used, evaluated, depended upon and lauded as the crucial tool that it is to every athlete’s superior game.

Psychology in football today can be categorized by its reliance upon intimidation and developing physical prowess. Developing your mental toolkit should be structured around the unique techniques and mental methods of preparation that each player finds works for them as unique individuals.

Many mental game coaches has relied upon confidence as a marker and predicator of on-field success, but few have chosen to dig into what different methods that each individual athlete utilizes to arrive at the same desired outcome – game day success.

The mind is a muscle not unlike many other systems of muscles that work in tandem to realize the athletic articulations and physical demands of football.

Gyms and fitness centers across all levels of the sport are equipped with tools that help mold and shape muscle, but the football mind is in dire need of such cerebral conditioning, and not just in the film room – mental toolkits should be used as references and sources of mental recall for all football players looking to stack successes upon successes and develop proven methods of winning with all of the tools they have within their athletic arsenal.

Within every mental toolkit lies the blueprint to a successful mental game in football – focus.

Lack of focus is the single greatest contributor to flubs and errors on the gridiron, and the tools within the mental toolkit – techniques and strategies used to translate learned practice success into proven game day success – are all variables that lead to focus.

The whole of mental preparation for football deals with focus, clarity of purpose, and then committing to the athletic task at hand based upon the receding two variables.

With a well-rounded and well-used mental toolkit, any athlete can elevate their game from any levels of the sport of football to the bright lights and big stadiums where superstars are not only born, but come to play week in and week out.

Download the free mental game assessment and get started on Improving your Mental Game in football.